About The Motley Fool

• Purpose & Values
• What We Do
• Executive Team
• Advisors and Analysts
• Board of Directors
• History
• Fool Culture Blog

Founded in 1993 in Alexandria, Va., by brothers David and Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool is a multimedia financial-services company dedicated to building the world's greatest investment community. Reaching millions of people each month through its website, books, newspaper column, television appearances, and subscription newsletter services, The Motley Fool champions shareholder values and advocates tirelessly for the individual investor. The company's name was taken from Shakespeare, whose wise fools both instructed and amused, and could speak the truth to the king -- without getting their heads lopped off.

Our Purpose

• To Help The World Invest. Better.

Our Core Values

Be Foolish!

• Collaborate - Do great things together.
• Innovate - Search for a better solution. Then top it!
• Fun - Revel in your work.
• Honest - Make us proud.
• Competitive - Play fair, play hard, play to win.
• Motley - Make Foolishness your own. Share your core value _____________.

What We Do

The Motley Fool provides financial solutions for investors of every kind. Our products and services -- whether free or fee-based, online or offline -- are designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Our offerings include:

Fool.com: Whether it's analyzing the latest earnings reports or helping investors find the next home run stock, the Fool's award-winning website publishes hundreds of articles each week. Fool.com offers news, analysis, and commentary through wide-ranging distribution partnerships with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and many others.

CAPS: Outperform ... or underperform? The Fool's groundbreaking stock-rating service provides unique insights into what Motley Fool community members (as well as more than 100 professional Wall Street firms) think about the stocks investors own. More than 5,000 stocks -- and the thousands of investors who cover them -- carry a rating from one to five stars, making CAPS a must for investors seeking new ideas (or a second opinion on their investments).

Subscription investment newsletter services: Big-value blue-chips, undiscovered small caps, and explosive growth stocks -- the Fool's family of subscription newsletters delivers superior investment ideas for investors of every profile.Backed by a team of analysts, every one of The Motley Fool's products is focused on delivering market-beating stock and fund recommendations -- and building a transparent track record to prove it.

Motley Fool Asset Management: Motley Fool Asset Management offers a family of retail and institutional investment services that strive to deliver superior long-term performance, with an emphasis on independent investment thinking and disciplined financial analysis – plus Foolishly clear communications.

Motley Fool Money Radio: Syndicated to radio stations across America, Motley Fool Money is an irreverent, fast-paced look at the world of business and investing.

Newspaper column: Through a successful decade-long partnership with Universal Press Syndicate, some 125 publications across North America carry The Motley Fool's weekly newspaper column.

Books: With a dozen titles and more than 2 million books in print, The Motley Fool has built a library of investing and personal-finance classics. The Motley Fool Investment Guide and Rule Breakers, Rule Makers are among several of the company's New York Times and BusinessWeek bestsellers. In early 2009 The Motley Fool's Million Dollar Portfolio hit the bestseller lists of USAToday, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Amazon.com.

Media: Motley Fool analysts and advisors offer independent analysis and engaging commentary for business reporters as well as radio and TV producers.Members of the media may request a one-page guide to the Fool's top spokespeople and their areas of expertise by contacting the company's media relations department.

Fool UK: Launched in 1998, www.fool.co.uk/ is one of the UK's most popular financial websites, with more than 2 million members. This wholly owned subsidiary of The Motley Fool has also published several books, including three editions of the best-selling Motley Fool UK Investment Guide.

Foolanthropy: Since 1997, The Motley Fool's innovative giving program has raised nearly $3 million for various well-managed charities, including Grameen Bank, Share Our Strength, and Heifer Project International. Channeling the power of its online community, The Motley Fool selects deserving organizations from hundreds nominated by members each year. In 2008, Foolanthropy began focusing its efforts on financial literacy and education.

Consumer finance: From buying a home to dealing with taxes, and from managing credit-card debt to saving for retirement, Fool.com's Personal Finance Center provides actionable advice to help members save more and spend smarter.

