Our Board of Directors
New York City Metro Area Board
Mark Baillie
Mark joined Stifel Nicolaus Weisel in connection with Stifel's acquisition of Thomas Weisel Partners LLC in July 2010. He focuses on the software subsector within the technology space. Mark joined Thomas Weisel Partners in 2004 and is based in New York. He has over 11 years of technology investment banking experience. Prior to joining TWP, Mark was an Associate at SoundView Technology Group focused on advising software clients on public and private financings and M&A. Prior to SoundView, Mark worked in Eastern Europe advising clients on raising capital and economic reform. Mark graduated cum laude from Princeton University with an AB degree in Politics with a concentration in Russian Studies and Political Theory. Having graduated from Morris County Community College in Dover, NJ, Kevin went on to complete the Nuclear Medicine Program at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL, and to earn an MBA in Health Services from the University of Dallas.
Kevin Cassidy
Kevin provides healthcare consulting services for Zia Physics, Inc. Before that he was a Major Accounts Manager at Varian Oncology Systems in Dallas, where he provided sales support and customer interface for manufacturer of linear accelerators and other radiotherapy equipment. He also was President and Owner of Alpha Imaging, Inc. where he directed physician/hospital joint venture syndication, demand analysis studies, equipment purchasing/leasing evaluation, management/marketing, planning and consulting for existing projects. Having graduated from Morris County Community College in Dover, NJ, Kevin went on to complete the Nuclear Medicine Program at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL, and to earn an MBA in Health Services from the University of Dallas.
Peter Chalif
Peter is a native New Yorker who works in the finance industry. He attributes music, music education, the arts, and his mother for his creative approach to problems. His dedication to the LKR mission is founded on the belief that children will need imagination and dedication to thrive in a changing world.
Nicole Crystal
Nicole is founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Memory Vault, LLC, a company specializing in custom-made photo books, photo management & organization, greeting cards and photography. She received a Bachelors of Science Degree from Boston University in Mass Communication and also holds a New Jersey Teaching Certificate in Elementary Education (K-8). In her free time, she enjoys traveling, music of all genres, playing guitar, photography, volunteering, reading and writing. She credits her mom, who introduced her to great music at an early age, for igniting her passion for music. Nicole has been an active member of her family foundation since 1995.
Jonathan Feigelson
Jon is currently a Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Governance, with TIAA-CREF, a national financial services group of companies and the leading provider of retirement saving products and services in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields. Jon is currently a board member of the Life Insurance Council of New York and the Foreign Policy Association. Jon received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and was a member of the Columbia Law Review. He received his Master's degree with the highest honors from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jon graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and was a nominee for Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships.
Mitch Grossbach
Mitch is a Senior Executive with 20 years of experience and success running product and services sales, partnerships and alliances, International operations, services delivery, and digital media and entertainment for privately and publicly-held companies. He currently works for Creative Arts Agency, and before that was the Chief Revenue Officer at Modelinia, a multi-platform media and entertainment brand that connects women to fashion and beauty through the secrets of the world's top Supermodels.
Elani Meyers
For the past six years as Operations Manager for the popular shoe/fashion brand, Steve Madden, St. Louis native Elani Myers has managed all corporate office, showroom, trade show, and various employee events. In addition to acing her responsibilities as Operation Manager, Elani is a key figure in determining the allocation of Steve Madden Ltd.’s varied array of philanthropic enterprises. Elani has also worked as manager for KBA Marketing/Draft Worldwide Marketing, the promotions arm of RJ Reynolds, which was firmly tied to St. Louis’s local music scene. Music has always been a passion of Elani’s; she’s played clarinet since childhood. And because of her many friendships within New York’s music community, she still gets the opportunity to play with her wide circle of friends. From painting, to puppetry, to palm reading, to sales at State Fairs, to organizing and writing grants for the largest national legal graffiti art event, “Paint Louis,” in 1999 and 2000, Elani Myers’ background is as colorful and spirited as her ever-evolving lifestyle.
Ed Moed
As co-founder and managing partner of Peppercom, Ed's responsibilities include overall agency oversight and leadership, strategic planning and account direction, product development and new business. His guidance and insight contributed to Peppercom being named a Finalist as PR Week's 2010 Midsize Agency of the Year. The same publication named us the 2009 Agency to Watch. In 2008, Peppercom was named by O'Dwyer's PR Report as the fastest growing New York firm. Ed's personal honors include being listed in B2B Magazine's "Who's Who" for 2006 and being named a finalist in Ernst & Young's prestigious "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Ed's creation of innovative service offerings and ongoing strategic counsel to Peppercom's clients has played a significant role in fostering Peppercom's rise as one of the leading international communications consultancies today. Peppercom was also named #233 on Inc. Magazine's distinguished "fastest growing companies" list. Known for his expertise in helping clients create strategic positioning and marketing platforms, Ed has guided large and small companies through a host of aggressive communications programs to both build and protect their brands.
