Scott Jordan, HealthiosXchange
Scott Jordan is an accomplished life sciences business development and investment banking professional with over 25 years of corporate experience in negotiating strategic corporate alliances, securing international licensing agreements, building national sales teams, and contributing to successful product development, approval, and launch. Scott is the Founder of HealthiosXchange, the leading healthcare Crowdfunding portal. Previously Scott held business development and commercialization roles with Neopharm, Akorn Opthalmics, and Abbott Laboratories. Scott Graduated from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business (MBA) and a BA from Michigan State University Scot is a Level II Candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program and holds Series 7, 66, 63 & 31 security licenses.
Barry Grossman, Ellenoff Grossman & Schole
Barry I. Grossman, a member of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP since its founding in 1992, is a corporate/tax attorney who specializes in business transactions as well as tax matters. Mr. Grossman’s practice focuses on representing public and private companies, foreign companies raising money in the United States, investment banks and financing activities as well as general corporate matters. Mr. Grossman’s transactional experience includes public and private financings, structuring sales and acquisitions of companies, mergers and reorganizations, and organizing partnerships and limited liability companies. As a member of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP, he has been involved in numerous public offerings (including more than 50 blind pool offerings or SPACs which have raised more than $1.5 billion) reverse mergers (for domestic and foreign, mainly Chinese, companies) and over one hundred private placements, many into public companies (commonly referred to as PIPEs). In connection with public offerings Mr. Grossman has represented issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings, secondary public offerings, shelf take-downs and other debt and equity financings.
David Weild, IssuWorks
David is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co. and IssuWorks. The studies that he and Ed Kim co-authored documented the long-term decline in equity capital formation in the United States and provided the core arguments that gave rise to the JOBS Act and many of the specific provisions contained in the JOBS Act. For these reasons, he has been called “The father of the JOBS Act.” David has also called for a “JOBS Act 2” or “JOBS Act Part 2” – language increasingly heard on Capitol Hill. Weild and Kim’s written work was cited by a broad range of legislators, regulators, academics, the IPO Task Force and the White House Jobs Council leading up to the JOBS Act. David has testified in Congress (most recently in June 2013) and at the SEC (most recently at the Roundtable on Decimalization) on these and other market issues and attended the signing of the JOBS Act by President Obama in the Rose Garden on April 5, 2012. David is a former Vice Chairman and executive committee member of The NASDAQ Stock Market and spent years running Wall Street investment banking and equity capital markets businesses.
Ele Klein, Schulte Roth & Zabel
Eleazer (“Ele”) Klein, a partner in the New York office, practices in the areas of securities law, mergers & acquisitions, and regulatory compliance. Ele is best known for his expertise since the early 1990s in the development and implementation of alternative investment structures for private equity investments and, specifically, the structuring and negotiating of private investments in public equity, or PIPEs, and related products including Registered Direct offerings, Convertible 144A offerings, Reverse Mergers, Equity Lines and SPACs. Ele works on numerous PIPE or PIPE market-related transactions every year for some of the largest private investment groups and investment banks in the United States and abroad. In addition, Ele advises clients on initial public offerings and secondary offerings, venture capital financing, indenture defaults and interpretation, and activist investing, as well as counseling clients in the regulatory areas of short-selling, Sections 13 and 16, Rule 144, insider trading and Regulation M/Rule 105.
Jeffrey Lloyd, Sitrick & Co.
Jeff Lloyd first joined Sitrick And Company in 1991. During his tenure with the firm, he has provided strategic communications counsel on virtually every kind of assignment the firm has undertaken, including corporate repositioning, litigation support, defending against short-sellers, financial restatements, executive resignations, proxy contests, in-and out-of-court restructurings and other types of crisis communications. His ability to dig deeply into the facts, tenacity and skill dealing with Wall Street and the media have resulted in numerous victories for the firm’s clients. He recently completed a seven-year assignment as the Managing Director for the firm’s New York office. Dr. Lloyd also has a broad understanding of the rules and regulations associated with shareholder communications resulting from two brief sabbaticals from Sitrick when he served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing for two mutual fund groups.
Maureen Wolff, Sharon Merrill
Maureen Wolff is President & Partner of Sharon Merrill Associates. Established in 1985, Sharon Merrill assists corporate clients across the U.S. and internationally in planning and executing critical communications that resonate with stakeholders and deliver desired results in virtually any situation an enterprise may confront. Practice areas include investor relations, crisis communications, transaction communications, reputation and issues management, and presentation and media training.
A national thought leader in investor relations and corporate communications, Maureen leads the implementation of the firm’s strategic vision and provides high-level strategic counsel to Sharon Merrill’s clients. She is a past chairman and board member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and a current member of NIRI’s Senior IR Roundtable. She also is a past president and is an honorary director of NIRI’s Boston Chapter.
Douglas Leighton, Dutchess Capital
Doug is co-founder and a principal partner of Dutchess Capital, a Boston-headquartered global hedge fund, which has managed an investment portfolio of over $2 billion in transactional value. Doug oversees the fund’s risk management and facilitates all of the fund’s trading on worldwide exchanges. Doug manages deal origination in North America, Europe and Australia and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Douglas has founded several companies and has mentored several startup and growth management teams. He has over two decades of experience in equity trading, investment banking, asset management and the skill set to offer advice to startups and growth companies alike. While the funds are industry agnostic, Douglas has been largely focused on the legal marijuana market for over the past year, initially as an observer while he conducted due diligence for several deals, and now as an active investor and board member for several companies. He also sits on the investment committee of ArcView, the cannabis angel network. Through the Fund and personally, Doug has made numerous investments in ancillary businesses to the cannabis industry, in addition to touching the plant.
Troy Dayton, The ArcView Group
Troy was formerly the Marijuana Policy Project’s top fundraiser and lead liaison to the legal cannabis industry. The dues paying members of MPP recently elected Troy to the board with more than 75% of the vote in a 3-way race. He co-founded Students for Sensible Drug Policy (now on over 200 campuses), and helped launch and serve as the first sales director at Renewable Choice Energy (recently named the #1 green power provider by the EPA). He is a founding board member of the National Cannabis Industry Association. In his spare time Troy enjoys singing karaoke and planning and blogging about Burning Man.
