Business ProfileforThe Align Team

Align HistoryWestern States Learning Corporation was incorporated as a nonprofit (501 (c)(3)) corporation in Wyoming in December 2003; and it opened for business April 1, 2004. Its purpose is to provide products and services related to awareness and access to higher education, workforce development and organizational and career development. In November 2006, it filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State to do business as Align going forward.The founding directors of Western States/Align were Randy Dancliff, Wyoming banker; Daniel Baccari, retired Vice President, University of Wyoming; Anna Marie Hales, owner, Wyoming Hereford Ranch; Phil Van Horn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western States/Align; and Mona Lee Pearl, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Western States/Align.Each of these directors brought years of experience in and commitment to education. Prior to forming Western States/Align, each of these directors, with the exception of Pearl, served for a number of years on the board of directors for Wyoming Student Loan Corporation. Van Horn and Pearl were, respectively, the CEO and COO of Wyoming Student Loan Corporation until March 30, 2004. (Wyoming Student Loan Corporation currently has no employees. Its affairs are entirely managed by Western States/Align.) Hales, Pearl and Van Horn remain on the board of Western States/Align, serving along with Ed Boenisch, Wyoming Adjutant General (ret) and James "Murph" Murphy, owner, AVI Engineering.The executive management team for Western States/Align today consists of Phil Van Horn, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mona Lee Pearl, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Bill Benskin, Chief Financial Officer; Kathy Cathcart, Vice President; Brittany Ashby, Principal Consultant; and Jody Shields, Principal Consultant. This team collectively has more than one hundred years' experience in educational assistance, corporate finance, management, leadership and organizational development. Van Horn, Pearl, Cathcart and Benskin have, as a team, led first Wyoming Student Loan and now Western States Align for a combined total of 21 years - since Pearl's arrival at Wyoming Student Loan Corporation in 1991. (Van Horn joined Wyoming Student Loan in 1983; Benskin in 1986; and Cathcart in 1989.)