Archives: Ambassadors

Jim is the director of the wealth advisory practice for Toroso Advisors, a division of Toroso Investments, LLC. Toroso is an ETF research and investment management company, developing and launching ETFs in addition to managing client wealth, both corporate retirement plans and families.

 

He is focused on advising corporations and people on all financial planning matters and has spoken to industry groups on the need for transparency in Retirement Plans.

 

Before joining Toroso, he was with Rothschild as Vice President, Senior Institutional Consultant and Corporate Retirement Consultant. Previously, he was at Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley covering large institutional portfolios.

 

Jim has an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, is a graduate of the Certified Investment Management Analyst program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) program at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Certified Retirement Planning Specialist.

 

Jim is also a past member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Board of Trade, Home Federal Bank, Highland Park Hospital, Blythedale Children’s Hospital, the Executive Board of The Forward Association, and a current chairperson of FINRA Dispute Resolution.

William Jannace has worked nearly 30 years in the securities industry at the American and New York Stock Exchanges and FINRA. As a senior counsel at Ross PLLC, he advises clients across a range of applications and compliance needs. Currently he is also focused on blockchain industry related broker-dealer and ATS advice, FinHub referrals, and related matters.

 

He is also an adjunct professor/lecturer at Fordham School of Law, Wharton Business School, Georgetown Global Education Institute, the Global Financial Markets Institute, Baruch University, The TABB Group, and the Financial Markets World, where he teaches courses covering:

 

• Capital Markets/IPOs/Exempt Offerings/ADRs
• Securities/SRO/Mutual Fund/Investment Adviser/Broker-Dealer Regulation
• Broker-Dealer Operations/Net Capital/Customer Protection/Prime Brokerage/Short Selling/Clearance and Settlement.
• Corporate Governance/Proxy/Activism/Corporate Social Responsibility/Environmental, Social, Governance/Impact Investing/Climate Change/, State Capitalism/Family Firms/ Sovereign Wealth Funds/Geopolitics/Geoeconomics.

 

He has also taught courses at The U.S. Army War College, New York Law School, Wharton Business School, Drexel University, New York University, Pace University, Securities Training Corporation, New York Institute of Finance, New York Society of Security Analysts, and the Securities Industry Institute/Wharton Business School on the above topics.

 

He was an account executive at Georgeson and D.F. King serving as liaison for corporations/institutional shareholders regarding corporate governance issues; assisted on proxy fights/tender offers for corporate raiders/listed companies; liaison with trading floor and arbitrageurs to provide market color to listed companies; monitored trading versus 13F filings to determine changes in shareholder ownership. He was also Series 7/63 licensed at Drexel Burnham/Paine Webber and was also a consultant for The World Bank.

 

International Experience

 

Mr. Jannace also conducted overseas training programs for the: Russian Securities Commission/Stock Exchange; The Capital Markets Authorities in : Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya; Saudi Arabian Capital Markets Authority; Securities and Exchange Board of India; Ukrainian Securities Commission/Stock Market; Romanian Securities Commission; Jordanian Securities Commission; Capital Markets Authority of Turkey; Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority; New York Institute of Finance- Beijing/China, the Taiwan Stock Exchange and for IOSCO in Spain.

 

Primary Practice Areas

 

In managing FINRA’s Sales Practice Policy department William Jannace and his staff responded to interpretive, policy and disposition requests, covering capital markets, research, books and records, supervision, outsourcing, bank sweeps, outside business activities/private securities transactions and conflicts of interest. Mr. Jannace also worked in the Enforcement Department where he investigated violations of federal securities laws/SRO rules, conducted OTRs, drafted reports of investigation/statement of charges/settlements and conducted contested/settlement proceeding.

