Advisory Board
James Bernazzani, Former Deputy Director for Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism Center, CIA
James Bernazzani is a distinguished veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who devoted his career to fighting organized crime and protecting against international terrorist threats. He retired from the FBI in 2008 after nearly 25 years of service and received the Presidential Award for Meritorious Service in 2006. During his career with the FBI, Mr. Bernazzani served as Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Division and Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Houston Division. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks against America, he was promoted to Deputy Director for Law Enforcement at the Counterterrorism Center, Central Intelligence Agency. In May 2003, he was again promoted to Principal Deputy Director of the newly formed Terrorist Threat Integration Center. At the time of his appointment as Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Division, Special Agent Bernazzani acted as Deputy Assistant Director for international terrorism investigations and operations handled by the FBI. Mr. Bernazzani is President and founder of the Youth Rescue Initiative, a non-profit, publicly- and privately-funded effort to help today’s youth realize their potential. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
Lori Hricik, Former Head and CEO, JPMorgan Chase Treasury Services
Lori spent more than 30 years at JPMorgan, where she held numerous executive positions in technology, operations, administration and finance. In the late 1990s, Lori became CEO and Head of JPMorgan Chase Treasury Services, driving the success of one of the world's largest cash management and payments businesses with multi-billion dollars in revenue. Throughout her career, Lori earned numerous prestigious awards including Global Finance's "2007 Best Internet Bank for Information Security Initiatives in North America" and was twice named by Treasury and Risk Management magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Finance." She retired in early 2008, having become a globally recognized leader and industry expert in the areas of cash management, payments and trade finance. Lori has an MBA from Columbia University and a BS from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Joseph Leone, Former Vice Chairman and CFO, CIT Group
Joseph is a nationally recognized expert in commercial lending to the small and midsize business (SMB) market. With more than 24 years of experience with CIT Group, one of the nation's largest SMB lenders, Joseph held several senior-level positions at CIT, including vice chairman and chief financial officer. As CFO, he headed the accounting, tax, treasury, investor relations, corporate development and insurance groups. Joseph also served as principal accounting officer, executive vice president of sales financing, and senior vice president and controller at CIT, and held executive positions with financial services companies Manufacturers Hanover Trust (MHT) and KPMG Peat Marwick. He is a graduate of Baruch College (BBA in Accounting) and the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School.
Russ Opper, Founder, Bayside Business Solutions Inc.
Russ has spent more than 30 years in the software/automation industry, directing the development of a wide range of complex software projects. In the mid 1990s, Russ founded Bayside Business Solutions, a leading asset-based lending back-office solution provider, and began development of FactorSoft, a portfolio management system designed for factors and asset-based lenders. He has since guided Bayside to great success in this specialized market niche, with the development of Bayside's CADENCE Platform, providing a unified lending system, designed to offer powerful, and flexible control across the spectrum of commercial lending and trade finance. By continually integrating a comprehensive and evolving understanding of the issues faced by commercial finance professionals, Bayside transforms ideas into highly functional and sophisticated business tools.
Dr. Geoffrey G. Parker, Professor of Economic Sciences, A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University
Geoffrey serves as Director of the Tulane Energy Institute. Geoffrey has made contributions to the theory of network economics as co-developer of the theory of "two-sided" networks. Recent research includes multiple studies of the economics of business platform strategy, a cross-industry investigation of outsourced engineering projects, and a study of the performance of electric power markets. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and multiple corporations. Geoffrey received a B.S.degree from Princeton University, and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Alvin E. Roth, George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Harvard University
Alvin is the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and in the Harvard Business School. His research, teaching, and consulting interests are in game theory, experimental economics, and market design. The best known of the markets he has designed or redesigned are the National Resident Matching Program, the market for Gastroenterology fellows, the high school matching system used in New York City and also in Boston Public Schools, and the New England Program for Kidney Exchange. Alvin is the chair of the American Economic Association's Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and has been a Guggenheim and Sloan fellow. He received his Ph.D at Stanford University and went to Harvard from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the Andrew Mellon Professor of Economics.
Tim Skillman, Principal at Grant Thornton, LLP
Tim has spent over 20 years advising and managing leading credit, insurance and financial service companies. Skillman draws on experience working with companies such as Ditech.com, BBK Capital and GMAC Business Credit, amongst others. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, a leading tax, accounting and business advisory firm, Tim spent nine years with two prominent turnaround advisory firms, BBK, Ltd., and more recently, Alvarez & Marsal, LLC. He was a founding member of BBK Capital, which formed a joint venture with GMAC to create GMAC Business Credit. In the consumer lending industry, he has advised clients including GMAC Mortgage, Nationwide Insurance, New Century Financial and Ambac Insurance Company. He has held several managerial positions in the mortgage banking industry including interim CEO of Ditech.com and COO of Mortgage Corporation of America.
Dan Springer, Chief Executive Officer, Responsys
Dan has been the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Responsys since April 2004. Previously, Dan was the Managing Director of Modem Media and responsible for general management of the agency's western United States operations. Prior to Modem Media he served as the CEO of Telleo, Inc., and Chief Marketing Officer of NextCard. Previous experience was with McKinsey & Company, DRI/McGraw-Hill and Pacific Bell. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Occidental College. Dan now serves or has served as a board member of public and private companies, including E-LOAN (Banco Popular), ITI, and eGroups (Yahoo!), as well as not-for-profit organizations Shop.org, AdTech, The Randall Museum and The San Francisco Friends School. He has also served as an Advisory Board member to many early-stage companies.
Robert A. Zadek, Partner, Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger
Robert is one of the premier attorneys and experts in the field of factoring. An attorney with the San Francisco office of Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger, he handles loan documentation, trade finance and letters of credit, loan workouts and bankruptcy. Robert is a past Chair of the Commercial Financial Services Committee of the Section on Business Law of the American Bar Association. He served on the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California and chaired its Uniform Commercial Code Committee.