Justin Hartfield, Ghost Group
Justin is a co-founder of Weedmaps.com and a successful serial entrepreneur. Justin recently exited from his previous executive role at SearchCore, an internet company he founded and built into a $30 million-a-year conglomerate recently named the fastest growing local company by Orange County Business Journal. He is an expert at Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization and has a BS in Information and Computer Science from the University of California Irvine, which he completed in a UCI record of 2.5 years. Justin serves on the Board of Directors of the National Cannabis Industry Association, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) where he also serves as the Treasurer. Justin resides in Orange County, CA with his wife and cockatiel Goose.
Joy Schoffler, Leverage PR
Joy Schoffler, Founder and Principal of Leverage PR, is a nationally recognized author and speaker, overseeing day-to-day operations and directing strategy for all of Leverage’s public relations accounts. Prior to launching Leverage PR, Joy consulted and worked with a number of growth-phase firms, including serving as Director of Acquisitions for the Inc. Award-winning investment firm, The PPA Group. She has worked with clients that eventually have been acquired, raised large amounts of capital, secured Fortune 500 accounts and experienced tremendous growth through her creative messaging and dynamic media strategies.
Joy regularly writes for a number of outlets, including Entrepreneur.com, Social Media Monthly, and MarketingProfs. She has also been a featured speaker and moderator for dozens of conferences, including the Growth Capital Expo, SXSW Interactive, FinCon, Startup America, Kingonomics, Execsense and the Crowdfunding Professional Association’s annual conference. She has additionally worked behind-the-scenes for high-profile events including the Crowdfund Texas conference, the Crowdfunding BootCamp and a crowdfunding summit in Washington D.C. titled “The State of Equity-Based Crowdfunding,” which included a press conference held at the National Press Club, a luncheon on Capitol Hill, a White House meeting and a meeting with SEC officials responsible for Titles II and III of the JOBS Act.
Julius Anderegg, Consul General of Switzerland
Julius F. Anderegg is the Consul General of Switzerland based in San Francisco, representing Switzerland in the western U.S. His main focus is on international economic and financial affairs, direct investments, financing of innovation via private equity and venture capital, relations with legislative and executive branches of state governments, and cultural and communication projects. He studied business administration in Switzerland and political science, comparative politics and international relations in New York at CUNY and Columbia University.
Mr. Anderegg spent his youth in the beautiful ski resort of Klosters, Switzerland, and performed his mandatory military service in the Swiss Army as a First Lieutenant of the Swiss mountain troops. After seven years in the private sector focused on the design of financial information management systems, he joined the Swiss foreign office in 1977 and was assigned to the following Swiss diplomatic and consular representations: Barcelona, New York, Bagdad, Copenhagen, Berne , Geneva, Vienna, then as Consul General in Karachi, Frankfurt, and now San Francisco.
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Alon Goron, Invested.in
Alon is CEO and co-founder of Invested.in and INVST. He has developed technology that powers websites and financial transactions for Fortune 500 companies and well-known foundations such as Coca-Cola, ATB Financial and Global Philanthropy Group. He also created a white label fundraising portal for individuals and businesses hoping to crowdfund ventures independently of major platforms. His support of the JOBS Act and day-to-day interactions with investors and financial professionals inspired him to create a solution for marketers hoping to attract investment firms and hedge fund managers. Before launching Invested.In and INVST, Alon worked for entertainment tech giants such as IMDb and MySpace where he managed product development, testing and performance. Invested.in was named “Best Marketplace Platform” by the Los Angeles Venture Association in 2013 and he was named to the Socaltech 50 for his work with Invested.In. Alon is a thought leader on social enterprise and crowdfunding, and has spoken at SXSW V2V, Crowdfund Global Expo and many other conferences and been featured in prominent publications including Forbes and VentureBeat.
David Manshoory, AssetAvenue
David Manshoory is the CEO and founder of AssetAvenue, an online marketplace connecting investors with real estate professionals to acquire commercial properties. With the creation of AssetAvenue, David is reimagining the real estate investment landscape to create an online marketplace that gives investors better access to high-quality commercial deals and more control over their investments. With a passion for entrepreneurship and real estate, he has created and led several successful companies. Most recently, David founded 1 On 1 Academic Tutors, one of the fastest-growing education companies in the country that grew to over 100 full-time employees within 15 months and generated nearly $30 million in revenues in its first two years of business. Prior to 1 On 1, he founded Momentum Capital Partners, an investor-backed real estate fund that acquired distressed residential and multifamily properties in Southern California. David’s real estate expertise also includes working at notable investment and development companies Westfield Shopping Centers and Westwood Financial Corp. David received his Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree from USC’s Master of Real Estate Development Program.
Paul Schulman, MacKenzie Partners, Inc.
Paul joined MacKenzie Partners in October 2010 and has over twenty years of experience in the proxy solicitation industry. He is primarily responsible for representing clients in friendly and contested mergers and acquisitions, going-private transactions, proxy contests for board seats, and a broad range of shareholder approval issues. He also counsels clients on governance and compensation issues and advises companies on responses to shareholder proposals. Paul has extensive
experience as the lead on over 100 contested solicitation assignments, representing corporate issuers, shareholder groups, activist institutions and hedge funds.
Adam Epstein, Third Creek Advisors
Adam J. Epstein is a special advisor to small-cap boards through his firm, Third Creek Advisors, LLC (TCA). He is the author of The Perfect Corporate Board: A Handbook for Mastering the Unique Challenges of Small-Cap Companies (McGraw Hill, 2012), a distinguished National Association of Corporate Directors’ Board Leadership Fellow, the small-cap contributing editor to Directorship magazine, and is regularly a featured speaker at national corporate governance forums and investor conferences. Prior to founding TCA, Mr. Epstein co-founded and was a principal of Enable Capital Management, LLC (ECM). During his tenure, ECM’s special situation hedge funds invested in more than 500 small-cap financings in the United States, the European Union, and Australasia. Mr. Epstein has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and on CNN Presents, and has been quoted in, among others, Forbes, Agenda (Financial Times), Compliance Week, CBS Marketwatch, Lipper Hedge World, Reuters, and American Bar Association Journal. He started his career as an attorney at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.
Eric Stein, Szaferman Lakind
Eric Stein is counsel in the Securities Law Practice Group, which is a part of the Business Department. He focuses his practice in securities and corporate law, representing public and private companies and investment funds. Along with assisting private companies with going public through direct public offerings, underwritten IPOs, self-filings, and reverse mergers, Eric advises public companies regarding compliance with federal securities filing requirements; this includes all recurring obligations with the SEC, FINRA, NASDAQ, and NYSE. Eric also advises both public and private corporations raising capital through the use of Private Investment in Public Equity (“PIPE”) transactions, Regulation D and S offerings, and other securities offerings.
