Who We Are

Ms. Alvarez serves as the Financial and Operations Principal of FNEX Capital’s FINRA Member Broker/Dealer and assists with various areas of compliance. She founded and operated Capital Markets Compliance (CMC), a full-service compliance consulting firm, as its CEO for 21 years until its acquisition by Foreside in 2021 where she currently serves as a managing director. Prior to forming CMC, Ms. Alvarez served as a compliance examiner for FINRA (fka NASD) where she conducted examinations on multipurpose member Broker/Dealer firms. Ms. Alvarez obtained her Bachelor of Science in Finance from Florida Atlanta University and the Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional (CRCP) designation from the FINRA Institute at Georgetown (Formerly the FINRA Institute at Wharton), and holds FINRA Series 7, 27, and 24.

Mr. Kulak has over 25 years of experience in investment banking, brokerage, and investing. Mr. Kulak spent much of his career working at J.P. Morgan specializing in debt and equity capital markets. Following J.P.Morgan, Mr. Kulak led private placement and private origination teams at UBS and worked in equity capital markets at Houlihan Lokey. Mr. Kulak specializes in issuer coverage, investor coverage, and transaction structuring. Mr. Kulak has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of Business Administration from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kulak holds FINRA Series 7, 63,65, 24, and 79 licenses.

Mr. Weisburd is currently a general partner and co-head of venture capital at 10X Capital, where he led 10X Capital’s investments in Robinhood, Compass Therapeutics, HeadSpace and DraftKings. Prior to 10X Capital, Mr. Weisburd founded and was general partner of venture capital firm GTP in 2012, whose portfolio companies include 23andMe, Circle, Palantir, Pipefy, Ripple, Tonal, Vicarious and Wish. Mr. Weisburd was a partner at Flight Ventures, which has a prolific track record investing in companies including Carta, Cruise, Discord, Dollar Shave Club, Fastly, Inc. (NYSE: FSLY), LinkedIn, PayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL), Rent the Runway, Wealthfront Inc. and many others. Mr. Weisburd was on the founding teams of two venture-backed technology startups, isocket (acquired by Rubicon Project (Nasdaq: RUBI)) and RoomHunt (acquired by RentLingo, Inc.). Mr. Weisburd received a BS at Indiana University — Kelley School of Business in 2008 and an MBA from Dartmouth College — Tuck School of Business in 2012. Mr. Weisburd is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Psychology from Harvard University. Mr. Weisburd holds a FINRA Series 62, 63 and 79.

Mr. Wolbert has led over $4Billion of Corporate Finance and M&A mandates throughout his 15 year career. Over the past 5 years, nearly all of his advisory work has been oriented around privately-held, midmarket businesses spanning multiple segments, most commonly healthcare services and technology. Formerly, Mr. Wolbert acted as a Senior Partner at GT Securities where he led the firm’s venture pipeline. Over a period of four years, clients in the pipeline gained over $1 billion in revenue and raised over $875 million in capital. In addition to his work on the advisory side, Mr. Wolbert manages Wolbert Holdings, a wildly un-focused single family office with investments in agriculture, technology, healthcare, and the automotive industry. Mr. Wolbert is also a co-founder of Ayuda Mi Isla which was launched to provide support to the residents of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Jack received his bachelors degree from the University of Michigan. Jack currently holds series 6, 63, 79 licenses.

Mr. Chahal currently serves as an Advisor/Investor Relations In-Residence for Plexo Capital, a minority owned emerging Venture Capital institutional investment firm allocating capital to the global startup ecosystem primarily amongst people of color and women to deliver alpha to its Institutional LP investors, With 17 years in capital markets, including spearheading institutional capital fundraising for Fisher Investments, Mr. Chahal began his capital markets career as a hedge fund analyst for Paul Stephens at RS Investments. Mr. Chahal has been very active in the philanthropic and political fundraising arena. Mr. Chahal graduated from the University of North Georgia with a degree in Business Administration and Finance, and holds a FINRA Series 7, 63 and 65.

As the Founder & President of Interlink Markets, and with more than 25 years of experience in Boston and on Wall Street, Mr. Casella has a compelling track record of building highly successful business lines. Before founding Interlink, he served as managing director at INTL FCStone, Inc., where he founded and developed the U.S. Institutional Equities division for the global Fortune 500 company. He previously held a similar role at Bulltick Capital Markets LLC. Prior to that, he was partner and lead Boston sales trader at Pacific Crest Securities, Inc., where he initiated and managed the Boston operation, and head of the Boston office for Dain Rauscher Wessels, Inc. Mr. Casella has also been chairman of both the South Florida and Boston chapters of the Market Technicians Association, and is currently managing director and head of the Boston Family Office Association. He graduated cum laude from Boston College. Mr. Casella holds Series 7, 24, 57, 63 and 99 securities registrations.

