JOHN KEY
Senior Advisor
John is a senior advisor to PL Advisors as well as Crowdfunder.com. He has 26 years of experience in the financial services industry. John is currently Principal/Founder of Key Strategic Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm specializing in advising asset managers on their growth strategies and corporate development initiatives.
Most recently, John was a Senior Managing Director in UBS Investment Bank’s Global Financial Institutions Group focused primarily on working with asset management and related companies. He has extensive experience in the origination, structuring and capital raising of investment products on behalf of asset management companies, launching over 145 investment vehicles raising in excess of $100 billion in new assets. John was also head of the Fund Advisory and Shareholder Services Group that is responsible for providing clients and fund Boards with comprehensive market analysis.
John joined PaineWebber in 1992 and occupied a variety of roles in different areas within the Private Client Group before joining the Investment Bank.
John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and History from Stony Brook University.
THOMAS F. MANN
Senior Advisor
Thomas is based in CT and is known for his asset management and mutual fund expertise. Tom was also a former client. While at Constellation, Tom worked with a PL Adviors partner on the firm’s sale to Societe Generale.
Thomas F. Mann, CFA, has over 40 years of experience in various senior management positions in large, global financial institutions and small entrepreneurial environments. Mr. Mann was the Head of the Financial Institutions Group of Societe Generale. After SG’s acquisition of Constellation Financial Management (“CFM”) in July 2003, Mr. Mann was appointed a Managing Director where he was the senior member of the business management team directing US sales and client relationships of asset managers, insurance companies, and banks. Mr. Mann was a co-founding Managing Principal of CFM (1993-2003). From 1995 to 2003, CFM advanced approximately $2.5 billion of commissions representing $50bn of assets under management with 35 companies in 5 global jurisdictions.
Mr. Mann is presently an independent director of the Virtus Global Multi-Sector Bond Fund, its Total Return Fund, and the newly formed Liquid Alternative Series. He chairs the Nominating and Governance Committees and is a member of the audit committee. He is also an independent director of the Hatteras Family of open and closed end funds where he has served on the boards of the open end funds since September of 2002. Mr. Mann chairs all valuation committees and is a member of the audit committees for the funds.
NEIL RUDOLPH
Senior Advisor
Neil is based in San Francisco and known for experise in quantitative and alternative stategies. Neil was also a former client. While at Symphony, Neil worked with Putnam Lovell on the firm’s sale to Nuveen.
Neil is a senior advisor to Symphony Asset Management where he was Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder. Symphony manages approximately $17 billion in client assets in alternative, structured and long credit strategies as well as market-neutral and equity strategies.
In 2001, when Symphony was acquired by Nuveen Investments, it was primarily known for quantitative equity and convertible products. In the ensuing decade, Neil oversaw the firm’s successful transformation to primarily a credit manager including the creation of a leading CLO business. Prior to co-founding Symphony in 1994, Neil was a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors (today part of Blackrock) in a number of positions including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer and most recently as Chief Operating Officer of the Mutual Fund Group. He joined Wells Fargo in 1984 from Coopers & Lybrand.
Neil received his Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and is both a Chartered Accountant in Ontario, Canada and a Certified Public Accountant in California.
Dan Zircher
Senior Advisor
Dan has been an investment banker for more than 25 years. He is currently the managing partner of DGZ Associates and previously was a senior investment banker with Merrill Lynch, Mesirow Financial, and Fox Pitt Kelton. He started as a CPA at Peat Marwick and then a manager in corporate accounting for a Fortune 500 Company.
Dan has been responsible for many transactions and strategic efforts for a variety of private and public companies including several cross-border transactions. His particular focus with financial and business service firms has included numerous mergers and acquisitions, leverage buyouts, private and public financings as well as strategic advice for executives, board of directors, hedge funds and private equity firms.
Dan has been an advisor to a broad spectrum of financial, business service and technology companies. Some recent experiences include investment banking for a quickly evolving industry (capital markets-brokerage firms, exchanges, trading, hedge funds and technology firms) during a very dynamic time. He enjoyed analyzing the impact of technology on these business models and positioning companies to increase value. He has also been active as an adviser to insurance companies, banks, consumer finance, asset managers, transaction processing companies and other business services.
Dan holds a BS in accounting from Northern Illinois University and a MBA from DePaul University. He holds a series 7, 63 and 79 licenses.