Lance Kimmel, SEC Law Firm
Lance Jon Kimmel is the founding and managing partner of SEC Law Firm, which represents growth companies around the globe and the regulated professionals who serve them. Mr. Kimmel’s practice focuses on public and private securities offerings, SEC reporting, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, representation of companies before the SEC and stock exchanges, and SRO compliance for investment bankers and other service providers. He handles capital raising at every level, from seed capital to initial public offerings, from reverse mergers to PIPEs, from equity credit lines to bank credit facilities. Mr. Kimmel is actively involved in alternative public offering strategies, including reverse mergers for domestic and Chinese companies in the United States, and working with private and public companies going public on the AIM in the U.K. and the TSX in Canada.
His clients reflect the spectrum of 21st century business, from manufacturing to medical devices, from biotechnology to green technology, from financial services to the entertainment industry, from real estate to consumer goods.
Jay Norris, Malone Bailey
Jay brings over 15 years of combined public and private company auditing and management experience, beginning his career at Ernst & Young, LLP. Jay serves clients on numerous accounting issues involving derivative accounting prescribed by SFAS No. 133 and EITF 00-19, share-based compensation; convertible debt arrangements and earnings per share, among others.
In addition to his Big 4 experience, Jay has held controllership positions with Worldwide Flight Services, Calpine Corporation and KBR, Inc. As a corporate controller, Jay’s role included SEC compliance, SOX implementation and accounting research, among other day-to-day responsibilities. In addition, Jay oversaw the preparation of KBR’s initial registration statement on Form S-1 and subsequent amendments.
Joseph Balagot, Dawson James
Mr. Balagot is a seasoned investment banker with approximately 20 years of experience providing both financial and strategic advisory services to a broad array of clients ranging from start-up companies to mature operating companies. Mr. Balagot has successfully completed over 75 corporate finance transactions during his career with publicly announced transaction values totaling over $7 billion. His transaction record includes initial public offerings, follow-on public offerings, private placements, venture placements, mergers and acquisitions and strategic advisory assignments. Mr. Balagot joined Dawson James Securities, Inc. in October 2008 opening a West Coast Investment Banking office in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining Dawson James, Mr. Balagot had worked for three other Wall Street investment banks. He was a member of Salomon Brothers/Citigroup investment banking teams in New York and London, England from 1994 to 1998. Mr. Balagot returned to the U.S. in 1998 and subsequently joined CIBC World Markets investment banking team in Menlo Park, California. Mr. Balagot left CIBC in 2005 after several successful years to join San Francisco-based boutique investment banking firm Merriman Curhan Ford as a Managing Director where he successfully financed and advised several emerging growth clients during his three year tenure prior to leaving in 2008 to join Dawson James.
Jonathan Gellis, Worldwide Stock Transfer
Jonathan Gellis is the owner and founder of Worldwide Stock Transfer. Mr. Gellis founded the company in 2005. His main reason for founding WST was noticing a need for increased service in the Transfer Agency business. WST provides transfer services to both Public and Private companies. They offer Flat Fee pricing so that companies can help better manage their cash flow. WST also offers investor accreditation services along with Edgar and XBRL.
Michael Tomasulo, AHT Insurance
Michael Tomasulo brings over 16 years’ experience working with private & public companies in negotiating and understanding their Management Liability and Risk Management Programs. Mr. Tomasulo has worked with hundreds of publicly traded companies from OTC to Fortune 100’s in attaining and structuring their Directors and Officers Liability insurance. Mr. Tomasulo joined AHT as their National Practice Leader for Management Liability, as well as heading up AHT’s Northeast operations. Prior to AHT, Mr. Tomasulo was a Senior Vice President and Team Leader at AON Risk Services in New York City in their Financial Services Division. In addition, Mr. Tomasulo was a founding member of the NASDAQ Insurance Agency, creating the Nasdaq Stock Market’s in-house insurance brokerage. Mr. Tomasulo ran the agency’s East and Central regions up until the time he assisted in successfully selling the agency to AON. Mr. Tomasulo has also held Regional Underwriting Officer roles at global insurance companies AIG & Zurich.
Mr. Tomasulo is a frequent speaker at industry events discussing topics regarding Management Liability, Board Education and Corporate Governance. Mr. Tomasulo earned a B.S. degree from Kean University and an M.B.A in Finance from Seton Hall University.
Ted Haberfield, MZ Group
Ted Haberfield provides strategic management consulting to public companies through integrated investor relations by combining finance, marketing, and compliance. Prior to joining MZ in 2007, Ted spent over thirteen years as a financial advisor serving the investment needs of high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors, including non-profit organizations and sovereign governments. He served as Second Vice President of Wealth Management at Smith Barney and as Second Vice President of Investments at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Ted has been a speaker on financial related topics at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), First Nation’s Development Institute, Guatemala Prospera and other national level associations. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo in 1993 with a B.A. in Business and major in Financial Management. He currently resides in San Diego with his wife Danielle and his four children Layla, London, Van, and Curren.
Joseph Lucosky, Lucosky Brookman
Joseph M. Lucosky is the founding and managing partner of Lucosky Brookman LLP. Mr. Lucosky has a broad multidisciplinary practice that includes extensive experience in negotiated mergers and acquisitions (including reverse mergers); domestic and cross-border investments/joint ventures; the representation of private equity, venture capital and other private investment funds; securities offerings; private and public financings (including secured and unsecured lending); bankruptcy transactions; real estate matters; and various other types of commercial transactions
Steven Skolnick, Lowenstein Sandler
Steven M. Skolnick, Esq. is a Partner in Lowenstein Sandler’s Life Sciences and Specialty Finance practice groups. Steven has extensive experience representing clients in the life sciences and other industries in securities regulation, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, business planning and general corporate matters. Steven has been very active in public securities offerings, including IPOs, RDs, PIPEs, SPACs and convertible equity and debt offerings representing placement agents, institutional investors and issuers. Steven also regularly advises companies and their boards on SEC compliance and disclosure issues and corporate governance matters. In addition, Steven counsels clients on federal securities law, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, LLC issues and provides other transaction and disclosure advice.
Alan Spatz, Troy Gould
Mr. Spatz practices primarily in the areas of corporate and securities laws, with particular emphasis in public and private financings and mergers and acquisitions. He represents businesses in a wide variety of industries, including technology, life sciences, medical devices, health care services, entertainment, natural resources, digital media, financial institutions, mortgage banking, specialty finance and consumer products. He advises these entities from inception through initial and start-up financing, venture capital, bank and/or secondary financings, initial and secondary public offerings, reverse mergers, listing on stock exchanges and the sale of the entity. Mr. Spatz also represents hedge funds and bridge funds in their formation and investments. In addition to financing and acquisitions, Mr. Spatz advises Boards of Directors and management on marketing, distribution and sales agreements, licensing, corporate partnering, recapitalizations, executive compensation, and ongoing corporate and securities issues.