Mr. Patneaude is a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of business development achievement in capital markets, with particular expertise in the technology and healthcare sectors. As part of his most recent experience, in relationship management leadership at Capital Markets Gateway, he developed commercial strategy and relationships between CMG and many of the top investment funds in North America and London. Mr. Patneaude brings extensive financial industry experience through his past leadership roles in sales, trading, and capital markets transactions at Cowen, Canaccord, and JP Morgan. He has a BA from the University of Washington and an MS in Investment Management from the Questrom School of Management at Boston University. Joe holds Series 7, 24, and 57 securities registrations.

Mr. Wittenberg is a Managing Director of Progress Partners, a technology-focused investment bank headquartered in Boston. He leads the Enterprise and HealthTech practices and focuses on sell-side M&A, buy-side M&A, and capital-raising services for growth-stage companies. Mr. Wittenberg is experienced in IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, and private capital-raising. Prior to joining Progress Partners in 2020, Mr. Wittenberg co-founded and served as Managing Director of Ion Partners LLC, a boutique technology investment bank based in New York City, from 2003-2019 after working at nationwide investment banks KeyBanc Capital and Ladenburg Thalmann. Mr. Wittenberg earned his B.A. in Economics from Amherst College in 1987. Mr. Wittenberg graduated from the Yale School of Management with a Masters in Public and Private Management (M.P.P.M.) in 1992 and holds FINRA Series 7, 24, and 79.

Ms. Billings-Nguyen is a CEO & Founder, Impact Investor and Venture Partner. She facilitates global relationships bridging family offices in the U.S., Middle East and Europe to the most unique and compelling direct co-investment, joint venture and emerging fund opportunities in the United States. Her career began as an early hire at Xero, which became a $5.7 billion unicorn after it’s IPO. Thereafter, she became a Partner at Big Idea Ventures, a new early-stage venture fund addressing critical health, environmental and food security concerns. Ms. Billings-Nguyen is currently a Managing Director at Helena Capital Partners, an Impact Advisory, the Founder & CEO of Odessa Brand House, a mission-driven brand consultancy, Venture Partner for Social Impact Capital and an Advisor to Spero Foods.

Mr. Andersen is the CEO of Westlake Securities. Over the past 20 years, he has worked on over 110 completed transactions totaling over $4 billion in private placement and M&A value. Mr. Andersen has gained in-depth experience working with companies from the lower middle market up to public companies with market capitalizations in excess of $1.5 billion. Since joining Westlake in 2014, Matt has advised companies with combined annual revenue of over $800 million in the areas of strategy, capital, finance and M&A. In past roles, Mr. Andersen has had full operational and P&L responsibility for a NYSE-listed company division with $15 million of EBITDA, led a multi-million dollar revenue geographic territory for a privately-held company, and oversaw a multi-million dollar revenue product line for a NYSE-listed company. Mr. Andersen has a MBA in Banking from Sam Houston State University and has attended executive programs at Harvard and the University of Chicago, and holds Series 6, 7, 63, 65, 24, 27 and 79 FINRA licenses.

As a Managing Director at Westlake Securities, Mr. Pritchard’s career spans over more than 14 years, dedicated entirely to lending to and investing in companies. Mr. Pritchard has previously served as a Director for MGG Investment Group, L.P., a Director for Prudential Capital Group, and a Vice President for Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Mr. Pritchard’s prior responsibilities have included deal origination, underwriting, execution, and portfolio management. Mr. Pritchard’s experience covers a wide range of industries, and he has experience throughout the capital structure including senior secured debt, senior unsecured debt, subordinated debt, and preferred equity. Mr. Pritchard earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California, majoring in Business Administration, and he earned his M.B.A. graduating with Dean’s Honors from Columbia Business School, and holds active Series 7 and 63 FINRA licenses.

Mr. D’Andrea is a Managing Director at Westlake Securities. Since joining Westlake in 2008, Mr. D’Andrea has executed and closed numerous sell-side, buy-side and capital placement engagements primarily serving founder-owned / privately-held middle market companies ranging in size from $5 million to over $150 million and representing over $500 million of aggregate transaction value. At Westlake, Mr. D’Andrea has gained specific industry experience from projects in the manufacturing, industrial, consumer, technology, energy and business service sectors. Recently, Mr. D’Andrea has led active engagements in the education services, energy efficiency and home improvement product sectors. Mr. D’Andrea graduated with High Honors from The University of Texas at Austin where he received his BBA in Finance with a minor in Accounting, and holds active Series 7 and 63 FINRA licenses.

