Experian (formally TRW Credit Bureau)
Requesting all insider information (ASAP)
The Following is a little history: TRW Inc. announced February 9th 1996, its agreement to sell its information services business to a privately held corporation capitalized by Bain Capital Inc. and Thomas H. Lee Co., two of the leading private equity firms in the United States. They elected to use the name "Experian" and closed its recapitalization with TRW Inc. in a transaction valued at more than $1 billion.
It was agreed that Experian would be headquartered in Orange California, and Experian was given the right to use the TRW's name for two years. At that time Mr. D. Van Skilling was executive vice president and general manager of TRW Information Systems & Services, and he became chairman and chief executive officer of Experian. Bain Capital, Inc. and Thomas H. Lee Company, together with Experian management and certain other investors owned more than 80 percent of the company. The remaining interest was retained by TRW. All of Experian’s executive officers were former TRW employees with an average of more than 15 years of service. Four of the company directors represented the Boston-based investors.
Then Experian Corporation (which was a privately help company) was acquired for $1.7 billion by Great Universal Stores PLC (known as GUS), which is a UK-based conglomerate that included retail, real estate, banking and information services. At the time Great Universal Stores PLC, headquartered in Manchester, United Kingdom and had a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion.
The transaction created a holding company to merge Experian and The CCN Group. "GUS" Information Services united in a strategic combination to form a major global information service. CCN, headquarters in Nottingham, United Kingdom and was established in 1980, and it was known as a leading provider of similar information services in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, with additional operation in Southeast Asia and South Africa, and risk management business in North America. Back then, Eric Barnes was Deputy Chairman of GUS and he was named Chairman of the holding company.
Experian then elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer D. Van Skilling as Deputy Chairman of the holding company. Mr. D. Van Skilling was chairman and chief executive officer of Experian’s North American operations, and based in Orange, California. Mr. D. Van Skilling was a 26-year veteran with TRW Inc. and was the executive vice president. He also was general manager of TRW Information Systems & Services. He earned an MBA in international business from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles and has a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Colorado College. John Peace, Chairman and Chief Executive of the CCN Group at the time was made Chief Executive Officer of the combined group. Lippincott & Margulies (a firm that specializes in corporate identity and image management) developed Experian’s new logo and identity system.
The First American Financial Corporation based in Santa Ana, Calif., and had corporate subsidiaries including First American Title Insurance Co., First American Real Estate Information Services Inc., First American Home Buyers Protection Corp., First American Capital Management and operated First American Trust Co. and First Security Thrift Co. in Southern California. Mr. D. Van Skilling was appointed to its board of directors replacing Robert B. McLain, who was president of First American Real Estate Information Services, and the board stood at 16 members. President Parker S. Kennedy worked with Mr Van Skilling during negotiations to merge Real Estate Solutions with Experian. "The spin-off of TRW", Experian Inc., elected to fix its corporate focus solely on information services, increase penetration of vertical markets and international expansion.
A "key platform for Experian’s growth was their "File One" (TM) system. Experian claimed "File One" was the world’s largest commercial relational database management system and that it offered the highest level of data quality, flexibility and accuracy and further claimed the system allowed customers the capability to integrate their own data with data from many other sources to help customers make better business decisions.
At the heart of the "File One" system is its relational database (a collection of data tables that data is stored in, each table consisting of a set of rows and columns of data). These tables are then linked together so there is a relationship established among the different data elements. The name "File One" was selected because the database design is suppose to create one credit file for each credit active consumer based on a single unique number---like a PIN (personal identification number) but for internal use only--for identification. Essentially, relational databases store data in tables that are logically linked together so that relationships among all the data elements can be identified. In conjunction with other software, the relational database allows it to execute many complex tasks like separating demographic information relative to an individual, thus identifying unique spending and remuneration behaviors. The effects of such data refinement could prove endless.
"File One" has been on-line since June 15th, 1996. Several dozen TRW employees in Orange, Calif., and Allen, Texas took part in "Flashcut" (where more than 190 million Americans were switched over to the new system "File One"). Mr. Van Skilling said "for consumers, File One means fewer errors on credit reports and people will be able to correct mistakes faster and more permanently, and face fewer credit approval delays caused by inaccuracies. Furthermore, he said the system is suppose to enhance fraud detection, protect privacy and help avoid "mixed files" cases (where two people with similar information gets mixed on their credit reports). TRW invested four years and tens of millions of dollars developing "File One" to replace the legacy system they had since the 1970s. Other File One attributes include: Ability to generate more than one million credit reports and up to 60 million updates per day. Ability to return a credit report in under 1.7 seconds. Average receipt-to-file time of five days or less. Now (in 1999) Laura DeSoto, who directs file quality benchmarking and measurement activities for File One, says with Six Mainframes we can deliver 2,600 million instructions per second with a storage capacity that exceeds 25 trillion bytes.