David Ficksman, Troy Gould
Mr. Ficksman’s practice focuses on securities, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and domestic and international corporate finance. He has been active for many years in taking public in the U.S. a number of companies whose principal operations are in China, and has represented these companies as U.S. securities and corporate counsel. Mr. Ficksman provides corporate, securities and business counseling to corporate clients and their officers and directors. He has also assisted clients in preparing for and responding to investigations and litigation, including representation of directors and special committees in these investigations. Mr. Ficksman represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including life sciences, telecommunications, the Internet, software, publishing, environmental, financial services (including underwriters and placement agents), manufacturing and entertainment.
James Silvester, Fusion Road
Mr. James L. Silvester was the Owner of Jamaica Jim, Inc. and served as its Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Financial Officer, Principal, Secretary and Treasurer. Mr. Silvester serves as the President of Business Experts, Inc. He served as an Assistant Vice President of First Federal Savings & Loan and Vice President of Mortgage America at BAS Mortgage.
Previously, Mr. Silvester served as the President of BAS Mortgage, a mortgage banking firm and also served as a Vice President of two other mortgage companies. He served as an Independent Management Consultant to small and medium sized firms, located on the campus of Shenandoah University. He serves as a Director of Borderless Holdings, Inc. He held a full time position on the faculty of the Harry F. Byrd School of Business located on the campus of Shenandoah University.
Khurshid Khoja, Greenbridge Corporate Counsel
Khurshid Khoja is Principal at Greenbridge Corporate Counsel. Prior to founding Greenbridge, Khurshid practiced corporate and transactional law as an Associate at Thelen LLP and Reed Smith LLP, where he worked on general corporate matters, regulatory compliance issues, mergers and acquisitions in the energy and insurance industries, and various commercial transactions intended to deploy wind, solar and biofuel technologies.
Khurshid has represented leading equipment manufacturers and other cleantech enterprises developing domestic and international renewable energy projects utilizing diverse generation technologies, including wind, solar and biomass. He has extensive experience advising such clients with a broad range of legal and commercial issues arising in intellectual property licenses; subcontracting agreements; equipment supply, installation, and testing agreements; operation and maintenance agreements; and related project contracts.
Dr. Lawrence May, Tauriga Sciences
Lawrence May MD is a board certified internist with broad experience in clinical medicine, academics, media and business. Following residency he joined the faculty of the UCLA medical school where he directed the health services research center at the Wadsworth, VA hospital and served as a founder and co director of the center for health enhancement education and research {CHEER} at UCLA. He continued on the clinical faculty after entering private practice, Dr. May has written many books and articles including a widely used textbook entitled Primary Care Medicine. Dr. May became an important formulator of nutritional products and served as executive vice president for medical and scientific affairs for Herbalife International. He has appeared in the media, lectured internationally, and consulted to industry and medical institutions, as well as serving on their boards. He was a founder of physicians therapeutics and helped develop the parent Targeted Medical Pharma. He is an advisor to Stock News Now SNN, writes for Microcap Review and evaluates biopharmaceutical companies as an investor.Dr. May received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude in economics from Harvard University (’70) where he was elected to phi beta kappa. His medical degree was also earned at Harvard Medical School (’74) and residency in internal medicine was served at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Mark Rabe, Medical Marijuana Sciences
Mark L. Rabe, MD, ABIHM is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Medical Marijuana Sciences, Inc., a subsidiary of Nuvilex, Inc. (NVLX), an international biotechnology company providing cell and gene therapy solutions for the treatment of diseases. Dr. Rabe has over 25+ years of practice experience, and is very experienced in the medical cannabis industry. As the former Chief Medical Officer of the largest group of physician-owned alternative medicine clinics in California, he helped provide over 100,000 medical cannabis recommendations to patients across the state. He is a holistic and alternative medicine specialist, board-certified by the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM), a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, and a member of the California Medical Association and the San Diego County Medical Society.
Danny Wettreich, GreenBank Capital
Danny Wettreich is Chairman & CEO of GreenBank Capital Inc (CSE:GBC) and has been a merchant banker and a director of public companies in Canada, the USA and the UK for a period of over 40 years. He has created 6 public companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange and has facilitated 13 reverse mergers with public companies in the USA, Canada and the UK. He has participated as a principal in public listings on Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange, the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, the TSX Venture Exchange, and the Canadian Securities Exchange. He currently is focused on public listings on the Canadian Securities Exchange which he regards as the most business friendly, most inexpensive and least intrusive quality stock exchange in the world, and which is the exchange which is most suitable for North American private businesses to become publicly listed.
Randy Shipley, CrowdFundConnect
Co-founder of CrowdFundConnect, the first company to deliver an active white label crowd funding site to a FINRA registered broker / dealer. Co-founder and board member for SocialGravity.com, a social enterprise that has a goal of lowering donation processing costs for non-profits and community development.
Past officer for Carrier Access Corporation in charge of revenue attainment from pre-IPO to a $2 Billion NASDAQ traded company. Experience in selling high level services as well as manufactured products through multiple distribution channels. Exceptional experience working in high growth areas, including leading sales and marketing efforts that grew a company from $6 million in quarterly revenue to over $45 million in quarterly revenues in less than 2 years with a margin growth over the same period from 45% to 60%.
Sheldon Kraft, SNN, Inc.
Sheldon (Shelly) Kraft, founder and CEO of SNN Inc, publisher of Micro-Cap Review has more than 30 years experience in virtually all areas of Micro-Cap financing. He was an investment banker on Wall Street and President of Emmanuel & Co. specializing in funding micro-cap companies. He is an author, speaker, expert and founded SNN in 1998 which is a global, multimedia, financial news and publishing company. He serves as a member of the International Stock Exchange Executives Emeriti, Inc.