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Who We Are: Executive Team

Tom Gardner, Head Fool
A frequently sought-after investment expert, commentator, and educator, Tom Gardner co-founded The Motley Fool in 1993 with his brother, David, and now serves as Chief Executive Officer. Tom is the chairman of the market-beating Motley Fool Hidden Gems small-cap investment service and co-advisor with his brother of the market-thumping general equity service, Motley Fool Stock Advisor. He and David have co-authored several New York Times best-selling books, including The Motley Fool Investment Guide, You Have More Than You Think: The Motley Fool Guide to Investing What You Have, The Motley Fool Investment Workbook, and most recently, Million Dollar Portfolio: How to Build and Grow a Panic-Proof Investment Portfolio. Tom has testified on behalf of individual investors before the U.S. Senate, calling for greater transparency in the financial services industry. Tom graduated with an honor's degree in English from Brown University in 1990.

David Gardner, Rule Breakin' Fool
One of the country's most respected and trusted sources on investing, David Gardner co-founded The Motley Fool with his brother, Tom, in 1993. As Chief Rule Breaker, David wears many hats including innovator, stock picker, author, lecturer, and media personality. David graduated as a Morehead Scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, and wrote for Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street newsletter before starting The Motley Fool. He has received the University's prestigious "Distinguished Young Alumni Award." Since 1999, David has been a member of the NYSE's Individual Investors Advisory Committee. Since 2004, David has served on the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Among his many accomplishments at The Motley Fool, David is perhaps most proud of his conception and development of Motley Fool CAPS.

Andy Cross, Investing Fool
Andy Cross is Chief Investment Officer of the Motley Fool, associate advisor for Stock Advisor, and co-advisor of Hidden Gems. A longtime Fool, Andy started his career at the Fool in 1996, just a couple of years after Tom and David Gardner founded the company. He has played many roles, including director of marketing analytics and financial editor. An avid reader, Andy spends most of his time sifting through annual reports, books, periodicals, trade magazines, and websites studying great businesses and looking for his next market-beating stock. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in mathematics.

Ollen Douglass, Finance Fool
Ollen has served as Chief Financial Officer for The Motley Fool since 2004. Prior to joining the Fool, Ollen worked as vice president of finance for First Nationwide Mortgage, a division of California Federal Bank (now Citibank). He was responsible for financial planning for a $100 billion mortgage-servicing portfolio, as well as strategic analyses of the company's fair lending activities. From 1995 to 1998, he worked for First Horizon Home Loan Corporation in Dallas, managing portfolio valuations and analyses and assisting in related risk management. Ollen began his professional career as an auditor with KPMG Peat Marwick in Baltimore.

Lawrence Greenberg, Legal Fool
Lawrence Greenberg has been Chief Legal Officer of The Motley Fool since 1996. Before joining the Fool, he practiced securities and intellectual property law at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto and helped found the Project on Information Technology and National Security at the Stanford Center for International Security and Arms Control. He clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, and has served as an attorney at the National Security Agency and as a graduate fellow analyst for counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency. Lawrence attended Harvard College and Stanford Law School, and received a master's in political science from Stanford University. The author (with Seymour Goodman and Kevin Soo Hoo) of Information Warfare and International Law (National Defense University Press, 1998), Lawrence was a member of the 2000 Defense Science Board Defensive Information Operations Task Force Legal Panel. He has been an adjunct professor at the law schools of George Mason University, where he taught a seminar on Internet privacy, and American University, where he lectures on business associations.

Peter Jacobstein, Asset Management Fool
Peter Jacobstein is responsible for developing a family of retail and institutional investment services as President of Motley Fool Asset Management. Peter joined the Fool in 2006 as Senior Vice President of Consumer Services, where he led the company's subscription newsletter services business. Prior to joining the Fool, he was Vice President of Strategy & Development for Discovery Communications, where he evaluated acquisitions and developed new business opportunities for Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and Animal Planet. Peter began his career at Time Warner, where he directed consumer marketing for the Time Inc. Magazines and Time Life divisions. Peter has a bachelor's degree in international relations from Georgetown University and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University.

