Before his recent retirement, Richard Friedman served as Vice President of the Benefits & Compensation Group at The Ayco Company in Albany, New York, the nation's oldest and largest fee-based, comprehensive financial planning organization, with over 8,800 individual clients at more than 325 major corporations nationwide. He was the head of the department that is the technical resource to Ayco regarding corporate compensation and benefit programs, as well as a consultant to Ayco corporate clients in employee benefit and executive compensation matters. In addition, he was Editor of the Ayco Compensation & Benefits Digest and a speaker at national conferences and corporate meetings on employee benefit issues.

Richard was an estate and gift tax attorney at the Internal Revenue Service. He graduated with a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania. He later received his JD from St. John's University School of Law and his LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

Richard is a General Securities Registered Representative (NASD Series 7) and a Uniform Securities Agent State Law (NASD 63) and has life and health insurance licenses. He is a member of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) and WorldatWork.