American Vanguard Corporation Appoints Jerome L. Coben to Board of Directors

American Vanguard Corporation AVD today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Jerome L. Coben to serve as a member of the Board, thereby filling the vacancy that had been created by the passing of the late John B. Miles in February 2012. Mr. Coben will serve on both the Audit Committee and the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee of the Board. Mr. Coben practiced corporate law for almost 40 years, first in New York City and, for most of his career, in Los Angeles. In 1983, Mr. Coben co-founded the Los Angeles office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. He practiced there until his retirement at the end of 2008, representing corporations, investment banks and special committees of boards of directors in a wide range of corporate finance and M&A matters. During his years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP., Mr. Coben served as the Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office and on several of the firm's national management committees. In 2009 and 2010, Mr. Coben was a Director of Zenith National Insurance Corp. (a provider of workers compensation insurance and currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited). He is also a member of the Board of a privately-owned fashion retailer. Throughout his career, Mr. Coben has been involved in a broad range of philanthropic and community activities. He is currently a Director of the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Hospital, a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Vice-Chair of the Board of the American Jewish University. He has also been a Lecturer of Law at the USC Gould School of Law.