At that time Margaret (Peg) Smith, was the vice president of operations and the "business owner" of "File One" during the systems development. Smith became vice president of marketing for TRW Information Systems & Services July 15th 1996. Don Miller was Experian's Vice President of Technology and had the overall responsibility for the systems development and implementation. Helen McMillan, was chief database architect, and she collaborated with Millers’s focus on business needs and stated, "Instead of starting from a technical perspective in the database architecture they were developing a "logical model of their data totally from a business perspective". DB2 and Oracle software programs were used to designed applications and treat data.
Experian's File One database is the underlying technology that enables the Credit Trends solution. Unlike the old "flat file" systems allowing lenders to see: account behavior trends, trends in account attrition and balance transfer activity, potential consumer profitability, and total financial obligations over time. Lenders can use Credit Trends to track utilization rates and seasonal spending patterns, helping them to identify whether a consumer is building up balances over a short period of time, paying down balances, frequently opening new accounts, paying off accounts, or using some versus all of their credit cards. The information available with Credit Trends ultimately will enable lenders to identify: revolvers: consumers who carry balances from month to month, transactors: those who pay off their balances monthly, surfers: those who switch their balances from card to card.
Experian’s data center in California contained more than 21.4 terabytes of data. (a terabyte is 1 trillion bytes), and had property characteristics information on about 60 million land parcels in the United States and 210 million digitized county recorders documents. Experian’s data center in Allen, Texas contained credit information on about 190 million individuals and 13 million business in the United States, along with demographic information on about 91 million households and 14 million businesses in the United States as well as automotive information on about 200 million vehicles in 35 US states.
Customers accessed dedicated phone lines to data or through dial-up lines via CompuServe. The system IBM mainframe processed data at a speed of 105 MIPS (millions of instructions per second) in a MVS environment (MVS is the type of operating system software used). The medium Digital Equipment Corp. VAX mainframe processesed data at a speed of 75 MIPS in a VMS environment (VMS is a type of operating system software that runs on the VAX platform and the VAX platform supports the property characteristics portion of their database). It also was accessed by direct dial-up via CompuServe and America On-line and Experian’s web site. A large number of Intel-based servers using windows NT operating system were used to support Experian’s Digistar product (Digistar provides on-line copies of legal documents filed with county records offices regarding property) and is supported by a high speed dedicated network.
Data was recorded on DASD (direct access storage device) volumes (similar to hard drives and CD ROMS on PC’s. The computer room housed more than 400 DASD volumes with a combined storage of 1.4 terabytes of information and an additional 20 terabytes of information converted to CD ROM during 1997. In addition to its on-line system, Experian maintained a tape library with more than 57 tape drives and more than 100,000 tapes (the tapes were used to store information that did not have to be accessed on-line or in real time). The capacity of this number of tapes is equivalent to over 6 billion single spaced typewritten pages.
Back then the computer hardware at the California data center consisted of: IBM mainframe, NT Servers and workstations, Digital Equipment Corp. Vax computers, Sun workstations, Lan/Wan servers and Personal computers. Licensed security guards are present at the data center at all times. They use a computer-based card entry system. Electronic surveillance cameras monitored activities in the building and its periphery. The facility was protected by a state of the art smoke, fire and water detection system and utilized a fire suppression system specifically designed for use in data centers. Experian had its own security department that is responsible for monitoring the use of data by customers and employees. Experian used a mainframe security package to control access to computerized information. They claimed to maintain extensive audit trails for investigative purposes and to maintain layers of security at system points of entry. Experian also stored generations of data in an off-site vault for backup archival and legal purposes. The power center had mechanical and electrical systems that operate instantaneously and without interruption in the event of commercial power loss. Power to the data center could sustain an outage of up to 20 minutes while the commercial power was shifted from primary to an alternative power source.
