UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE
14A
(Rule
14a-101)
INFORMATION
REQUIRED IN PROXY STATEMENT
SCHEDULE
14A INFORMATION
Proxy
Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of the Securities
Exchange
Act of 1934 (Amendment No. )
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Definitive
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Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2)
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Definitive
Additional Materials
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CNS
RESPONSE, INC.
2755
Bristol Street, Suite 285
Costa
Mesa, CA 92626
_________________________________________
ANNUAL
MEETING OF STOCKHOLDERS
TO
BE HELD SEPTEMBER 29, 2009
_________________________________________
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION ABOUT THE MEETING, THE ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
AND
OUR SOLICITATION OF PROXIES
Dear CNS
Stockholders:
We want
to remind you to return your WHITE proxy card as soon as
possible. As you know, we are holding our annual meeting to elect
directors on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 10:00 a.m., local time, at the
Island Hotel, 690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, California
92660. Returning your proxy card will ensure that your shares are
represented at the meeting, whether or not you are able to attend in
person.
Our
nominees for director are:
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George
Carpenter
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John
Pappajohn
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Henry
Harbin, M.D.
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Tommy
Thompson
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David
B. Jones
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Jerome
Vaccaro, M.D.
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Our
Board of Directors recommends that you vote “FOR” the election of our director
nominees.
WE
HAVE INCLUDED A PROXY CARD FOR YOUR USE. Please mark your vote, sign
and date the card and return it as soon as possible by one of the following
methods:
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By mail:
in
the enclosed pre-addressed envelope
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By fax to:
(866)
294-2611
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By fax to:
(718)
921-8331
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By scan/email
to:
pbuck@cnsresponse.com
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YOU
DO NOT NEED TO
SEND IN ANOTHER PROXY CARD IF YOU
HAVE
ALREADY RETURNED ONE TO US.
_________________________________________
If you
have any questions regarding the annual meeting or our solicitation of proxies,
please call the Company at (714) 545-3288 or contact us via email at
gcarpenter@cnsresponse.com.
ABOUT
THE MEETING
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Date,
time and place:
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Tuesday,
September 29, 2009 at 10:00 a.m., local time, at the Island Hotel,
690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, California
92660.
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Matters
to be acted on:
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To
elect six directors to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders
or until their respective successors are elected and
qualified.
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To
transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting or
any adjournment thereof.
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Director
nominees:
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George
Carpenter
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Henry
Harbin, M.D.
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David
B. Jones
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John
Pappajohn
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Tommy
Thompson
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Jerome
Vaccaro, M.D.
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All
of our nominees have consented to serve as directors, if
elected.
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Who
can vote:
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All
holders of record of our common stock at the close of business on August
27, 2009 are entitled to vote on each matter properly brought before the
annual meeting and at any adjournment or postponement of the
meeting.
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How
to vote:
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Record
holders. If you hold your CNS shares as a record holder,
you may vote your shares by completing, dating and signing the enclosed
WHITE proxy card
and returning it in the pre-addressed, postage paid envelope we are
providing to you. You also have the option
of submitting your proxy electronically via email or by fax by
following the instructions on the cover page. You also have the
right to vote in person at the meeting, and if you choose to do so, you
can bring the enclosed WHITE proxy
card or vote using the ballot provided at the annual meeting.
“Street name”
holders. If you hold your CNS shares in street name
through a broker, bank or other nominee, you should receive a notice from
them that includes instructions on how to vote your CNS
shares. Because you are not the record stockholder, you may not
vote your shares in person at the meeting unless you obtain a “legal
proxy” from the broker, bank or other nominee that holds your shares for
you.
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Solicitation
of proxies:
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Our
Board of Directors is soliciting your proxies in connection with the
matters to be acted on at the annual meeting. In connection
with the solicitation, we may use the services of our directors, officers,
employees and others to solicit proxies, personally or by mail, telephone,
facsimile or the Internet.