 

As a regulator, Mr. Jannace interfaced with the SEC, NASD, state regulators/trade associations (SIFMA) in shepherding proposals for approval; and helped draft reports on research analyst conflicts; secondary trading of private companies; transparency enhancements to the securities lending marketplace; and on mutual regulatory recognition. He participated in the Compliance Advisory Group, OSRC, and IOSCO initiatives. He also worked with OFAC and the SEC to help firms identify potential money laundering issues and to restrict terrorist financing post 9/11.  He led a FINRA initiative to rewrite its membership rules. Rule proposals/guidance included:

 

• SRO Rule Harmonization/Business Continuity/Contingency Planning
• CEO Certification/Internal Controls/Supervision/
• Review/Supervision of Electronic Communications
• AML/Patriot Act/OFAC/SDNs
• IPO Allocations/Research Analyst Conflicts/Qualification Examination
• Portfolio Margin/Capital

 

He also worked at TD Securities and Smith Barney Shearson, providing legal advice on/reviewed or responsible for:

 

• Regulation D/S offerings/144A/144 resales/10b-18 share buybacks
• Offering Memorandums/Underwriting and Prime Brokerage Agreements
• Research reports and trading approvals for new issues/secondary offerings
• Ensured trade reporting/Control Room/employee/firm trading compliance

 

Dispute Resolution Experience and Training

 

William Jannace is a CIArb Fellow, a FINRA Non-Public arbitrator, a member of the New York International Arbitration Center, a judge for the FINRA Annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon, and arbitrator for the Willem C. Vis Moot Court at Fordham Law School. He also attended Mediation Training at the NYCBA and received a Certificate in International Commercial Arbitration from Columbia Law School/Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.  He is also a research affiliate with the Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital. Mr. Jannace received his JD from New York Law School in 1992, his LL.M. in Corporate, Banking, and Finance Law from Fordham Law School in 1996, is a member of the State Bars of New York and Connecticut; received a Certificate in Global Affairs at New York University and Environmental, Social and Governance investment training from the International Corporate Governance Network.

 

International Experience

 

Mr. Jannace also conducted overseas training programs for the: Russian Securities Commission/Stock Exchange; The Capital Markets Authorities in: Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya; Saudi Arabian Capital Markets Authority; Securities and Exchange Board of India; Ukrainian Securities Commission/Stock Market; Romanian Securities Commission; Jordanian Securities Commission; Capital Markets Authority of Turkey; Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority; New York Institute of Finance- Beijing/China, the Taiwan Stock Exchange and for IOSCO in Spain.

 

Publications, Speaking Engagements and/or Professional and Civic Associations

 

He has also volunteered for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the Asset Owners Disclosure Project, UNICEF and served as a judge for the SIFMA Foundation InvestWrite Competition. Mr. Jannace is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and the NGO Committee To Stop Trafficking in Persons. He is also active in raising funds and awareness for humanitarian assistance and an active supporter of education through the establishment of the Anthony E. Jannace scholarship at New York Law School and the Susan M. Jannace scholarship at Fordham University.

 

He has contributed to the following publications:

 

“Bretton Woods 4.0 Finding New Relevance in a New World Order,” By Dr. Paul Tiffany and William Jannace, Bretton Woods@75 Blog and Compendium, February 2019.

 

“Cautionary Notes for Supply Chain Managers and Others Involved in Global Sourcing & Partnerships (Human Trafficking & Modern Slavery Conditions Raise Reputational Risks),” Governance & Accountability Institute, January 2018).

 

“Sustainability Disclosures in the EU,” Insights, The Corporate and Securities Law Advisor, Volume 31, Number 8, August 2017.

 

“Sustainability Disclosures in the EU: Implementation of the 2014 EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive,” ABA, Spring 2017.

 

“Accounting for Trade: President Trump and the Geopolitical Balance Sheet,” NYU-Global Affairs   Perspectives on Global Issues, Spring 2017.

 

“NASD/NYSE Rule Harmonization: What Do the Changes Mean in Practice, “The Journal of Securities Compliance, Volume One, October 2007.