Lee Burbage, People Fool
Here at The Motley Fool, if it has to do with people, Lee is likely leading the charge. Lee, a graduate of the University of Maryland, has been with the Fool since 1998 when he joined from Bank of America. At Bank of America, he was a Regional Human Resources Manager covering Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Much of his work focused on mergers and acquisitions, building a sales culture, and management development in the retail business. At the Fool, our boy is not your typical HR executive. Lee has been able to shape an incredible culture where people use their passion and skills to deliver for our business. Often quoted and interviewed for our creative, market-leading HR practices, Lee is best known for his jump shot and great hair.

Randy Coon, Commercial Fool
As Chief Commercial Officer, Randy Coon oversees the company's U.S. premium services and advertising businesses. He joined The Motley Fool in 2004 after making the jump from Intuit where he was a senior manager in their Quickbooks payroll division. Prior to that he was a senior marketing manager at AOL. A member of the Direct Marketing Association, Specialized Information Publishers Association, and Financial Publishers Association, Randy holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and a master's degree with a concentration in marketing from the University of Hartford.

Kerra McDonough, Performance Fool
As Chief Performance Officer, Kerra McDonough oversees the company's process improvements and is always searching for a way to do things better. She analyzes The Motley Fool's budgeting and forecasting to ensure the tools and resources are being used to their maximum potential. Kerra joined the Board of Directors in 2011 and prior to joining the company in 2000, she was a budget analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton. She earned a finance degree with a concentration in corporate finance and investment from the University of Alabama.

Jeremy Phillips, Technology Fool
Jeremy Phillips joined the Fool in 2006 and brought with him an extensive background in search engines -- both the technology that powers them and user behavior within. Through hundreds of hours of research into tens of thousands of search terms, Jeremy gathered valuable insights into what's truly important to individual investors, and using his technology background, ensured Fool.com served those investors in the best way possible. As Chief Information Officer, Jeremy will bridge technology and business-thinking on a much broader scale. Previously, Jeremy was Vice President of Fool.com, leading its strategic direction. He has also written dozens of articles exclusively for Fool.com.

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Who We Are: Advisors and Analysts

• David Gardner, advisor, Stock Advisor
• Tom Gardner, advisor, Stock Advisor
• Robert Brokamp, advisor, Rule Your Retirement
• Andy Cross, advisor, Hidden Gems
• James Early, advisor, Income Investor
• Jeff Fischer, advisor, Motley Fool PRO
• Ron Gross, advisor, Million Dollar Portfolio
• Seth Jayson, advisor, Hidden Gems
• Joe Magyer, advisor, Inside Value
• Nate Parmelee, advisor, Global Gains
• Rich Greifner, advisor, Motley Fool One
• Tom Jacobs, advisor, Special Ops
• Matt Richey, advisor, Alpha

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Who We Are: Board of Directors

Tom Gardner is co-founder and CEO of The Motley Fool. Scroll back on up the page for a complete bio.

David Gardner is co-founder and Chief Rule Breaker. More on David is above in case you missed it.

John B. McKinnon joined The Motley Fool board in 2005 and provides assistance with the company's hiring and growth strategies. John served as dean of the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University, and was president of Sara Lee Corporation from 1986 to 1988. (Oh yeah ... John is also David Gardner's father-in-law.)

Putnam Coes is the chief operating officer of Paulson & Co., an investment management firm, and joined the Fool's board in 2008 with an eye toward expansion in the financial-services arena. Previously, Putnam was a managing director with Morgan Stanley, where he served as chief operating officer of the firm's hedge fund business.

Steve Kerr is a Senior Advisor at Goldman Sachs and joined the Motley Fool board of directors in 2008. Previously the Chief Learning Officer at General Electric – where he reported to CEO Jack Welch and was responsible for GE's world-renowned leadership education center – Kerr provides guidance for the Fool's executive leadership training and in-house coaching initiatives.