Brett Goetschius, MarketNexus Media
Brett Goetschius is the founder of MarketNexus Media, Editor & Publisher of Growth Capital Investor, the journal of emerging growth company finance, and the co-host of the Growth Capital Expo 2014. He is a journalist and publisher of financial news and analysis with more than 25 years of experience covering the public emerging growth, venture capital and commercial real estate investment markets. As a writer and editor he is the recipient of awards for investigative reporting and editorial writing from the New Jersey Press Association and the Specialized Information Publishers Association. Prior to founding MarketNexus, Brett was the Editor & Publisher at DealFlow Media from 2003 to 2012, where he was the founding editor of The PIPEs Report, The Reverse Merger Report, The SPAC Report, The Life Settlements Report, and most recently, The DealFlow Report. Before that he led the editorial news and research unit at VentureOne, a Dow Jones company focused on venture capital market research based in San Francisco, and was a reporter and editor at Crittenden Research, a commercial real estate finance newsletter publisher in Marin County, Calif.
Rob Schechter, C.I. Eckstein & Company
Robert A. Schechter is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of C.I. Eckstein & Company, LLC, a financial services holding company that provides services through its three subsidiaries: Edgar Agents, LLC, which provides EDGAR filing services for public companies; Collateral Agents, LLC, which acts as the collateral and escrow agent for sub-$100,000,000 secured debt transactions; and Conversion Agents, LLC, which acts as a conversion facilitator for convertible debenture transactions. Mr. Schechter is also the managing partner of the law firm Schechter & Hillo, PC and the Co-chairman of the National Law Institute. Prior to founding C.I. Eckstein, Mr. Schechter was a Partner and General Counsel of The Atlas Group of Companies, LLC and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Atlas Capital Services, LLC, a FINRA Member Firm focused on M&A, PIPEs and Reverse Mergers and Atlas Private Equity, LLC, the firm’s In-House Private Equity Group. From January 1998 to June 2000, Mr. Schechter was an associate at Yerushalmi & Associates, LLP, a New York law firm, with affiliate offices in Israel and Holland where he represented multinational corporations. Mr. Schechter received his JD in 1997 from Hofstra University School of Law. Mr. Schechter graduated summa cum laude in 1994 from Brooklyn College and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Sunny Barkats, JS Barkats
Sunny J. Barkats, Esq., is the Founding Partner of JSBarkats PLLC, leading a team of experienced attorneys responsible for building and growing the Securities and Capital Markets practice group headquartered in New York City. Mr. Barkat’s principal experience has been in private placements, mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, SEC compliance, public offerings, general 1993 & 1934 Act matters and strategic business relationships. He represents issuers, underwriters, placement agents as well as lenders and financial participants in IPOs and APOs, private equity, private placements and PIPE transactions.
Sam Jacobs, Axial
Sam Jacobs is the Head of Sales and Member Success at Axial, overseeing Axial’s global membership organization. Axial is an online-based platform that helps companies and their M&A advisors intelligently connect and transact with potential investors, lenders or acquirers. Sam is focused on helping Axial’s network of 17,000 enhance their business development strategies, connect on live and future transactions, and drive more revenues to their business.
Prior to Axial, Sam spent 7 years at Gerson Lehrman Group, the world’s largest expert network and the dominant global marketplace for on-demand business expertise. Sam graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and a second degree in Economics.
David Cohen, National Securities
Mr. Cohen is a Senior Vice President of Investment Banking at National Securities. Prior to joining the Investment Banking team, Mr. Cohen was the founding principal in a private equity firm, which was started in 2009 and based in North Palm Beach, Florida, where he focused on small and middle market growth companies. Previously, from 2005-2009, Mr. Cohen was the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of a publicly traded company. His 17 years of expertise in the securities markets includes all facets of public company management, corporate finance, and corporate consulting for publicly-traded companies. As an advisor for various investment banking firms and brokerages, Mr. Cohen has and continues to specialize in the small and middle market sectors, arranging financings in the public and private equity markets for emerging companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Cohen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pace University in New York City.
Steven Siesser, Lowenstein Sandler
Steven E. Siesser is Chair of the Specialty Finance Group at Lowenstein Sandler, and Co-Head of the New York City office. Steven actively represents. institutional and entrepreneurial investors, target companies, and intermediaries, such as investment banks, in all manner of complex transactions.
Drew Bernstein, Marcum
In 1983, Mr. Bernstein cofounded Bernstein & Pinchuk LLP, now the managing member of Marcum Bernstein & Pinchuk (MarcumBP), a PCAOB-registered accounting firm headquartered in New York. Marcum is ranked within the top 15 firms by Inside Public Accounting and Accounting Today and the combined firm is one of the largest middle market accounting firms servicing China-based, US publicly traded companies. Mr. Bernstein’s early recognition of the global marketplace and his extensive work in the People’s Republic of China resulted in the rapid expansion of his firm’s services to that nation, where he has established local offices in Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shanghai, with coordinated services throughout the world. These offices are staffed with over 75 highly experienced SEC personnel dedicated to providing our clients services including audits and assurance, due diligence and transaction advisory. MarcumBP currently represents over 50 Chinese companies and many of the first and second tier investment banks. In addition, Mr. Bernstein’s diverse experience in retail, manufacturing, hospitality, pharmaceutical, professional practices, and real estate have contributed to the growth of the firm’s client base abroad. Mr. Bernstein serves as an accountant and business advisor worldwide, providing specialized auditing and accounting services to public and non-public companies throughout the United States, China, Europe, and Africa.
Dr. Frank Grossman, Chief Executive Officer, Orphanbiotec Foundation
Dr. Grossman studied veterinary medicine in Hanover, Germany, where he worked and conducted research as an assistant in a PhD program at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich and was awarded a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. After partnering in a young start-up practice, he also enhanced his knowledge and personal development about natural substances in management of the pharmaceutical industry and worked alongside regulatory affairs, business development, project management, science and new drug development. He is also the founder of a successful consulting company in pharmaceutical science and strategies, and has been teaching pharmaceutical science as an independent lecturer at the ETH in Zurich for more than nine years. His professional interests and experience range from dermatology, infectious disease, nutrition and orphan drugs, to sustainable business and generating social impact.
Five years ago Dr. Grossman interest in venture philanthropy led him to launch an initiative in public health and sustainable venture partners, by establishing the non-profit research foundation Orphanbiotec. The foundation is supported by the Swiss CTI (Center of Innovation and Technology) Program, members of the Swiss Parliament, the Swiss Biotech Association, Venturelab, Swissnex and the Swiss General Consulate in California. In January 2011 Orphanbiotec was awarded 1st Place at the SEIF, Swiss Social Entrepreneurship Startup Awards for its innovative, sustainable and social business model. The North American center of Orphanbiotec will soon be based in San Francisco, targeting support and research for rare diseases through strategic sponsorship and the generosity of donors.