If
you vote by proxy, your shares will be voted at the annual meeting in the
manner specified by you. If you sign, date and return your
WHITE proxy
card, but do not specify how you want your shares to be voted, they will
be voted by the proxy holder as recommended by the
Board. Returning the WHITE proxy card also
grants discretionary authority to the named proxies to vote your proxy in
accordance with their judgment as to other matters that come before the
annual meeting. As of the date hereof, we know of no matters or
proposals to be presented at the meeting other than as described herein
and in our proxy statement that was previously sent to
you.
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Our
recommendation:
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Our
board of directors recommends that you vote “FOR” the election of each of
our director nominees.
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Biographies
of Our Director Nominees and Executive Officers
George
Carpenter, Chief Executive Officer, Secretary
George
Carpenter has served as our Chief Executive Officer since April 10, 2009 and
prior to that date served as our President since October 1, 2007. As
President, Mr. Carpenter’s primary responsibility involved developing strategy
and assembling the team for the commercialization of rEEG. From 2002 until he
joined CNS, Mr. Carpenter was the President and CEO of WorkWell Systems, Inc., a
national physical medicine firm that manages occupational health programs for
Fortune 500 employers. Prior to his position at WorkWell Systems, Mr.
Carpenter founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Core, Inc., a company
focused on integrated disability management and work-force
analytics. He served in those positions from 1990 until Core was
acquired by Assurant, Inc. in 2001. From 1984 to 1990, Mr. Carpenter
was a Vice President of Operations with Baxter Healthcare, served as a Director
of Business Development and as a strategic partner for Baxter's alternate site
businesses. Mr. Carpenter began his career at Inland Steel where he
served as a Senior Systems Consultant in manufacturing process control. Mr.
Carpenter holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a BA with
Distinction in International Policy & Law from Dartmouth
College.
Henry
T. Harbin, M.D., Director
Henry
Harbin, M.D. joined our Board of directors on October 17, 2007. Since
2004, Dr. Harbin has worked as an independent consultant providing health care
consulting services to a number of private and public organizations. Dr. Harbin
is a Psychiatrist with over 30 years of experience in the behavioral health
field. He has held a number of senior positions in both public and private
health care organizations. He worked for 10 years in the public mental health
system in Maryland serving as Director of the state mental health authority for
three of those years. He has been CEO of two national behavioral
healthcare companies - Greenspring Health Services and Magellan Health Services.
At the time he was CEO of Magellan, it was the largest managed behavioral
healthcare company managing the mental health and substance abuse benefits of
approximately 70 million Americans including persons who were insured by private
employers, Medicaid and Medicare. In 2002 and 2003, he served on the President's
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. As a part of the Commission
he was chair of the subcommittee for the Interface between Mental Health and
General Medicine. In 2005, he served as co-chair of the National
Business Group on Health's work group that produced the Employer's Guide to
Behavioral Health Services in December 2005.
David
B. Jones, Director
David B.
Jones has been a director of CNS California since August 2006, and became a
director of the company upon completion of our merger with CNS California on
March 7, 2007. Mr. Jones currently serves as a partner of Sail
Venture Partners, L.P., a position which he has held since 2003. From
1998 to 2004, Mr. Jones served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Dartron, Inc., a computer accessories manufacturer. From 1985 to 1997, Mr. Jones
was a general partner of InterVen Partners, a venture capital firm with offices
in Southern California and Portland, Oregon. From 1979 to 1985, Mr. Jones was
President and Chief Executive Officer of First Interstate Capital, Inc., the
venture capital affiliate of First Interstate Bancorp. Mr. Jones is a graduate
of Dartmouth College and holds Masters of Business Administration and law
degrees from the University of Southern California.
