1A. Risk Factors Failing to maintain and protect our brand, independence, and  reputation may harm our business. Our reputation and business  may also be harmed by allegations made about possible  conflicts of interest. Richard Robbins David W. Williams Company Information He has served on our board of directors since August 1999. He also  serves on the board of directors for Morningstar Japan. He holds a  bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and a master’s degree  from The University of Chicago. Richard Robbins has been our general counsel and corporate sec- retary since August 2005. He is responsible for directing  Morningstar’s legal department and managing our relationships  with outside counsel. From May 1999 until he joined Morningstar,  he was a partner at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP (now Sidley  Austin LLP), which he joined as an associate in August 1991. He  holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and  electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of  Technology and a juris doctor degree from The University of Chicago  Law School. David W. Williams has been one of our managing directors since  2000. He is in charge of design and its application to brand identity,  products, communications, and the workplace. He joined us in 1993  and has been instrumental in establishing design as one of our  recognized core capabilities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in indus- trial design from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree  in fine arts from the Yale University School of Art. We were incorporated in Illinois on May 16, 1984. Our corporate  headquarters are located at 22 West Washington Street, Chicago,  Illinois, 60602. We maintain a website at  http://corporate.morningstar.com . Our  Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current  reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to any of these documents  are available free of charge on this site as soon as reasonably  practicable after the reports are filed with or furnished to the SEC.  We also post quarterly press releases on our financial results and  other documents containing additional information related to our  company on this site. We provide this website and the information  contained in or connected to it for informational purposes only. That  information is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. You should carefully consider the risks described below and all of  the other information included in this Form 10-K when deciding  whether to invest in our common stock or otherwise evaluating our  business. If any of the following risks materialize, our business,  financial condition, or operating results could suffer. In this case,  the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may  lose all or part of your investment. We believe that independence is at the core of our business, and  our reputation is our greatest corporate asset. We offer products  and services to our institutional clients, which include banks, broker- age firms, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, media  outlets, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Our institutional  clients have generated a significant percentage of our consolidated  revenue in recent years. We provide ratings, analyst research, and  investment recommendations on mutual funds and other investment  products offered and securities issued by our institutional clients.  We also provide investment advisory and investment management  services. The fact that our institutional clients pay us for certain  products and services, as well as the fact that in some cases we  make investment recommendations within the framework of client  constraints, may create the perception that our ratings, research,  and recommendations are not impartial. This perception may undermine the confidence of our customers  and potential customers in our reputation as a provider of indepen- dent research. Any such loss of confidence or damage to our repu- tation could hurt our business. Any failure to uphold our high ethical standards and ensure that our customers have a consistently positive experience with us (either intentionally or inadvertently) could damage our reputation  as an objective, honest, and credible source for investment research  and information. Our reputation may also be harmed by factors outside of our control,  such as news reports about our clients or adverse publicity about  certain investment products. Morningstar, Inc. 2010 Annual Report 47