Michael Rivera, Venable
Michael J. Rivera chairs Venable’s Securities Enforcement and Compliance Practice. Mr. Rivera defends businesses and individuals involved in government investigations and enforcement proceedings and counsels clients in the areas of corporate and securities compliance and regulation. Mr. Rivera was a partner at a major international law firm for 17 years (1993-2010) where he represented companies and financial institutions (including public companies, broker-dealers, investment advisers, hedge funds, private equity firms and accounting firms) and individuals (including securities professionals, executives, officers, directors, lawyers and accountants) in connection with investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and numerous other government agencies. He also conducted internal investigations for clients and counseled them on corporate and securities law issues and compliance matters.
Joshua Feldman, Cantor Fitzgerald
Joshua Feldman is a Managing Director in the Equity Capital Markets group at Cantor Fitzgerald. He and his team are primarily focused on the Controlled Equity Offering® (“CEO”), Cantor’s proprietary “at-the-market” equity issuance program that has helped public companies access the capital markets both efficiently and cost-effectively for more than a decade. He has been involved in more than 175 at-the-market offerings and has been instrumental in bringing this attractive capital-raising method to corporate clients of all sizes in numerous sectors including Real Estate, Healthcare, Financial Services, Communications, Energy and Metals & Mining. He has also played a key role in bringing ATM offerings to companies based in Israel, Greece and Canada.
Mr. Feldman is a graduate of Columbia University.
Jeffrey Shapiro, Lowenstein Sandler
Jeffrey M. Shapiro is a Partner in the firm’s M&A and Securities Group where he practices in the areas of proxy contests, mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, corporate governance and corporate law. Jeffrey regularly represents activist stockholders and issuers in all aspects of proxy contests and consent solicitations. He also frequently advises clients on all aspects of private and public merger and acquisition transactions and leveraged buy-outs. In addition, Jeffrey counsels clients on shareholder disputes, oppression claims and business divorce matters as well as on corporate governance matters for private and public companies. He also advises clients on Hart-Scott-Rodino related antitrust issues. Jeffrey is co-author of the definitive book on New Jersey corporate law and practice, New Jersey Corporations and Other Business Entities.
Edward Kim, IssuWorks
Edward has over 20 years of capital markets, finance, product development, and operations experience in both established and entrepreneurial environments. Prior to helping form IssuWorks, he was Managing Director of Financial Communications at Stern And Company, a strategic communications and public relations firm. Previously, Edward was Senior Vice President at The NASDAQ Stock Market with responsibility for developing new products and services for NASDAQ’s Corporate Client Group. Prior to NASDAQ, he was Chief Administrative Officer of a publicly held software company. Edward has worked in investment banking, equity and equity-linked trading, salestrading, research and equity capital markets at firms including Lehman Brothers, Prudential Securities, and Robertson Stephens, in the financial centers of New York, San Francisco, London and Tokyo. Edward has a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds FINRA Series 7, Series 24, Series 63, Series 79 and Series 99 licenses.
John Hogoboom, Lowenstein Sandler
John D. Hogoboom is the vice chair of the Life Sciences practice at Lowenstein Sandler. His practice focuses on the middle market, structuring public and private investments in drug discovery companies for investment banking and investor clients, as well as negotiating cross-border M&A transactions for industrial companies. He has represented underwriters in numerous public offerings, divestitures of businesses, and lead investors in private offerings. He is listed in both the corporate law and securities law categories in The Best Lawyers in America since 2007 and a Martindale-Hubbell Top Technology Lawyer. He is widely quoted in various publications, an author of numerous articles, and a frequent speaker on topics regarding the SEC, JOBS Act and various Specialty Finance issues.
Tom Sporkin, BuckleySandler
Former SEC attorney Tom Sporkin brings unique experience and insights to the individuals and businesses he represents. Before joining BuckleySandler, he spent twenty years with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division, most recently as Chief of the Office of Market Intelligence. Mr. Sporkin has broad knowledge of all SEC areas and priorities and continues to monitor key developments at the SEC as well as the various bank regulators and other financial focused regulatory agencies including FINRA, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and FinCEN.
Richard Gormley, Lazard
Richard Gormley is a Managing Director at Lazard Freres & Co. LLC where he leads the Alternative Capital Finance Group. Mr. Gormley’s responsibilities include the origination and execution of Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPEs), Registered Direct Offerings (RDs) and Private Placements; Lazard enjoys a leading market share in PIPEs and RDs. He joined Lazard in 2006 from Cowen and Company where he was a Managing Director, Co-Head of the Private Equity Group. While at Cowen, Mr. Gormley started and built the firms PIPEs and RDs investment banking franchise focused on growth companies, having completed more than 100 equity and equity-linked transactions during his six year tenure at the firm. During his twenty-five year investment banking career, Mr. Gormley structured, marketed and closed private placement transactions approximating $8 billion for public and private companies across a variety of sectors; securities include registered and unregistered common stock, warrants and options, reverse merger public offerings, convertible debt and preferred stock, senior and subordinated debt and a variety of 144A securities.
Howard Leonhardt, California StockXchange
Howard Leonhardt is an inventor and serial entrepreneur. He has 21 U.S. patents for products for treating cardiovascular disease. His TALENT stent graft developed in the early 1990′s holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery. His inventions have treated over 200,000 patients in 60 countries. In early 1999 Leonhardt founded Bioheart, Inc., a leader in applying adult muscle stem cells to treat heart failure. Leonhardt holds a Diploma in International Trade from Anoka Technical College. He attended the University of Minnesota and Anoka Ramsey College. He holds an honorary Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Northern California and is an honorary alumnus of the University of Florida and Florida International University. He is co-leader of Startup California and Founder and Chairman of The California Stock Xchange (Cal-X) the first conscious capitalism stock exchange and DPO listing service
John Borer, The Benchmark Companies
Until 2012, he was Senior Managing Director, Head of Investment Banking and a member of the Board of Rodman & Renshaw, which he joined in 1991. From 1984 to 1991, Mr. Borer was Senior VP and Investment Manager in the new business development office of Security Pacific Business Credit. From 1979 to 1984, he served as a VP and business development officer with Barclays American Business Credit in its LA office. Mr. Borer serves on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. Mr. Borer received his B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis in 1978 and his J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1984.
