Little Kids Rock

Media Contact:

Keith Hejna
Little Kids Rock
Phone: 973.746.8248 x 114
Cell: 201-264-9520
keith@littlekidsrock.org

Jiro Okochi to help Little Kids Rock serve 16,000 disadvantaged New York-area schoolchildren by the end of 2012

CEDAR GROVE, N.J. Dec. 27, 2010 — Little Kids Rock (LKR), a leading nonprofit provider of free musical instruments and teacher trainings to U.S. public schools, today announced the appointment of Reval CEO and Co-founder Jiro Okochi to the New York Area Board of Directors to spearhead fundraising efforts for LKR’s New York metro area program. The move comes amidst unprecedented public school budget cuts that have eliminated music programs in New York and nationwide.

“We are excited to add Jiro Okochi to our New York Area Board of Directors,” says LKR Executive Director and Founder, David Wish. “With his support, we will work to provide free musical instruments and lessons to twice as many students in the New York metro area by 2012. That’s a lot of rock and roll!”

This is the first “Regional Board” that LKR will launch, and Okochi is the first of five-to-ten committed individuals that will be appointed. The New York Area Board is chartered with raising the resources required to maintain and grow the LKR program in the New York metro area, with a goal to increase the size of the program to be serving over 16,000 students in 220 area schools with free instruments and lessons rooted in popular music by the end of 2012.

Okochi started Reval in 1999 after leading derivative sales at major global banks, including WestLB, Deutsche Bank, DKB Financial Products (now part of Mizuho), and Security Pacific Bank (now part of Bank of America). His vision was to deliver a technology solution to help companies better manage their use of derivatives. Today, over 400 of the world’s largest corporations use Reval’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for corporate financial risk management.

“I believe in leading by example,” says Okochi. “What better way to build a culture of corporate philanthropy than by sitting on the board of a charity like Little Kids Rock, which does such amazing work on behalf of children in New York and across the nation.”

Okochi and his company have led several efforts to help communities in need. Through its “Reval Cares” program, Reval has led drives for the The Food Bank for New York City, World Food Programme’s Haiti Emergency Operation, Be the Match National Marrow Donor Program, Toys for Tots, and the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

About Jiro Okochi
With over 23 years experience in finance and technology, Mr. Okochi serves the industry as a thought leader. In 2009, he testified on behalf of corporate end-users for the fair reform of OTC derivatives before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee. He is a member of the Global Markets Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance by Treasury & Risk magazine for a third time since 2003. He is a published writer and a frequent speaker at domestic and international industry conferences for the Association of Financial Professionals, Association of Corporate Treasurers, International Association of Corporate Treasurers (China), Association of Corporate Treasurers (Singapore) and Acumen, among others, and at events with Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Okochi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of California at Berkeley. For more information about Jiro Okochi and Reval, please visit www.reval.com.

About Little Kids Rock
Little Kids Rock is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization that transforms children’s lives by restoring and revitalizing music education in underfunded public schools. Little Kids Rock was founded in San Francisco in 2002 by David Wish, an elementary school teacher who had grown frustrated with the lack of music education funding at his school. Today, Little Kids Rock is one of the leading nonprofit providers of free lessons and instruments to underprivileged children in US public schools, and has served more than 110,000 students at over 1,200 schools in 25 cities nationwide. Little Kids Rock Honorary Board Members include Bonnie Raitt, Slash, Paul Simon, B.B. King, Slash, Ziggy Marley and other famous friends in the music industry. More information can be found at: www.littlekidsrock.org.