Barry E. Silbert

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SecondMarket

As the Founder and CEO, Barry Silbert is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and operation of all its markets. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on the topic of trading illiquid assets and has appeared in many leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, USA Today, BusinessWeek and Forbes . Mr. Silbert has been featured on CNBC, CNN Money, Bloomberg News, Fox Business News, Business News Network and TheStreet.com.

In 2009, Barry was a category winner of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a winner of Crain’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was included on Treasury & Risk’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance. Barry was recently recognized by Fortune as “One to Watch” in the publication’s annual 40 Under 40 issue. In addition, SecondMarket was named the top start-up in the entire Northeast by AlwaysOn Media and was named one of the Top Fifty Tech Startups You Should Know by BusinessWeek.

Mr. Silbert is also the chairman of Pluris Valuation Advisors, LLC, a New York-based valuation firm specializing in illiquid assets.

• Prior Experience
  • Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin (restructuring group)
  • Bear Stearns
  • Smith Barney
  • Rydex Funds
• Education
  • Emory University, B.B.A. with honors
• Professional Licenses
  • Series 7
  • Series 24
  • Series 63

Charles Almond

Charles Almond is a life long entrepreneur with a successful track record developing and running complex financial technology ventures. Most recently, Mr. Almond was the CEO and Chairman of BondDesk Group LLC and BondExchange LLC, both of which he founded.

Mr. Almond has spoken at numerous industry conferences, been published in prestigious financial periodicals, and has received recognition as a leader in the financial technology sector, including twice being named to the Institutional Investors Online Top 40 List of the most influential individuals in Wall Street technology, and in 2004, as CEO of BondDesk, made the INC 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies List. In addition, BondDesk Group has made the Securities Technology Fast 5 and Top 50 Lists of technology solution providers to Wall Street, as well as The American Banker FinTech 100 List.

Mr. Almond has dual Bachelors degrees in Economics and Philosophy, and an MBA with a dual concentration in Strategic Management and Marketing from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management Program at the Claremont Graduate School.

Lawrence D. Lenihan, Jr.

CEO and Managing Director, FirstMark Capital (f/k/a Pequot Ventures)

Lawrence D. Lenihan Jr. is the Founder, CEO and Managing Director of FirstMark Capital. Prior to founding FirstMark, Mr. Lenihan founded Pequot Ventures in 1996. Mr. Lenihan is responsible for investments in the data & analytics and vertical applications & services sectors. He serves as a senior member of FirstMark Capital's Investment Committee and has been directly involved in the formation of each private equity and venture capital fund established by the firm since its inception.

Prior to FirstMark, Mr. Lenihan was a Principal at Broadview Associates, L.L.C. (now part of Jefferies & Co.) one of the leading mergers and acquisitions advisory firms focused on the information technology industry. Before joining Broadview, Mr. Lenihan held several operational positions at IBM, and led the development and launch of one of the first transactional multimedia systems for the retail industry.

Mr. Lenihan sits on the boards of Dovetail Insurance, Duck Creek Technologies, Duck Creek Technologies Europe, Ltd., EagleEye Analytics, Health Plan One, SecondMarket, Saba Software (NASDAQ: SABA), Superior Access Insurance Services and Swingtide. He serves as Chairman of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering Devil Fund. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at New York University.

Mr. Lenihan holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. from Duke University.

John A. McKenna, Jr

John McKenna has over 15 years of investment banking experience. Mr. McKenna has completed over 100 transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, and financial restructuring.

Between 1999 and 2006, Mr. McKenna was Managing Director and Co-Head of the Eastern Region Financial Restructuring Group at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. There, Mr. McKenna represented companies including, Airgate PCS (a Sprint affiliate), Danka Business Systems, Impsat Fiber Networks, NII Holdings (Nextel), Outboard Marine, and Paging Network. Mr. McKenna represented other parties such as, Delta Airlines' unsecured creditors, Deutsche Bank in its acquisition of Air Canada, and Retirement Systems of Alabama in its acquisition of US Airways. In completing these transactions he has developed an extensive network of contacts in the hedge fund, private equity and lending communities.

Mr. McKenna served on the Board of Directors of US Airways Group from 2003 to 2005, and currently serves on the Boards of Gate Gourmet Group Holding and Haights Cross Communication. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the New York Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and is actively involved in various charitable organizations.

Mr. McKenna graduated with honors from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Government and Economics, and has passed the licensing tests for Series 7,24 and 63.