Ms. Horwitz has spent much of her career providing guidance to companies in transition through growth stage to IPO/Sale. She has completed transactions as large as $24B.  She helps her clients at a strategic financial level, assisting them in securing financing, positioning for future transactions and aiding in international expansion. Ms. Horwitz has worked with companies in the gaming, telecom, mobile, enterprise software, social media, consumer packaged goods, real estate, hospitality, professional services and entertainment industries.  She has served as Advisor and/or CFO to high growth companies such as Playfab, PopCap Games, Click Wine Group and Armco leading all to successful exits.  She also led the CFO advisory practice at Arthur Andersen with clients such as Real Networks, VoiceStream, (now T-Mobile), Monet Mobile, Getty Images, WRQ/Attachmate and large family offices.  Ms. Horwitz graduated from Central Washington University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.  Ms. Horwitz holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Mr. Sumner has led in executive roles as the CFO and COO for mid-market public and private companies, CEO for family offices and as financial director an insurance fund. His experience is focused in data-driven marketing, healthcare technology, logistics, real estate, maritime and software enabled services in educational technology. Mr. Sumner has worked on both the buy and sell-side, and was recently the CFO at PE owned Callison, LLC, exiting to a $3.5B public European company. In his family offices roles, he helped manage the strategic sale of the founding families’ interest in a $2B NYSE company. Mr. Sumner is a CPA and holds a Master in Professional Accounting degree from the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business and a BBA from the University of Georgia. He holds FINRA licenses for the SIE, Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Ms. Lohkamp has held CEO, CFO, COO, and Board positions in high-growth Fortune 50 (Intel), emerging mid-market private companies and turnarounds. She has worked with companies across diverse industries including technology, tech-related manufacturing, professional services (architecture, engineering, and consulting), health care, and insurance. During her twelve year career at Intel Corporation, she played a key role in the acquisition of 16 companies comprising 4000+ employees across 13 countries. Ms. Lohkamp executive roles include: Managing Partner / Chief Financial and Operating Officer at NBBJ, a leading $200M global architecture and design firm named one of the world’s top 10 most innovative architecture firms by Fast Company; President & COO of Isonics Vancouver (division of a public company), a manufacturer of reclaim and test silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry; CEO of MicroGREEN Polymers, clean-tech start-up and manufacturer of the award-winning InCycle® coffee cup used by major airlines; and interim CEO of small health-care services firm. She currently serves on two corporate boards – Delta Dental of Washington, a $1.3B dental benefits company, where she is a former Chairman; Woods Bagot, a global architecture and design firm headquartered in Australia – and previously served as a director of The Kleinfelder Group, a $350M global engineering consulting firm. Ms. Lohkamp earned her MBA at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and her BA in International Relations at Stanford University. She holds FINRA Series 63 and 79 licenses.

Mrs. Velissaris is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the Founding Partner of SteelSky Ventures LLC, which provides consulting and capital raising services for female-led companies. She founded her first business, Wakeboxes in 2000, which became Collegeboxes and was later acquired by Uhaul. Mrs. Velissaris started her career as a technology strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and throughout her 18-year career, has been at the forefront of marketing, strategy, and technology solutions working with companies including Samsung, Philips, Pfizer, SAP, GE, American Express, and Kraft. She is extremely passionate about developing a pipeline of diverse female entrepreneurs, and is an advisor in the Million Dollar Women program, board member of Women Who Dare and a member of Pipeline Angels, whose missions are to help female and diverse founders succeed. Mrs. Velissaris obtained a B.S. in Information Systems from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Mr. Garber has more than 25 years of experience in the mutual fund and investment management industries. His background encompasses both the marketing and operational aspects of these sectors, as well as extensive investment banking experience in both buy-side and sell-side transactions of investment advisors, mutual fund and hedge fund back office operations groups, software companies and mutual fund groups. Previously, Mr. Garber worked for two custodial banks: IFTC in Kansas City, and Investors Bank in Boston. He also worked for American Express Financial Advisors.  Mr. Garber is a graduate of Beloit College, and holds both CFA and CFP designations, as well as FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licenses.

As Senior Vice President for Advisory Research Investment Management, Mr. Spray is responsible for sales and business development for the firms product and fund complex. Previously, Mr. Spray worked at Bank Of America as Vice President, focused on public finance and infrastructure. Prior to that, he was a corporate banker with Citizens & Southern National Bank, Florida National Bank and First National Bank & Trust Company. Mr. Spray received undergraduate degree in Finance from The University of Oklahoma. from Indiana University and holds FINRA Series 7, 66 and 63 licenses.