San Francisco, CA (Top40 Charts/ Little Kids Rock) 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. His vision was to deliver a technology solution to help companies better manage their use of derivative instruments. Today, over 400 of the world's largest corporations use Reval's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for corporate financial risk management. "Unfortunately in this economic environment music programs are the first to be cut by many public schools," says Okochi. "Little Kids Rock is an amazing program that not only enriches under-privileged children's lives, but keeps them in school and off the streets." 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.
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