Cromwell Coulson, OTC Markets
In 1997, Cromwell led a group of investors to acquire OTC Markets Group’s predecessor business, the National Quotation Bureau (NQB), transforming an opaque and inefficient phone-based market into technology-driven, Open, Transparent and Connected financial marketplaces. Today, OTC Markets Group (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX®, OTCQB® and OTC Pink® marketplaces for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. OTC Link® ATS, OTC Markets Group’s SEC registered Alternative Trading System, directly links a diverse network of leading U.S. broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services for these securities. OTC Markets Group has vastly increased the amount and quality of information available for investors and improved the efficiency of trading.
Alixe Cormick, Venture Law Corporation
Alixe Cormick is the founder of Venture Law Corporation. She concentrates her legal practice in the areas of initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, reverse takeovers, capital pool corporations, qualifying transactions, mergers & acquisitions, secondary listings and exempt market financings. Alixe has assisted over 160 companies listing on stock exchanges and trading boards in North America. She has also assisted in the sale of over 100 private issuers in the tech and biotech space, registered four broker dealers in Canada and acted as outside legal counsel to three Canadian mutual funds. She is on the advisory board of the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada.
Steven Maletzky, William Blair
Steve Maletzky joined the Corporate Finance Department at William Blair & Company in 2010. Mr. Maletzky has over 12 years of experience structuring equity and equity-linked IPOs, Follow-ons, Confidential Follow-ons, PIPEs, and late stage private placements across various growth sectors. In total, he has raised over US$4.0 billion through over 150 transactions. Over 90% of these transactions have been for small and micro cap high growth companies and he maintains an active dialogue with institutional investors that focus on high growth stocks. Prior to joining William Blair & Company, Steve worked in the Equity Capital Markets Group at Needham & Company and spent 7 years in the Equity Capital Markets Group at Cowen and Company. Steve holds a BSM in Finance from Tulane University.
Bill Hicks, Mintz Levin
Bill has extensive experience representing issuers, investors and investment banks in structuring and executing IPOs, cross-over investments, alternative public offerings, including reverse mergers and Form 10 transactions, Confidentially Marketed Public Offerings (CMPOs), registered directs, PIPEs and private placements. Bill represents hedge funds, venture capital firms and private equity firms in customized investments in public companies, including structured PIPEs and registered directs. Bill also represents public companies in public and private financings, SEC compliance, corporate governance, and general counseling.
Justin Keener, JMJ Financial
Justin Keener is the Principal and Portfolio Manager of JMJ Financial, a privately-held investment firm that invests in small cap publicly traded companies. Mr. Keener is an honors graduate of North Carolina State University, and is a lifetime entrepreneur with over 12 years investment banking experience in portfolio management, financing, mergers and acquisitions, and publicly traded companies.
Mark Wood, Katten Muchin Rosenman
Mark D. Wood is head of Katten’s Securities practice and concentrates in corporate and securities law. Mark represents public companies, issuers and investment banks in initial public offerings (IPOs) and other public offerings, private investment in public equity (PIPE) transactions, debt securities and other securities matters. Mark also represents clients in complex corporate transactions, including tender offers, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, going private transaction, private equity investments, joint ventures and strategic alliances. He is a leading practitioner in representing investors, public companies and placement agencies in PIPE transactions. In addition, he also counsels public companies on securities law compliance, disclosures, corporate governance and compensation-related issues. Many of his clients are middle market and upper middle market companies in the technology, oil and gas, manufacturing, health care and commercial banking industries.
Michael Maline, Goodwin Procter
Michael Maline is a partner in Goodwin Procter’s Technology Companies & Life Sciences Group. He practices corporate and securities law with a particular emphasis on representing clients in public and private capital markets transactions such as IPOs, follow-on offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities. His clients include global investment banks, issuers, venture capital and later stage investors and his experience extends to a variety of industries ranging from life sciences, technology and other growth sectors to media and retail/consumer goods.
Jim Alfaro, Maxim Group
Jim Alfaro is a Managing Director in the Health Care Investment Banking Group focusing on Biotechnology and Life Sciences at Maxim Group LLC. He joined Maxim Group from Wedbush Morgan, where he was a senior investment banker and headed up the firm’s health care practice. Mr. Alfaro began his career at JPMorgan in the firm’s mergers & acquisitions and equity capital markets groups. Mr. Alfaro has a executed a range of transactions including IPOs, follow-on offerings, PIPEs and mergers primarily in the healthcare and life science sectors.Mr. Alfaro holds a B.B.A in from the University of Texas at Austin and a MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.
Charlie Mather, Janney Capital Markets
Mr. Mather oversees Janney’s banking activities in the private, primary equity and equity-linked markets. Prior to joining Janney in 2009, Mr. Mather served as Managing Director and Head of the Structured Equity Group at Jefferies where he was responsible for the origination and execution of private placements for private companies, registered direct and PIPE offerings for public companies and special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”). Prior to joining Jefferies, Mr. Mather was with Cowen and Company for ten years where he led the Private Equity Group. Prior to Cowen, Mr. Mather held senior investment and investment banking positions at Smith Barney Inc. and Prudential Investment Corporation. Mr. Mather has completed financing and advisory assignments for more than 100 companies.
Tracey Zaccone, Paul Weiss
A partner in the Corporate Department and a member of the Capital Markets and Securities Group, Tracey primarily focuses her practice on a wide range of capital markets transactions representing issuers, underwriters and investors in connection with public and private offerings and investments. Tracey has broad experience in representing issuers and major investment banks in connection with a wide range of registered public offerings, including initial public offerings and debt and equity offerings, as well as in connection with private placement transactions, including convertible offerings, PIPE transactions, registered direct offerings and early stage investments.
Todd Wyche, Brinson Patrick Securities
Todd Wyche is head of the Brinson Patrick division of Meyers Associates and founder/CEO of Brinson Patrick Securities Corporation, which has focused exclusively on helping CFOs of life sciences, real estate and energy companies to raise capital in controlled and cost-effective ways since 1996. Considered a pioneer in the use of ATMs, Wyche has seen the frequency and dollar amount of this alternative financing vehicle increase to $7.6 billion raised through ATMs in 2011 from almost none when he founded the firm. Prior to founding Brinson Patrick Securities Corporation, Wyche was the founding principal of a predecessor firm, Brinson Patrick Capital Management, where he structured and executed over $9 billion of equity transactions. Wyche often speaks at conferences and on panels to discuss the financing challenges that companies face today and the alternative financing vehicles that may overcome these challenges.