 

His speaking engagements include: Securities Regulation/Corporate Governance/Capital Markets, Impact Investing/ESG, and Broker-Dealer Operations/Market Structure/Clearance and Settlement for:

 

• Skytop ESG Investing Conference
• Skytop Impact Investing Conference
• Skytop Strategies-Compliance Conference
• UNICEF-Human Trafficking Podcast
• Skytop Strategies-Impact Investment Conference
• Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission
• China Construction Bank
• Iraq Stock Exchange
• Securities and Exchange Bureau of India
• Tokyo Stock Exchange
• Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance
• Kenyan Capital Markets Authority
• El Salvador Securities and Exchange Commission
• Ghana Stock Exchange
• Mexican Banking and Securities Commission
• Sarajevo Stock Exchange/Securities Commission
• Saudi Arabian Capital Markets Authority
• Central Bank of Kosovo
• Malaysian Securities Commission
• SEC Annual Institute for Securities Market
• US State Department Foreign Delegation
• Hong Kong Securities Commission
• Philippine Dealing System Holdings
• Treasury Department of Argentina
• Ontario Securities Commission
• Securities Operations Forum
• ALI-ABA Compliance and Enforcement Conference
• SIFMA lAD and Fixed-Income Conferences
• FINRA Spring Conference
• NYSE Regulatory Conferences
• SIFMA Equity Capital Markets and Research Management Conferences
• BD Week Annual Compliance Conference
• SIFMA Annual Legal and Compliance Conferences
• NASD Institute for Professional Development
• ABA Conference.

Bar Admissions: Member of the New York and Connecticut Bars

Stefan Pagacik’s career has spanned several industries and roles, most recently as co-founder of AI4Impact, an artificial intelligence platform focused on building next generation impact financial products. Previously, he built two impact themed cloud and mobile platforms (8 of 9 LLC and my4) for retail and institutional investors interested in aligning their values and criteria with their portfolios. His prior entrepreneurial experience involved starting a marine science accelerator in Southeastern Massachusetts (the Regional Technology Development Center of Cape Cod) that commercialized scientific developments in partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the Marine Biological Laboratory.

 

Transitioning from managing the investment committee of an angel fund (Bay Angels), he focused on building a model for an energy transition solution from fossil fuels to biofuels for the government of Chile. He also designed a social enterprise plan for the city of Detroit aligning entrepreneurs and city agencies to stimulate business opportunities for blighted areas of the city.

 

His technology background includes retail sales consulting for Apple Computers in the Northeast and building a channel strategy for an emerging leading-edge motion graphics software company (The Company of Science and Art) that was later acquired by Adobe. He opened the Boston office of IT consulting firm Eclipse Information Systems that was later acquired by Century Services of Washington, D.C.

 

Stefan has a B.A. in English from Harvard College and an MBA from Suffolk University.

Rohanna Wise is the founder and CEO of Wise Trading Technologies, and the creator of WiseRisk, a software platform that automates the implementation of currency hedging strategies. She has worked in buy-side trading and/or trading technology since 1996, starting with energy commodities before moving to fixed income (including currency), and focusing exclusively on currency from 2012.

 

In 2015, Rohanna launched Wise Trading Technologies to offer a low-cost solution for asset managers to systematically eliminate unwanted currency risk.

 

She is the author of Hedging Wisely: A Non-expert’s Guide to Expertly Hedging Currency Risk.

 

Rohanna holds a BA from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Thom Young, MBA, President, FARcapital, LLC – Mr. Young primarily responsible for strategic direction of FARcapital. Mr. Young’s emphasis is on sales and marketing to the largest US hedge fund management companies and their global institutional asset owner investor base.

 

Prior to joining the Company, he co-founded and managed Cambium Capital Management, a conservative Jones model US equity long/short hedge fund working for large institutional investors.  Before Cambium, Mr. Young worked as a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank in New York serving in several roles to include as a Global Relationship Manager and as Co- Head of Global Institutional equity sales.  In 1997 Mr. Young opened and managed Deutsche Bank’s institutional office in Atlanta, Georgia.  From 1983-1996 Mr. Young worked at The First Boston Corporation in New York and Atlanta. While in Atlanta, he covered the Southeast’s largest public pension plans, major endowments, and foundations.

