Leadership
FOUNDER & CEO, Edgar Catalogne
A veteran operations executive with over 25 years of experience, Mr. Catalogne began his career in antitrust class action settlements in 2005 with a start-up firm, Class Action Refund. Since the firm’s inception, he worked every aspect of the business beginning with sales and then managing the team. He also oversaw the responsibilities of the claims filing team, assisting with complex filings, meeting deadlines, and working with claims administrators and settlement counsel. He moved on to collaboratively participate in executive management decisions and strategies to grow the business. He was instrumental in aiding the General Counsel in executing legal decisions, overseeing all administrative aspects, growing the client base, and handling the day-to-day operational requirements of the company.
Mr. Catalogne was initially appointed as Operations Manager and subsequently moved to Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, he conceptualized and introduced major initiatives that included strategic growth and transformational change projects. He also trained every sales associate that came into the firm. Additionally, many competitors were trained by Mr. Catalogne during their time at Class Action Refund. He has also led the way in infrastructure deployment, best practices, strategic sourcing, overseeing the firm’s technology projects, and spearheading client initiatives, which includes enabling franchisor clients to seamlessly integrate their business models into settlement profit centers. He also identified the need to support claimants affected by Financial Antitrust and Securities Class Actions. His vision was to create a one-stop-shop for all types of antitrust cases whereby clients had a vehicle to secure any settlement they should be awarded.
Mr. Catalogne was also the first executive within the Antitrust Settlement industry to implement and achieve a SOC2 compliance certification. The certification represents adherence to industry auditing standards for service providers. He was responsible for reporting to SOC2 auditors on various organizational controls related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy of the firm. The standard for regulating these controls was formed under the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) Trust Services Principles and Criteria. Mr. Catalogne achieved a SOC2 compliance certification by managing the process to successfully complete each independent audit by an independent certified public accountant who determined the firm had the appropriate SOC2 safeguards and procedures in place.
Mr. Catalogne’s accomplishments include strategically guiding his prior firms in acquiring a clientele of over 30,000 entities, that include many Fortune 500 businesses. To date, Mr. Catalogne has overseen client settlement recoveries totaling over $800 million.
With Cornerstone, Mr. Catalogne decided to change the industry business model of the past to achieve greater efficiency, focus on the client experience, apply proprietary methodologies to maximize settlements, and utilize all the best practices and innovations he employed in the past in order to ensure long-term operational viability for the firm. Cornerstone is the achievement of many years of experience in grooming his vision which is a solution-oriented service focused on removing the complexities and challenges from the class action filing process.
In his spare time, Mr. Catalogne contributes to various community-based programs. He serves as a big brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a non-profit organization focused on youth support and development that seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity. He is highly active in life coaching his little brother, a young man whom he has mentored from childhood to college. In 2020, he was awarded “Big Brother of the Year” for various milestones and achievements endeavored in mentoring his little brother. Mr. Catalogne is also a Master Mason in the Aurora Grata Day Star Lodge #647 of the Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York and attended New York University where he studied Broadcast Communication.
“A Leader Is One Who Knows The Way, Goes The Way, And Shows The Way” – John Maxwell