Tim Sullivan, Microventures
As Chief Executive Officer of MicroVentures, Tim Sullivan is accountable for the strategic direction and functional execution of business objectives. Formerly, as President of Sharespost Financial Corporation, Tim built the team and trading infrastructure which was responsible for their preeminent position in today’s secondary market. Tim transacted with over 30 private issuers, including Facebook, Tesla, Twitter, LinkedIn, Etsy, Zynga, and Kayak. His transactions totaled over $1B, resulting in over $30mm in revenue. As an investor, Tim invests actively as both an angel and late stage investor, with a portfolio of over 40 private companies.
Harvey Kesner, Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference
Harvey Kesner has concentrated his practice on corporate finance and the structuring of complex domestic and international capital markets transactions. He has represented issuers, investors, underwriters, agents, lenders and financial intermediaries in public and private offerings of securities. He provides assistance to participants in all types of financing transactions including initial public offerings (IPOs), startup and venture capital financings and private placements including public company PIPE transactions. He also counsels clients on traditional merger and acquisition transactions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings, workouts and business disputes. He assists issuers with a broad range of securities regulatory and compliance issues including SEC filings, exchange listings, ongoing regulatory reporting and compliance, and responding to regulatory inquiries and investigations.
David Feldman, Richardson Patel
David N. Feldman is a Partner of Richardson & Patel in its New York City office. His practice focuses on corporate and securities matters and general representation of public and private companies, investment banks, private equity firms and high net worth individuals. He also actively advises on mergers and acquisitions and private equity, debt, venture capital and other financings. David’s latest book, The Entrepreneur’s Growth Startup Handbook: 7 Secrets to Venture Funding and Growth Success (Bloomberg Press), was published in May 2013. David is also considered one of the country’s leading experts on alternatives to traditional initial public offerings, including reverse mergers, in which a private company becomes publicly traded through a merger with a publicly held “shell” company. His book on the subject, Reverse Mergers and Other Alternatives to a Traditional IPO, Second Edition (Bloomberg Press) published in 2006 and the second edition was released in December 2009.
Jolie Kahn, Fellheimer & Eichen
Jolie Kahn practices in the areas of securities, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, reverse mergers and general corporate, banking and real estate matters. She regularly represents both public and private companies, and hedge funds and other institutional investors in their role as investors in public companies. As outside counsel handling compliance issues for public companies, Jolie prepares and files the full gamut of Securities Act and Securities Exchange Act filings. She also works with companies and hedge funds in complex transactions involving the structuring and negotiation of multi-million dollar debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions.
Gary Emmanuel, Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference
Gary joined the Corporate and Securities Group of Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP in 2011. He focuses his practice on representing both private and public companies that are navigating the process of capital raising including private placements, PIPEs, bridge financings, registered direct offerings and underwritten deals. In addition, Gary represents companies in a wide variety of corporate transactions including reverse mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures and has represented the first successfully crowdfunded project under Regulation A. His work includes drafting private placement memorandums, registration statements, and general corporate contracts as well as helping clients meet their reporting obligations through the drafting of proxy statements, 10-Ks, 10-Qs and 8-Ks and responding to comments from regulatory agencies such as the SEC and FINRA.
Joe Wallin, Davis Wright & Tremaine
Joe Wallin focuses his practice on emerging, high growth, and startup companies. Joe frequently represents companies in angel and venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other significant business transactions. Joe also represents investors in and acquirors of businesses, and provides general counsel services for companies from startup to post-public. Joe is the founder and editor of StartupLawBlog.com.
Richard Rodman, Crowdentials
Rich Rodman is the co-founder and CEO of Crowdentials, a provider of regulatory compliance tools for equity crowdfunding and private placement platforms. The company offers a best-in-class investor accreditation software and is developing Title III unaccredited investor compliance services. As an entrepreneur, Rich has a true passion for crowdfunding and founded the company with the intention of helping entrepreneurs and businesses navigate a complex regulatory environment.
Mark Elenowitz, BANQ
Mr. Elenowitz is a co-founder and managing director of TriPoint. Mr. Elenowitz is responsible for the overall corporate development of the firm and assisting our clients with high-level financial services and general business development. In this role he provides high level advice regarding corporate finance, corporate structure, SOX 404 compliance, employee option programs and capital market navigation including providing advice as a member of the board of directors.
Adam Hooper, REALCrowd
Adam is the co-founder and CEO of RealCrowd, a YCombinator and venture-backed business that has built a better way to invest in real estate. By leveraging the collective experience of the founders in both real estate and technology, RealCrowd is an online real estate investing platform where accredited investors can co-invest in specific, institutional quality real estate with best in class professionals.
George Kostolampros, McKenna Long & Aldridge
George Kostolampros represents a wide array of clients, including public companies and their officers, directors, and employees and financial industry professionals in investigations and litigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, Financial Industry Regulation Authority, and other federal and state law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Mr. Kostolampros also advises clients with respect to corporate governance, internal controls and compliance programs. His compliance-related work has involved counseling clients on various aspects of the securities laws and drafting policies and procedures, including codes of conduct, insider trading, anti-corruption and FCPA, and other policies. Mr. Kostolampros has also counseled broker-dealers and investment advisers as to regulatory and compliance-related issues. Mr. Kostolampros also conducts internal investigations for clients.
Kristen Baracy, Synergy Law Group
Kristen is a Partner of Synergy Law Group and focuses her practice in the areas of Corporate Law, Securities & Finance Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Technology & Licensing. She regularly works with clients on complex and routine business law issues. Her experience includes representing both privately-held and public companies, where she has worked on public and private offerings of securities and compliance with rules and regulations enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. Kristen also provides legal counsel in the area of alternative public offerings, with an emphasis on reverse mergers, in which a private company becomes a publicly traded company through a merger or acquisition of a public company. She has assisted in alternative public offerings for companies that are found in the green technology sector.
Sam Guzik, Richardson Patel
Samuel S. Guzik, Of Counsel with Richardson & Patel, is an attorney with more than 35 years in private practice. His practice is concentrated in the areas of business, corporate and securities law. He has extensive experience representing public and private companies and individuals in a broad range of business and finance matters, including domestic and international public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities, acquisitions, general SEC representation, and creditor workouts. He has also served as a director of publicly traded and privately held companies, where he has provided both legal and business counsel in such areas as finance, business development, and corporate governance. He is a prolific writer, thought leader and speaker on emerging JOBS Act issues, including Title II (Regulation D) and Title IV (Regulation A+). His articles have been featured in a number of national publications, including Bloomberg Businessweek, Equities.com, Compliance Weekly and The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation (“Regulation A+ Offerings – A New Era at the SEC”). Sam is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (B.S. 1974) and Stanford University Law School (J.D. 1978)