The data center in Allen, Texas, contained more than 14 terabytes of data on consumer credit information, commercial credit information, demographic information on households, demographic information on businesses and automotive information. A separate data center in Anaheim Hills, California, contained property information on millions of parcels throughout the United States.
The data center’s five large scale mainframe computers could process information at a speed of more than 2,500 IPS (millions of instructions per second) in a MVS environment. Each mainframe supported thousands of terminals at sites throughout the country. Data was stored on DASD volumes and they maintained a tape library with more than 350 tape drives and a 600,000-plus tape library. The computer hardware at the Texas data center consisted of: large mainframes, IBM AS400 computers, Tandem computers, Sun workstations, LAN/WAN servers, RS6000/SP2, AT&T 3600s, NT servers and workstations, Personal computers and Silicon Graphics computers. It had an independent energy center that was a self contained power plant.
Experian broke ground on its $35 million dollar data center in McKinney and expected to finish it in early 1999. The data center was to serve as a backup to Experians existing facility in nearby Allen, Texas. The centers site is located on 13 acres in Stonebridge Ranch Corporate Center and is at the southwest corner of Stonebridge Drive and future extensions were to reach Eldorado Parkway. Denton County Electric was set to provide dual feed power from separate substations, and Southwestern bell to provide telecommunications service. At the time this information was obtained, Douglas C. Sturgess was Treasurer & director of finance (he was formally with TRW). Government affairs, direct marketing, and credit-related issues were to contact: Anthony L. (Tony) Hadley. Mr. Hadley's background was 5 years with government relations for Manufactured Housing Institute, previously a political aide to former Fairfax County Supervisor James Scott, Press secretary to former US Rep. Pat William’s (D-Mont.) and city editor for daily newspaper in Montana.. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and a master’s in public administration at the University of Montana. His wife’s name is Nancy, an aide to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), they have three sons and they live in Fairfax, Va..
Marty Abrams, vice president, information policy at Experian. 972-390-3659 developing information principles (WHITE PAPER).
Janis Lamar 714-385-7814 (janis.lamar@experian.com) developing information principles (WHITE PAPER).
Washington, D.C., June 9, 1997 – In response to heightened public interest into the operations of the database industry, eight major companies joined together to develop industry-wide self-regulatory practices. The members of the Individual Reference Services Group include: CDB Infotek, a division of ChoicePoint; Database Technologies Inc.; Experian; First Data InfoSource/Donnelley Marketing; Information America; IRSC Inc.; LEXIS-NEXIS; and Metromail corp. The companies released the principles on June 10 at the Federal Trade Commission's public workshop on consumer information privacy. That claim that: "Industry adherence to self-regulatory practices can address consumer concerns promptly and cost effectively while providing industry with the flexibility to adapt to the challenges of the marketplace," per Marty Abrams, vice president, information policy, Experian. Furthermore, they made claims that the principles developed by the companies minimize any risks associated with reference products and services and that the principles primarily focus was on non-public information, which is information about an individual that is of a private nature and neither generally available to the public nor obtained from a public record. For example, they claimed Information obtained from credit headers is an example of non-public information. The principles require that non-public information be provided only to subscribing customers.
More was said like, "There are four cornerstones to our information culture: access to public records, shared private databases, free speech and zero tolerance for misused information," Abrams said. "The companies have developed principles that guard against misuse of information while providing customers with valuable and important tools necessary for legal professionals, business executive, charitable and social organizations, and many others."
The told the Federal Trade Commission that the principles feature measures for the protection of non-public information. These measures vary according to the audience to whom the services are distributed. A company, for example, may provide all of the information obtained from a credit header but only to a selected range of qualified subscribers, such as law enforcement officers, and only for investigative purposes ,and that alternatively, a company may distribute non-public information to a wider universe of subscribers but only if it restricts the type of information it makes available to subscribing customers. For example, a company must truncate or not display an individual's Social Security number obtained from a credit header if the information is available for non-selective commercial distribution. The principles feature guidelines on: education, sources of information, accuracy, use of information, security, openness, choice, access, and children's information.
The companies will next be allowed to turn to developing a self-regulatory apparatus for ensuring compliance with the principles and the companies also will publicly release a "White Paper" during a FTC workshop. The White Paper documents the are suppose to point out the important societal benefits provided by individual reference services at minimal risk, highlights the industry leaders' commitment to self-regulation, and documents that – for a variety of practical and legal reasons – they have convinced the FTC that self-regulation is the most effective, fastest and flexible way to address concerns about the information industry. Individual reference services provide customers access to databases containing information from: (1) public records that government agencies have made available for public inspection; (2) publicly available from non-governmental sources such as telephone directories or newspaper reports; and (3) to a lesser extent, proprietary or non-public sources such as survey data or other self-reported information.