John
Pappajohn, Director
John
Pappajohn joined the CNS board of directors on August 26, 2009. Since
1969, Mr. Pappajohn has been the President and sole owner of Pappajohn Capital
Resources, a venture capital firm, and President and sole owner of Equity
Dynamics, Inc., a financial consulting firm, both located in Des Moines,
Iowa. He serves as a director on the boards of the following public
companies: American CareSource Inc., Dallas, TX since 1994; since
1996; PharmAthene, Inc., Annapolis, MD., since 2007; Spectrascience, Inc., San
Diego, CA, since 2007; CareGuide, Inc., Florida, (formerly Patient
Infosystems, Inc.), since 1996; and ConMed Healthcare Management,
Inc., Hanover, MD since 2005.
Tommy
Thompson, Director
Tommy G.
Thompson joined the CNS board of directors on August 26, 2009. Mr.
Thompson is the former Health and Human Services Secretary and four-term
Governor of Wisconsin. Since March 2005 he has been a partner at the
law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and since February 2005 he also
has served as President of Logistics Health, Inc. He serves on the
boards of CR Bard and Centene Corporation, both which are public companies, and
is Chairman of AGA Medical Corporation, a privately-held
company. Thompson served as HHS Secretary from 2001 to 2005 and is
one of the nation's leading advocates for the health and welfare of all
Americans. He is the 19th individual to serve as Secretary of the department,
which employs more than 60,000 personnel and has a fiscal year 2005 budget of
$584 billion. Thompson has dedicated his professional life to public
service and served as Governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001. Thompson was
re-elected to office for a third term in 1994 and a fourth term in
1998. At HHS, Thompson led the Administration’s efforts to pass
and implement a new Medicare law that is for the first time providing a drug
benefit to America’s seniors. As governor, Thompson created the nation's first
parental school choice program in 1990, allowing low-income Milwaukee families
to send children to the private or public school of their choice. He created
Wisconsin's Council on Model Academic Standards, which implemented high academic
standards for English language arts, math, science and social studies. Thompson
began his career in public service in 1966 as a representative in Wisconsin's
state Assembly. He was elected assistant Assembly minority leader in 1973 and
Assembly minority leader in 1981. Thompson has received numerous awards for his
public service, including the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Public
Service Award. In 1997, Thompson received Governing Magazine's Public Official
of the Year Award, and the Horatio Alger Award in 1998. Thompson served as
chairman of the National Governors' Association, the Education Commission of the
States and the Midwestern Governors' Conference. Thompson also served in the
Wisconsin National Guard and the Army Reserve.
Jerome
Vaccaro, M.D., Director
Jerome
Vaccaro, M.D., joined the Board of directors of CNS California in 2006 and
became a director of the company upon completion of our merger with CNS
California on March 7, 2007. Dr. Vaccaro is President and Chief
Operating Officer of APS Healthcare, Inc, (APS) a privately held specialty
healthcare company, which he joined in June 2007. From February 2001
until its acquisition by United Health Group in 2005, Dr. Vaccaro served as
President and Chief Executive Officer of PacifiCare Behavioral Health (“PBH”),
and then served as Senior Vice President with United Health Group’s Specialized
Care Services until he joined APS. Dr. Vaccaro has also served as
Medical Director of PBH (1996-2001), Chief Executive Officer of PacifiCare
Dental and Vision (2002-2004), and Senior Vice President for the PacifiCare
Specialty Health Division (2002-2004). Dr. Vaccaro has an extensive background
in community mental health and public sector work, including editing the
textbook, “Practicing Psychiatry in the Community,” which is hailed as the
definitive community psychiatry text. Dr. Vaccaro completed medical school and a
Psychiatry Residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
City. After his training, Dr. Vaccaro served on the full-time faculty of the
University of Hawaii (1985-1989) and UCLA (1989-1996) Departments of
Psychiatry.