Lloyd Sams Lloyd joined BIA in October of 1999 as a Managing Director of BIA Capital with the express purpose of launching BIA Digital Partners, a private investment firm that he co-manages. Lloyd brought seventeen years of banking experience to BIA, principally with First Union (now Wells Fargo) and First Chicago (now JP Morgan). At First Union, Lloyd was Managing Director and Group Head for Communications and Media Finance, the largest and most successful specialized industry within the Capital Markets subsidiary. Having joined The Motley Fool's board in 2009, Lloyd provides guidance on both financing and operations.

Kerra McDonough is The Motley Fool's Chief Performance Officer. She oversees the company's process improvements and is always searching for a way to do things better. She analyzes The Motley Fool's budgeting and forecasting to ensure the tools and resources are being used to their maximum potential. Kerra joined the Board of Directors in 2011 and prior to joining the company in 2000, she was a budget analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton. She earned a finance degree with a concentration in corporate finance and investment from the University of Alabama.

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History

1993

• July: David and Tom Gardner publish The Motley Fool, a monthly 16-page investment newsletter, and mail it to 1,000 friends and family members, requesting $48 for an annual subscription. Thirty-seven people subscribe.

1994

• February: David and Tom's investing bulletin board becomes the most popular finance site on America Online.
• August: The Motley Fool officially debuts online, as the Gardners accept an offer from AOL to join its Greenhouse Program. From the outset, the Fool is the program's most-trafficked finance area.

1995

• December: The Economist writes, "Part of the Fool's attraction is that it stands out as an ethical oasis in an area that is fast becoming a home to charlatans running penny-stock schemes to woo the gullible."

1996

• January: The Motley Fool Investment Guide is published by Simon & Schuster and quickly becomes a New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller.
• April: David and Tom Gardner are featured on the cover of Fortune magazine.

1997

• April: Expanding beyond AOL, The Motley Fool launches its own website at www.fool.com/.
• July: The Motley Fool partners with Universal Press Syndicate to author a weekly column that is published in newspapers across America.

1998

• January: Simon & Schuster publishes You Have More Than You Think and The Motley Fool Investment Guide Workbook, two new Motley Fool books which become business bestsellers.
• March: The Motley Fool establishes its first international presence with the launch of a UK operation at www.fool.co.uk/.
• April: In what becomes an annual tradition, The Motley Fool plays its first April Fool's Day prank by publicly confessing to have been wrong for years about underperforming mutual funds ... and blaming it all on an upside-down chart. The Raleigh News & Observer takes the prank seriously and runs it as news on the front page of its business section. The next day, the newspaper admits it was fooled by the prank.
• June: "The Motley Fool Radio Show," a freewheeling weekly three-hour program, debuts in the Atlanta and Los Angeles markets. Before the year is out, the show will be aired by more than 100 stations across America.
• September: Company co-founder David Gardner testifies before a U.S. Congressional committee to advocate for greater transparency in the mutual-fund industry.

1999

• March: Fool.com wins its first Webby Award for Best Finance Site.
• April: On April 1, the company announces it is launching its first-ever IPO with eMeringue, a tech start-up company that delivers meringue pie tops (just the meringue, not the pies) to customers within seven days. For the second year in a row, a major newspaper is fooled by the April Fool's prank when The Seattle Times includes eMeringue.com on a list of "10 Favorite Food Websites."
• September: The Motley Fool completes its first-ever round of venture capital financing with a combined $26.5 million investment from Maveron and The Mayfield Fund.

2000

• April: The Fool secures $30 million in a second round of venture capital financing led by SoftBank Capital.
• August: Rallying its online community, The Motley Fool publicly champions the SEC's campaign to pass "Regulation Full Disclosure," a rule that would end the practice of companies privately passing market-moving information to Wall Street analysts while excluding individual investors. The measure passes by a vote of 3 to 1. SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt declares that The Motley Fool is "as close to being an effect