In Orange, Calif., on January 26, 1999, Experian announced that Mr. D. Van Skilling decided to retire from his position as Deputy Chairman of Experian Group and Chairman and CEO of Experian North America effective March 31, 1999. Skilling will remain on the Experian Global Board and will continue to chair the company's Consumer Advisory Council. He has twenty-nine years with Experian and its predecessor TRW.
Experian is a one of the world's leading suppliers of information on consumers, businesses, motor vehicles and property. The company employs 2,500 people through offices in Nottingham, London, Hatfield and Edinburgh. Its headquarters are in Nottingham England, and they employ 11,000 people combined in the UK, USA, Continental Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The company's US headquarters is in Orange, California and they are a subsidiary of The Great Universal Stores P.L.C., a UK-based holding company that includes home shopping, retailing, property investment, finance and information services with annual sales of over $1.5 billion.
Experian has successfully integrated acquisitions with the implementation of a new organizational structure to create a single global enterprise. The new organisation reflects the increasing trend towards globalisation in many of Experian's markets such as banking, financial services, automotive, insurance, telecommunications and packaged goods manufacturing.
Per a March 31st, 1999 Press Release by Peter Brooker Associate Director of Press relations at Experian About 25% of Experian's North American revenues are generated by the provision of reports about the credit histories of consumers.
Experian in Orange, Calif., June 28, 1999 announced it’s consumer information database, BehaviorBank. The BehaviorBank includes such data attributes as mail order buyers, activities/interests, continuity clubs, collectibles, animal owners, computer and peripherals, boating and sailing, book preferences, computer on-line subscribers, computer operating systems, dress size, music preference, credit card(s) information, reported purchases, behavior, buying patterns, and/or lifestyle interest. BehaviorBank is updated with more than 800,000 new names each month and includes more than 300 individual data categories. Experian helps companies understand the lifestyles and motivations of people and businesses.
Experian made a statement about Modeling, "One way to figure potential future business is to analyze past behavior and other relevant customer information. Statistical modeling techniques offer a reliable, scientific approach to determining a customer's future transactions. Models can be based on numerous variables, but the most powerful predictor of a person's future behavior is past behavior. Eventually retailers everywhere will model consumer behavior patterns to estimate the value of their customer base one consumer at a time".
Experian has information stored on a variety of areas such as Automotive (Car Data Check Information Database), Banking, Credit Unions (Experian's CU Decision Expert), Mortgage Financing, Retail Buying Habits, Telecommunications - Energy - & Cable (Experian's Wireless Risk Model derived from credit histories of 2.5 million wireless users and leader in providing electronic and operator-based National Directory Assistance (NDA®) solutions for both the telephone and corporate markets). Not much is left private!
Lombard, IL, August 26, 1998, Experian announced the release of IntraNDA with Microsoft Corp. as beta customer IntraNDA V1.0, is the first application of its kind that allows access to NDA over intranets, based on the Windows NT Server 4.0 environment running Internet Information Server (IIS). End-user access to a nationwide database of residential, business and government listings is available using either of the two leading Web browsers Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. IntraNDA uses Active Server Pages coupled with a COM-based Windows NT service written in C++ to provide a high-performance web-based directory search. Using the Internet as its connectivity network, IntraNDA can be easily configured through Microsoft Proxy to access the NDA database, located at Experian's Lombard, Ill., facility. IntraNDA is designed to allow the corporate user to search for name, address and telephone number without knowing the area code or even the complete spelling of the name.
Metromail acquisition on 31 March 1998. Orange, Calif., April 13, 1998, Great Universal Stores PLC (GUS) completed its tender offer for Metromail Friday, April 10, in a transaction valued at about $845 million. Metromail become part of Experian, GUS's information solutions business headquartered in Orange, Calif., and Nottingham, UK. In direct marketing, Experian and Experian Direct Tech provide direct marketing services primarily to the financial services, automotive and catalogue industries; Metromail is particularly strong in packaged goods, retailing, telecommunications and energy markets. Experian expanded its direct marketing capabilities in April 1997 by acquiring Experian Direct Tech, acknowledged as the largest provider of computer services to the catalog industry.
