Minority & Women-Owned Broker Dealers: Building a Platform for Success

(Moderator)

Mr. Mitchell joined Bloomberg in 2009 as an Equity Market Specialist. He focuses on quantitative equity strategies, and equity derivatives. In this capacity he interacts with buy-side and sell-side portfolio managers, analysts and traders to support all related analytical, market surveillance, and transaction-related functionality available via the Bloomberg Professional Service.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Mr. Mitchell worked as a Managing Director in the Structured Equity Products group at Bear Stearns & Co. His team was responsible for idea generation, structuring, and distribution of structured investments and derivatives including ETNs, and systematic strategies. Previous to joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Mitchell worked for Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch in equity derivatives sales and structuring.

Mr. Mitchell has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MBA in Finance and Statistics from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Cynthia is the Founder and CEO of Tigress Financial Partners. She guides the overall strategy and direction of the firm parlaying her extensive corporate and securities experience into a new generation of financial services firm. Before founding Tigress Financial Partners LLC, Ms. DiBartolo held senior management positions at Citigroup / Smith Barney including Director of Corporate Compliance, Director of Risk Management and Sales Manager of Smith Barney’s New York office for Private Client Services.

After battling head and neck cancer in 2009, she founded Tigress Financial Partners, a woman owned and operated financial services firm sensitive to people with disabilities. Tigress is a fully licensed investment bank, broker dealer and RIA dedicated to the principles of diversity and inclusion, offering Research, Banking, Sales & Trading, Asset Management and Global Wealth Management services.

Cynthia was profiled by Forbes CEO Series entitled “A Tigress in a Shark Tank”.  Forbes described Cynthia as “one tenacious Tigress…her father’s words inspired her to pick herself up from tragedy and start a business. Both the woman and her story are unique, amazing and forcibly inspiring.  She earned a Juris Doctorate from Villanova University, School of Law and holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 66, 99 and New York State Life & Health Insurance and Real Estate license.

Martinko serves as Co-President and is responsible for overseeing new business initiatives and opportunities. He previously served as a Managing Director responsible for the leadership and development of Drexel Hamilton’s Capital Markets Group. Martinko joined Drexel Hamilton from Credit Suisse where he was a Vice President on their Equity Trading floor.

Martinko served as an Infantry Officer, Special Operations Airborne Ranger, in the United States Army achieving the rank of Captain. His professional military experience includes serving in 82 Airborne Division and the Special Operations Force 75th Ranger Regiment. He deployed seven times to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Martinko took part in the initial strikes into Iraq.

He is a recipient of three Bronze Stars, one with the “V” (Valor) device denoting his acts of heroism while involved in close quarter battle in Afghanistan. Martinko has also conducted multinational operations and was awarded the Canadian and Israeli Defense Forces Paratrooper Jump Wings.

Martinko serves on the Army Ranger Lead the Way Fund board.

Martinko is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY and holds an MBA from Saint Martin’s University, Olympia, WA. He holds FINRA Licenses: 3, 7, 24, 55, 63, & 79.

Jason is Founder & CEO of Lenox Park, a FinTech company that provides
cloud-based software platforms and data aggregation tools for the Asset
Management industry. The firm’s mission is to remove barriers and
inefficiencies realting to capital access; and in so doing, preserve as much
capital belonging to pensioners, university endowments and philanthropic
organizations.

Before founding Lenox Park, Jason worked in Merrill Lynch’s Structured Credit
Derivatives group in New York. In that role, Jason was instrumental in
performing due diligence on Asset Managers for a highly selective Investor
base. He began his career at Merrill Lynch in the firm’s Investment Banking
division, working on M&A transactions for Financial Institutions. Jason, then
helped launch a start-up group in Merrill Lynch’s London office, focused on
deepening the firm’s most lucrative institutional client relationships across
Europe, Middle-East & Africa.

Jason graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in
Economics. At the University of Texas, he was a proud member of the Texas
Cowboys. Jason remains active at his alma mater, where he serves on Boards
for the Department of Economics and the Department of Black Studies. He
was honored to deliver the College of Liberal Arts commencement address
for 2017 University of Texas graduates, where he spoke about the importance
of diversity and inclusion.

Jason is an active member of the United Nations Private Sector Forum, the
the World Policy Institute, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
and an active volunteer in his community in New York.

In 2008, Jason founded Nyawa Funding Group, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit
organization with a mission to improve living standards in Sierra Leone.

John Sullivan is the Vice President within the Borrowing and Liquidity team of Treasurers. In that role, John is responsible for supporting the liquidity management activities for the Enterprise, quarterly debt funding plans, and various capital markets projects.

John has held a variety of positions since joining Prudential in 2004.  John began his Prudential career within Asset Management finance, specifically within PIM Center where he supported expense reporting and analysis, capital management and planning and analysis.  In 2011, John transferred into the Corporate Development (M&A) group for a 12 month rotation during which he gained experience analyzing potential M&A transactions, performing strategic reviews of competitors, and was a member of the deal team responsible for the sale of Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services (PRERS).   In 2012, John assumed a position within the Domestic Insurance Capital Management team where he was responsible for supporting the capital management activities of Individual Life, the Closed Block and Group Insurance.  John assumed his current role within Borrowing & Liquidity in 2016.

John graduated with a BBA in Finance from Loyola University of Maryland and earned his MBA from Fordham University.

David R. Jones is the Co‐Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of CastleOak Securities, L.P. CastleOak Securities is a leading boutique investment bank with a broad offering of financial services including equity sales and trading, fixed income sales and trading, and financial advisory services.

Since founding CastleOak Securities in 2006, Mr. Jones has overseen the substantial growth of both the firm’s business activities and personnel. Mr. Jones has led the firm as it increased its underwriting, distribution, and trading in a full range of securities while expanding its footprint into municipal finance and money market portals. Under Mr. Jones’ leadership, CastleOak has become one of the top underwriters of debt and equity securities in the U.S.

Mr. Jones has over 20 years of Wall Street experience, and prior to founding CastleOak was Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Blaylock & Company, Inc. where he worked closely with many of the firm’s Fortune 500 clients. Mr. Jones joined Blaylock from Merrill Lynch where he worked in the firm’s investment banking and equity capital markets areas. Mr. Jones has significant experience in evaluating equity and debt market trends within industry sectors, valuing and positioning public companies, and marketing and syndicating public security offerings to institutional clients.

Mr. Jones holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School and a B.S. from Boston University. He holds Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of Boston University, the Presidential Advisory Council of Hampton University, the Board of the New Jersey All Stars Project, the Board of the New Jersey Chapter Young Presidents’ Organization, and the Board of the Council of Urban Professionals. Mr. Jones was named as one of the 75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street in 2011 by Black Enterprise Magazine.