Daniel
Hoffman, Chief Medical Officer and President
Dr. Hoffman, 61, became our President
on April 10, 2009 and our Chief Medical Officer on January 15, 2008 upon our
acquisition of Neuro-Therapy Clinic, P.C, which at the time of the acquisition
was our largest customer and which was owned by Dr Hoffman. He had
served as the National Medical Director of Neuro-Therapy Clinic, P.C. since
1993. Dr. Hoffman is a Neuropsychiatrist with over 25 years experience treating
general psychiatric conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety.
He provides the newest advances in diagnosing and treating attentional and
learning problems in children and adults. Dr. Hoffman has authored over 40
professional articles, textbook chapters, poster presentations and letters to
the editors on various aspects of neuropsychiatry, Quantitative EEG, LORETA,
Referenced EEG, advances in medication management, national position papers and
standards, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, neurocognitive effects of Silicone
Toxicity, sexual dysfunction and other various topics. Dr. Hoffman has given
over 58 major presentations and seminars, including Grand Rounds at Universities
and Hospitals, workshops and presentations at national society meeting (such as
American Psychiatric Association and American Neuropsychiatric Association,
national CME conferences, insurance companies, national professional
associations, panel member discussant, and presenter of poster sessions. Dr
Hoffman has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan,
an MD from Wayne State University School of Medicine and conducted his Residency
in Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. During the
past five years, Dr. Hoffman has served as the President and CEO of
Neuro-Therapy Clinic, P.C., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company that is
focused on discovering ways to integrate technology into the creation of better
business practices.
Our
First Annual Meeting
The
September 29, 2009 meeting will be our first annual meeting of
stockholders. While Leonard Brandt served as our Chairman of the
Board, we did not call and hold an annual meeting to elect
directors. Our bylaws allow the Chairman to call stockholder meetings
on his own motion, without further action of the other board members, and also
allow a majority of all of the directors to call stockholder
meetings. At various times in the past, other members of the Board
asked Mr. Brandt to arrange for an annual meeting. In addition, the
Board discussed calling and holding an annual meeting during Board
meetings. However, neither Mr. Brandt nor the other directors
submitted motions or took other formal action with respect to calling and
holding an annual meeting until the Board of Directors voted (with Mr. Brandt
abstaining from the vote) to call an annual meeting for September (including a
subsequent vote to set the date as September 29, again with Mr. Brandt
abstaining from the vote).
We hope
you will be able to attend the meeting in person. If you are unable
to do so, we hope you exercise your right to elect directors by returning your
proxy card.
Even
if you plan to attend the annual meeting, we ask that you vote your shares in
advance using the WHITE proxy card so that your vote will be counted if you
later decide not to attend the meeting.
Important Notice Regarding Internet
Availability Of Proxy Materials: These additional
soliciting material, our definitive proxy statement dated September 15, 2009,
the accompanying WHITE
proxy card and CNS’s Annual Report are available at
www.cnsresponse.com.
Matters
Involving Leonard Brandt
As we
have previously disclosed, we have determined not to nominate Leonard Brandt for
election as a director. As you know, Mr. Brandt was removed by the
Board of Directors as CNS’s Chief Executive Officer by a unanimous vote of all
of the directors other than Mr. Brandt in April 2009. He was replaced
by George Carpenter, who had been serving as our President. The Board
decided to make this change for a number of reasons, but the primary reasons
were Mr. Brandt’s repeated failures to secure financing, his shortcomings as a
manager, and a fundamental disagreement between the other directors and Mr.
Brandt regarding the Company’s strategy. Mr. Brandt had been given
primary responsibility for identifying and securing financing for CNS by the
Board of Directors, and after 12 months of being unsuccessful in his efforts to
secure acceptable financing, he recommended to the Board that CNS reduce staff,
discontinue payroll, notify clinical trial sites that further payments would be
delayed or suspended, and use bridge loans to “drip feed” CNS on a
month-to-month basis. Our other directors disagreed with this
recommendation and determined to replace Mr. Brandt.