 

Mr. Young has served on the Boards of the Mint Museums of Charlotte. Mr. Young is past treasurer of the Echo Foundation and past President of the Ne Ultra Society of Davidson College. Mr. Young earned his MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School ’83 and his undergraduate degree from Davidson College’ 78.

 

FARcapital provides design, implementation and administration of Fund Alignment Rights (FARs), an innovative incentive fee structure struck between global institutional Asset Owners and the US hedge fund Managers they employ.

 

Fund Alignment Rights (FARs) allow Asset Owners to secure multi year incentive fees, assuring the inherent outperformance over an annual incentive fee fund, without having to provide tax distributions to the US manager each year.

 

The US hedge fund Managers that offer a FAR share class will leave their annual incentive fee invested in the fund on a pre tax basis, rather than redeemed at year end and taxed as it is today. That invested fee is aligned with their investors’ capital, and compounds tax deferred until an agreed upon period, or longer if the Manager chooses. FARs accumulate greater wealth for the Manager than had the Manager paid taxes each year.

 

FARs are a transformative idea, the rare fee solution that provides a Win Win for both Asset Owner and US Manager.

Aaron Bernstein is the editor of Global Proxy Watch, a corporate governance newsletter for institutional investors.

 

He is also a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project at Harvard Law School. Bernstein left BusinessWeek magazine in 2006 after a 23-year career as an editor and senior writer covering workplace and social issues.

 

Aaron received a BA in Politics and Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and did graduate work in Political and Legal Theory for two years at Oxford University. He is the author of a book entitled “Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines,” and the co-author of “In the Company of Owners: The Truth About Stock Options.”

Aivars is a global entrepreneur and Founder of IT Capital. Aivars is best known for his skills in identifying new business opportunities and re-engineering existing businesses to make them profitable. His ability to identify patterns in business cycles as they occur across the globe led him to start blogging in 2006 about global economics and he accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis.  He is the author of three books on the future of global economics (available at aivarslode.blogspot.com). Aivars continues to identify best practices, people, processes and technology deployed elsewhere in the world and bring them to the USA.

 

In the early 2000s Aivars founded Avantce, a private equity firm, in order to invest in software companies. Aivars was instrumental in a number of investments including Robocom Systems International, Select, Radcliffe, ADT, Aviva Solutions and ROI. In addition to his own investments Aivars has been retained by private equity firms CVC Capital Partners, Golden Gate Capital, Bain Capital and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe to advise on their acquisition strategies in Software.

 

Aivars successfully participated in creating the strategies for companies like IBM’s EDI business, Inovis, Infor and Mincom. Further, Aivars created a consortium to acquire the major airline cargo space for optimization, this resulted in private equity firms Welsh Carson and General Atlantic investing in 3rd party logistics providers.

 

Prior to founding Avantcé, Aivars was Group President of Descartes Systems Group, a publicly traded supply chain solutions company, based in Canada.  As Group President, Aivars led the company’s global expansion efforts, achieving profitable growth as well as completing the successful acquisition and consolidation of two EDI businesses, TDNI and TranSettlements.

 

Prior to joining Descartes, Aivars was with Oracle heading up Applications Software for Australasia. He led the organization’s change from a direct aggressive customer relationship model to that of a consultative business partner.

Aivars first entered the technology industry in 1991, when he joined Dun & Bradstreet Software.  Prior to that he held various management positions, including COO, CFO and CIO roles in both public and private corporations.

 

Throughout his career Aivars has lived in Australia, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and has conducted business in most of the industrialized countries in the world.  Aivars holds a Bachelors of Business, Accounting from Swinburne University in Melbourne Australia.  Aivars is a past member of the Board of Directors at First Bank and Trust of Illinois.

Erik was a trader and portfolio manager from 1977 – 2001. Former head of equity trading at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.

 

He is now a private investor, founder of a nonprofit investor advocacy firm, and private investing coach.

 

“It gives me great satisfaction to teach everyday investors (investors who don’t have millions of dollars at their disposal) the same skills and strategies that I used with my high net worth clients as a private wealth manager. It may be a cliché, but giving something back to the community is more rewarding to me than helping very rich people get even richer”