Experian Information Solutions
Experian’s Direct Technology Solutions
Experian Marketing Solutions division maintains consumer marketing information on 98% of all U.S. households.
Ohio, June 12, 998 – LEXIS-NEXIS is offering Experian business credit reports, making the LEXIS®-NEXIS® Information services a single source for comprehensive company information. Experian reports are located in the Business Reports (BUSRPT) Library on the LEXIS-NEXIS services, which also contains the gateway to the Dun & Bradstreet business reports, the D&B WorldBase (GDUNS) and the D&B Duns Market Identifier (DMIP and DMINTL) files. Add the ability to search the LEXIS-NEXIS archives of news, legal and business information and nothing much left is private.
Orange, Calif., February 9, 1999 – Experian announced the introduction of PharmaResponse for pharmaceutical and healthcare marketers.
Experian has entered a partnership on both sides of the Atlantic with ChoicePoint Inc, one of the leading providers of claims information to the insurance industry. ChoicePoint Ltd, specialises in providing claims information services to insurers and owns exclusive rights to operate the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE) on behalf of the insurance industry. CUE is a shared household and motor claims database, with information provided by participating insurers and is used by leading insurance companies.
ICD, the UK prospect targeting business acquired as part of Metromail has been successfully integrated into Experian's UK Prospect Targeting business. This has created one of the UK's leading prospect targeting and consumer lifestyle information services.
In the automotive sector, a joint venture with the Automobile Association has developed Car Data Check, an information database.
France the acquisition in February 1998 of SG2 (like the TRW of France), which has now been renamed Experian France.
In Germany, Experian acquired one of the country's largest full-service suppliers of direct marketing services-pan-address Dierktmarketing GmbH-and opened a consumer credit bureau. The consumer credit bureau is being operated in partnership with Verband der Vereine Creditreform e.V. (known as Creditreform), the largest business information provider in the country.
In Italy, Experian has acquired Metron, one of that country's leading operators of call centers with more than 200 call positions and more than 800 operators. Metron serves numerous blue chip customers including American Express, Telecom, Bofrost, Esso, Mercedes and Polygram.
Orange, Calif., January 9, 1997 – The CCN Group, part of the global information services provider CCN Experian, has signed a ‘technical partnership agreement' with Kredi Kayit Bürosu AS (KKB) of Turkey to establish the country's first consumer bureau. Experian (the information businesses formerly owned by TRW Inc.) and the CCN Group, Europe's largest credit reference agency, merged in November to form CCN Experian.
Experian has strengthened its operations in the Latin American financial services market with the acquisition of Fidelitas S.A., a leading Argentinian business information supplier. The move follows the acquisition earlier this year of ADDO Sistemas de DecisYon S.A. The two companies, which will trade as Experian Argentina.
Experian has signed an agreement with Biuro Informacj Kredytowej S.A. (BIK) of Poland to build the country's first consumer credit reference bureau. BIK, a consortium of 21 leading Polish banks and the Polish Bank Association, operates the most comprehensive database of bank customers in Poland, which will be used by Polish banks.
Experian is taking a further step towards building a major pan-European information business with the acquisition of CCM, a Netherlands-based provider of consumer and business information. CCM possesses an extensive database of financial information on all Dutch companies and credit information on over one million Dutch individuals.
Experian invested £24m in six further acquisitions during the year in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Ireland and Argentina.
New Credit Bureau were established in Germany, Kuwait, the Netherlands and Turkey. Further bureaux are planned to open during 1999 in Spain and Poland.
Experian’s List OnLine is a prospecting tool for business. With List OnLine someone can create their own custom prospect lists from either Experian's INSOURCE consumer database or National Business Database and then instantly download the lists onto a computer. Experian's specialty files allow access to information on, New Homeowners, New Movers, New Parents, and BehaviorBank lifestyle data.
On December 15, 1998 Experian announced the closing of an equity transaction with Intellipost, a leading provider of Internet direct marketing and online loyalty reward programs. My Points and DirectValue.com, to Intellipost and makes Experian a 19.9% owner of Intellipost.
Experian and LERETA Corporation, one of the nation's top providers of flood hazard certification services recently announced an alliance that gives lenders the ability to request flood hazard determinations via third party vendor software that also provides access to credit reports and other Experian online products.