Since his
removal, he has been waging a campaign to unseat our other directors and replace
them with himself and his own nominees. He has already attempted to
call purported special meetings eight times since June and has solicited
proxies and written consents in connection with those purported
meetings. He also claims to have taken action at a purported
stockholder meeting on September 4, and subsequently filed an action in the
Delaware Court of Chancery under Section 225 of the Delaware General Corporation
Law seeking to have the Court declare that his meeting and election were
valid. CNS is contest Mr. Brandt’s claims and will file its response
as required by Delaware law. CNS’s position is that Mr. Brandt’s
attempt to call and hold a special meeting was not made in compliance with the
bylaws and that the record date he used for his purported meeting was incorrect
and was chosen to deliberately disenfranchise certain CNS stockholders.
Section 1.2 of our bylaws provides, in pertinent part, that
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The
power to call annual meetings of stockholders or special meetings of
stockholders in lieu of annual meetings is reserved and vested
in the board of directors only; the rights of the stockholders of
the Corporation to request the calling of a special meeting pursuant to
Section 1.3 of the Bylaws shall not apply to this Section 1.2. (emphasis
supplied)
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Mr.
Brandt’s purported September 4 meting was claimed to be a special meeting in
lieu of an annual meeting. In addition, Section 1.3 of our bylaws
provides for a procedure through which the record holders of not less than
twenty-five percent (25%) of our shares may demand that a special meeting be
called. Mr. Brandt did not follow that procedure. The Board also set
a record date of August 27 with respect to Mr. Brandt’s purported meeting, as
the Board is empowered to do under Delaware law. In connection with
his purported meeting, Mr. Brandt claims to have used a record date of August 24
rather than August 27. Mr. Brandt’s contention appears to be that
these bylaws and the August 27 record date do not apply to his purported
September 4 meeting, even though he was aware of the bylaws and record date
(and, in fact, was in attendance at the Board meetings at which the bylaws were
adopted and the record date was set).
As of the
date of these additional soliciting materials, no date has been set for any
hearings with respect to these matters, and it is currently unclear when the
Section 225 action will be heard or decided. Mr. Brandt has filed a
motion for what is known as a “status quo” order, which asks the Court, among
other things, to prevent CNS from holding its annual meeting. If the
Court prohibits us from having our annual meeting, your proxy will not be
voted. We cannot predict what action the Court will take with respect
to any of these matters and we believe that it is unlikely that there will be a
final judicial decision on the Section 225 action until after our annual meeting
is held.
Mr.
Brandt has also filed soliciting materials with the SEC with respect to a
consent solicitation to remove the current directors (other than Mr. Brandt) and
elect his nominees as directors. We do not know if he is actively
soliciting consents, but if he does so, we currently intend to oppose that
solicitation. Proxy cards returned to us in connection with our
annual meeting cannot be used to vote against or otherwise oppose any consent
solicitation Mr. Brandt may undertake, and in order to oppose such a consent
solicitation, CNS would make separate filings with the SEC.
Additional
Information and Where to Find It
The
Company filed a definitive proxy statement and other relevant documents
concerning its 2009 Annual Meeting of Stockholders with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on September 15, 2009 and has provided stockholders
with the definitive proxy statement. The Company advises stockholders to read
the definitive proxy statement because it contains important information about
the election of directors and any other matters to be presented at the 2009
Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Stockholders may obtain free copies of the
definitive proxy statement and other documents the Company files with the SEC at
the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. They may also access a copy of the Company’s
definitive proxy statement by accessing www.cnsresponse.com. In addition, CNS
stockholders may obtain a free copy of the definitive proxy statement and other
related documents by contacting the Company at 2755 Bristol Street, Suite 285,
Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Participants
in Solicitation
CNS and
its directors (other than Leonard Brandt) and executive officers may be deemed
to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the matters to
be considered at the Company’s 2009 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Information
regarding the interests of the Company’s directors and executive officers in the
proxy contest is included in its definitive proxy statement.