Farid Naib
A seasoned entrepreneur, Farid established his first start-up venture, Spectrum Lighting, at the age of seventeen. Spectrum Lighting staged the lights for a variety of acts, including B.B. King, the B52s, SOS Bank, Greg Allman, The Police, and The Sex Pistols. After receiving an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School (1984), Farid embarked on a career starting technology companies in the financial section. In 1992, he founded FNX Limited to provide trading and risk management software to the world's largest financial institutions. While at FNX, Farid won numerous entrepreneurial awards, and FNX was a INC 500 company for three years. Farid sold FNX in in 2007 to a publically traded French firm. He currently runs DocDep, which provides web-based software as a service (SaaS) for managing corporate, financial, and legal documents with an initial focus on investment backed companies and VC / PE firms. Farid has acted as an angel investor, board member and advisor for a variety of companies in multiple sectors. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Wharton School. Farid has stayed active in the music community and sees live music on an average of once a week.
Jiro Okochi (Chair)
CEO and Co-founder Jiro Okochi started Reval in 1999 with a vision to bring an Internet technology solution to the underserved end-users of derivatives. Under his leadership, Reval delivered the first Software-as-a-Service solution for derivative risk management and hedge accounting to both corporate treasury departments and financial institutions. Since then, Jiro has led the company through two acquisitions and continues to broaden the support that Reval's single-version SaaS can provide the corporate treasurer or financial controller. Bringing over 25 years of experience to bear on OTC derivative reform, Jiro testified on behalf of corporate end-users before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee in 2009. In this capacity he is a member of the Global Markets Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance by Treasury & Risk magazine for a third time since 2003. Prior to starting Reval, Jiro lead derivative sales at major global banks such as WestLB, Deutsche Bank, DKB Financial Products (now part of Mizuho), and Security Pacific Bank (now part of Bank of America). He is a published writer on issues from treasury management to derivative accounting under both FASB and IASB and is a frequent speaker at domestic and international industry conferences for the Association of Financial Professionals, Association of Corporate Treasurers, International Association of Corporate Treasurers (China), Association of Corporate Treasurers (Singapore) and Acumen, among others, and at events with Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Jiro is a charter member of the New York Area Board of Directors for the national music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkley, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics.
Warren Rosen
Warren Rosen is the Chairman & CEO of Best Interest Partners, LLC and Harmony Insurance Brokerage, Inc., providing insurance, estate planning and employee benefits for over 5,000 individuals and 1,000 businesses nationally. His firm also specializes in Legacy and Charitable Planning Strategies. Warren has been recognized as a leader in his industry, receiving a number of industry honors and advisory board positions, and has been quoted on insurance-related issues by numerous periodicals including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Triggered by the tragic events of 9/11, and losing over 50 clients, Warren re-directed more of his attention to philanthropy and is now an Advisor and supporter to many charities across the globe. In 2007 Warren received the U.S. Doctors for Africa Global Citizen Award for Social Philanthropy. He lives in NYC with his wife and three daughters, all of which are uniquely involved in charitable causes.
Ken Umezaki
Ken Umezaki is the Chief Operating Officer of Section 101. Section 101 provides state-of-the-art web-based services that enables music artists, celebrities and other entertainers to intuitively create, deploy and manage their digital persona and media content, while providing integrated tools to organize and leverage the artist’s fans throughout the internet. Artists such as Duran Duran, Bush, Marc Cohn, Diane Birch, Corey Taylor, Junip and Carina Round all rely on Section 101's services for their web presence.
Prior to joining Section 101, Ken has helped to build successful businesses within financial services for almost 25 years. Ken's background is in derivatives trading and management, having been an early industry expert in both interest rate and credit derivatives. At Lehman Brothers, Ken was elevated to be the effective COO of the Fixed Income Division, the largest division of the firm, and helped oversee a tripling of the business over 6 years. His notable successes include the development of the gold standard in client facing Fixed Income websites, “Lehman Live,” which was consistently voted as the #1 website with an estimated 40% market share, the re-architecture of all the fixed income trading systems at the Firm, the management of a 1,000+ employee global analytics and IT team, and being responsible for over $100 billion in client assets as the head of the FixedIncome Asset Management group, now part of the Neuberger Berman Group.
Ken is also an enormous music fan as well as an accomplished bass player whose band, The Fifth, has played at several venues in the NYC area. As a group, they’ve participated in charity events that have raised over $250,000. His current musical project, Fifth of Bourbon, is focused on electric blues, and has recently finished recording its first release. He also sponsors numerous music related investments and activities through his company Digital Daruma, which recently put together an Interactive Music program and the inaugural "Funk Island," both as part of Make Music New York, a program of over 1,000 free outdoor concerts in NYC which occurs each year on June 21. Ken was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan and has a degree in Psychology from Princeton University.
Maureen Van Zandt
Eric Weinberg
Eric Weinberg is President of the Nielsen Entertainment Practice, a role he has held since March, 2009. Based in New York, Eric oversees the Product Portfolio which supports our clients in Music, Book, Film Distribution, Home Entertainment and Video Games. The market-leading products within the portfolio deliver comprehensive insights which help our clients track sales (SoundScan, BookScan, VideoScan, RingScan EDI), consumption (BDS, Music Control, Market Navigator) as well as bibliographic information (BookData and BookNet) Prior to this position, Eric was based in London where he oversaw Nielsen’s International Music businesses (Music Control) as well as Nielsen’s International Box Office tracking service (EDI International). He began his career at Nielsen in Business Development, overseeing acquisitions and strategic development. Eric joined Nielsen from Accenture’s Strategic Consulting Practice, where he was a Senior Manager in their Media and Entertainment Practice. He received an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan. Eric lives in New York City with his wife and two children, where he is a keen consumer of all forms of Entertainment.