Sears, Roebuck & Company began a partnership with Experian to develop a unique solution using their credit decisioning software system. Sears, Roebuck & Company, the largest proprietary credit card issuer in the U.S has in full operation Experian's Strategy Management System and it is currently operational in several lending organizations around the world. Sears is among the first U.S. companies to implement the suite of products as an integrated solution, and the Sears project represents one of Experian's largest Strategy Management installations in the world.
New York, May 19, 1999 – RR Donnelley & Sons Company, the world's largest printer and leader in print technology with offices in forty countries, including 38 in the United States and Experian announced a strategic alliance to provide integrated marketing services for investment companies and mutual fund companies. From electronic filings on EDGAR to secure, interactive web-based document proofing on SENDDä, from integrated communications solutions to Plain English expertise, Donnelley Financial is at the forefront of multiple-media document creation and distribution.
As a result of its activities in e-commerce, Experian has shareholdings in two e-commerce companies: MyPoints.com and Adforce. The former provides incentives for consumers who visit and use services on specific web sites. Adforce, which has recently been listed, provides on line advertising services on the internet. Its first two e-commerce products – list fulfillment and verification/enhancement services – were launched in April 1999 and further services will come on stream during 1999 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lawrence Chimerine, long considered an expert on the U.S. and world economies, spoke about the current crisis and its impact on the U.S. . Now, for the first time since the current economic expansion began in 1991, there is a real risk of recession in the U.S. Why? According to Chimerine, Asian economies that were growing at 8 or 9 percent a year 18 months ago are now declining at an even faster rate. While inferior banking practices and an excessive reliance on debt were partially to blame, the primary reason for the financial bust was the adoption of the Japanese economic model by almost every Asian country.
Experian opened it’s expanded Schaumburg campus for a staff of 1,100 Orange, Calif., on April 1, 1999 and Experian officials from around the globe gathered with U.S. Representative Philip M. Crane and Village Trustee George Dunham for the opening of the information solutions provider's expanded Schaumburg campus, a two-building complex on a 12.7-acre site at 955 American Lane. Experian's Chairman John Peace came from the company's Nottingham, UK headquarters. Joining him in Schaumburg were North American board member Martin Trees and Schaumburg executives led by Chairman Thomas R. Newkirk and CEO Scot Thomas of Experian Marketing Solutions.
The campus expansion began in November, 1997, soon after Experian completed acquisition of Schaumburg-based Direct Marketing Technology, Inc. Preparing for a doubling of the Schaumburg workforce to more than 1,300 employees in years to come, Experian and Valenti Builder, Inc., with The Staubach Company serving as product coordinator, initiated a fast-track construction of Otis Associates, Inc.'s design for a two-building complex totaling 296,000 square feet. Home now to 1,100 Experian employees, the expanded campus has a new, four-story office building of 189,000 square feet joined to the original building by a two-story link housing conference facilities, a cafeteria and a fitness center. A feature wall of red stone quarried in Colorado extends to the campus' main entrance through the new building's two-story lobby. On the campus, a new parking facility accommodates 700 cars. Occupying Experian's Schaumburg campus are units providing data processing, business credit information, and information solutions, including list processing, consulting, analytic services, and product development support. Staff of the former Metromail Corp., the database, marketing, and mail processing and distribution company purchased by Experian in 1998, relocated to the Schaumburg facility from Lombard, IL.
Santa Ana, Calif., January 13, 1998 – The First American Financial Corp. (NYSE: FAF) announced today the appointment of D. Van Skilling to its board of directors. Skilling replaces Robert B. McLain, who died last year. The board now stands at 16 members. Skilling serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Experian, a leading provider of consumer and business credit and direct marketing services based in Orange, Calif.
The First American Financial Corp., based in Santa Ana, Calif., is the nation's leading provider of real estate-related financial and information services. The corporation's subsidiaries include First American Title Insurance Co., a national and international title insurer; First American Real Estate Information Services Inc., which offers tax monitoring, credit reporting, flood certification, mortgage loan servicing systems, appraisal services, mortgage document preparation and field inspection services nationally; First American Home Buyers Protection Corp., a home warranty company; and First American Capital Management, an investment advisory firm. The corporation also operates First American Trust Co. and First Security Thrift Co. in Southern California. First American Financial has more than 10,000 employees in more than 400 branch offices in the United States and abroad.