Before founding PL Advisors a decade ago, we spent our careers advising clients in the asset and wealth management ecosystem. We bring deep M&A expertise, in-depth industry knowledge and long-term relationships with key participants.
“Having PL Advisors either on your side or working with the other party is a guarantee to have an efficient and fair process, which leads to a good deal.”
– Serge Krancenblum, Executive Chairman, IQ-EQ
Colette has negotiated a variety of strategic transactions, leveraging her global expertise across the spectrum of public and private markets managers, service providers and fintech firms. Her transaction experience includes strategic control transactions, as well as minority and GP stakes purchases. Her fintech expertise has been focused on the crossover between services and technology supporting the asset and wealth management sectors.
Prior to PL Advisors, Colette was a partner and member of the executive board at Grail Partners, a boutique merchant bank. She was also a managing director at Putnam Lovell, a financial services-focused investment and merchant bank, where she was responsible for private equity investments in asset management and financial services.
She held board positions at a number of portfolio companies, and she was responsible for originating and managing investments. Colette started her investment banking career in New York at Freeman & Co., where she eventually became a partner. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business at NYU.
Dom has led numerous transactions in the financial services sector with a focus on alternative and traditional asset managers and their service providers. He has extensive experience with various transaction structures, and he is known for his creative solutions to complex transactional issues.
Prior to PL Advisors, Dom worked for Grail Partners, Lehman Brothers and Putnam Lovell as a financial institutions investment banker focusing on asset managers, custody banks and broker dealers. He was part of Lehman Brothers’ alternative manager coverage group, which arranged several ground-breaking transactions, including the first IPO of an alternative asset management firm. Dom also spent several years on the buy-side as a financial services sector analyst, and he was a member of the investment committee of Amber Capital, a multibillion-dollar, event-driven hedge fund. Dom earned a bachelor’s degree from Queens College of Charlotte and a master’s in Business Administration from Brandeis University.
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 the principal and 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 where he 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 more than 145 investment vehicles and raising more than $100 billion in new assets. John was also head of the Fund Advisory and Shareholder Services Group, which 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 earned bachelor’s degrees in Economics and History from Stony Brook University.
Thomas is based in Connecticut, and he’s known for his asset management and mutual fund expertise. He is also a former PL Advisors client. While at Constellation Financial Management (CFM), Tom worked with one of our partners on the firm’s sale to Societe Generale.
Thomas is a CFA with more than 40 years of experience in various senior management positions at large, global financial institutions and small entrepreneurial environments. He was the head of the Financial Institutions Group of Societe Generale. After the firm’s acquisition of CFM in July 2003, he was appointed a managing director. He was the senior member of the business management team directing U.S. sales and client relationships of asset managers, insurance companies and banks. Thomas was a co-founding managing principal of CFM (1993-2003). From 1995 to 2003, CFM advanced approximately $2.5 billion of commissions representing $50 billion in assets under management with 35 companies in five global jurisdictions.
Thomas is currently 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 2002. He chairs all valuation committees and is a member of the audit committees for the funds.
Neil is based in San Francisco and is known for his expertise in quantitative and alternative strategies. He is also a former PL Advisors client. While at Symphony Asset Management, Neil worked with Putnam Lovell on the firm’s sale to Nuveen Investments.
Neil is the former chief operating officer and a co-founder of Symphony, and he now serves as a senior advisor at the firm. 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, it was primarily known for quantitative equity and convertible products. In the ensuing decade, Neil oversaw the firm’s successful transformation into a credit manager, including the creation of a leading CLO business. Prior to co-founding Symphony, Neil was a managing director at Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors (now part of BlackRock).
Neil earned a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from McMaster University. He is also a Chartered Accountant in Ontario, Canada, and a CPA in California.