On April 24, 2013, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc. announced that Rodney Yee resigned from its Board of Directors, citing personal reasons. The Board has appointed Mark F. FitzGerald to succeed Yee as an independent director effective April 24, 2013. FitzGerald replaced Yee as a Class II director, and is a nominee for re-election at the company's upcoming annual meeting of stockholders scheduled for May 23, 2013.

Mark FitzGerald is a technology industry veteran with 24 years of experience as an engineer, researcher, and securities analyst, with particular expertise in manufacturing process technologies used in the semiconductor, solar, and disk drive industries. He began his career as an engineer at Air Products & Chemicals (a supplier of industrial gases and chemicals) and Materials Technology (a manufacturer of wafer processing equipment for the semiconductor industry). Later, he assumed analyst positions at Hambrecht & Quist, Union Bank of Switzerland, Merrill Lynch, and most recently at Banc of America Securities LLC, where he was managing director and senior analyst in the Technology Group.