Advisory Board

Andrew Melnick

Andrew Melnick

Mr. Melnick retired from Wall Street at the end of 2005 after 35 years starting as an investment analyst and then later serving in senior research management positions. Most recently, he was a Senior Managing Director of the hedge fund PSD Capital. Prior to this role, he joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 2002 to be Co-Director of Global Investment Research Division and a member of the Management Committee and he later served as an Advisory Director. Before joining Goldman Sachs, he was Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Securities and Economics Research Group for Merrill Lynch. During his 13 years at Merrill Lynch, he expanded the Firm’s Research Group from primarily a domestic effort to one with research offices in 26 countries around the world. During that period Merrill Lynch was ranked as the top research department in nearly all regions of the world including six straight times as the number one equity research department in the United States.

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he was President of Woolcott & Co. a boutique research and investment banking firm. From 1981 to 1986, Andy Melnick was Director of Research and a Partner of L.F. Rothschild Unterberg Towbin. Before joining that firm, he had been a Senior Analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert for 11 years. Mr. Melnick served in Vietnam and was a graduate of Rutgers, earning a B.A. in Economics and M.B.A. in Finance from that institution. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A.).

Hilary J. Kramer

Hilary J. Kramer

Ms. Kramer has extensive expertise in financial markets and investment management. She currently is a business and financial markets reporter for the "New York Post" and London's weekly "Business". Ms. Kramer is the Finance Editor of AOL and is a frequent public speaker and TV commentator on financial planning, investment management and the global markets. Ms. Kramer is on the Wall Street Journal's Women in Business Advisory Board and has appeared on Fox News Channel, CNBC, Bloomberg and ABC News.

From 1997 to 2003, Ms. Kramer also served on the Board of Directors of the Ibero American Media Partners' Fund (IAMP). Ms. Kramer also served on the Board of Directors of RSL Communications, Connectadas and Claxson Interactive Group Inc. She also worked with the company's private equity investments in AOL Latin America and DirecTV Latin America.

Ms. Kramer began her career in investment banking as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley and after receiving her MBA from the Wharton School, Ms. Kramer joined Lehman Brothers' investment banking division working on public equity and debt offerings for financial institutions. Between 1994 and 2003, Ms. Kramer expanded her global investment experience as Senior Managing Director of the Cisneros Group. With over 70 companies in 39 countries and annual revenue of $6.0 billion, the Cisneros Group is one of the largest privately held organizations in the world.

David N. Feldman

David N. Feldman

David N. Feldman, is the founder and Managing Partner of Feldman Weinstein LLP. His practice focuses on corporate and securities matters and general representation of public and private companies, investment banks, private equity firms and high net worth individuals both in general representation and in transactional and financing activities of all types. David's work also includes representation of small and middle market private companies in general and transactional matters.

David is considered one of the country's leading experts on reverse mergers, in which a private company becomes publicly traded through a merger with a publicly held "shell" company. Currently writing a book on the subject to be published by Bloomberg Press, he is a frequent public speaker, seminar leader and counsel on issues related to formation, management and acquisition of public shells and implementation of reverse mergers. He has appeared on Bloomberg TV and National Public Radio and been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc. magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CFO magazine and others. In June 2005 he testified before the SEC's Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies.

David received a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and his Juris Doctor in 1985 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. David is an avid supporter of Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania and currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of Wharton's worldwide Alumni Association Board. He also is Chairman and founder of the New York Business School Clubs, an association of New York-area business school alumni groups.

David serves as a member of the Business Advisory Board of Sterling National Bank, as a member of the Alumni Advisory Board of Wharton School Publishing. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Lawrence Woodmere Academy, and on the Board of Directors of Youth Renewal Fund. He has previously been a member of or associated with the law firms of Feldman & Ellenoff (which he co-founded); Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn; Reavis & McGrath (now Fulbright & Jaworski); and Rivkin Radler LLP.