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Management Biographical Profiles
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ROBERT E. AKESON
President & CEO
Bob has served as President & CEO of Meridian Equity Partners, Inc. since March 2009. Previously, Mr. Akeson was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Neuberger Berman, LLC’s Professional Investor Clearing Services (“PICS”) group. While there, he successfully re-positioned the PICS business into a leading boutique provider of prime brokerage and correspondent clearing services to hedge funds registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, and family offices. These services included custody, clearance and settlement, trade execution and financing, securities lending, turn-key office space, portfolio reporting, as well as the provision of the firm’s proprietary research to clients. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, held management positions at both Morgan Stanley & Co and Automatic Data Processing (now Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc).
Mr. Akeson holds an MBA and a certificate in Information Systems Management from New York University. He attained his B.A. from Washington College, where he was a member of several national honors societies and a varsity letterman in baseball. He is also member of the Bond Club of New York.
JONATHAN ACQUAFREDDA
Senior Managing Partner
Jon is currently Head of Sales & Marketing where he focuses on new product development, employee recruiting, and information technology. Jon spent his first few years at Meridian building its NYSE floor operation into one of the most premier and profitable operations on the floor. He produced approximately $25,000,000 of Buy Side commissions over a 6 year span while specializing in Risk & Convertible Arbitrage, Pairs and Stubs trading. Jon spent the next few years building and developing Meridian's 'upstairs' trading floor in downtown New York City where he served as Head Sales Trader and oversaw IT. Prior to starting Meridian, Jon worked under the umbrella of Cuttone & Co. where he lead a three person team who developed a full book of hedge fund business. He also enjoyed several year stints on the floor of the NYSE at Farina & Associates trading Risk Arbitrage and Lombardi & Co trading listed Convertible Arbitrage. Jon started his career at Nomura Securities trading residential mortgage backed securities and Santander Financial Products in the equity derivative arbitrage group.
Jon graduated from Binghamton University with a double major in Economics & Psychology, Chaminade High School in Long Island, and is an active volunteer & fund raiser for the Freeport Animal Shelter in Long Island, NY. He is Series 7, 24, 25, & 63 registered.
COLUMB LYTLE
Senior Managing Partner
Columb oversees the daily operations for the firm as Head of Compliance and CFO. In addition, Columb is a key sales trader covering a variety of institutional accounts specializing in Risk and Convertible arbitrage, Pairs, and Stubs trading. Prior to joining Meridian as a founding principal, Columb spent over 7 years at Inline Brokers as CFO and sales trader specializing in European ADR's.
Columb holds a BA in Philosophy from Catholic University and an MBA from the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business. Columb is series 7, 10, 14, 24, 25, 27, 55 & 63 registered. Columb lives on Long Island with his wife and two kids where he is active in several community and charitable organizations including the Our Lady of Grace School and Manhasset Youth Sports Programs.
JONATHAN CORPINA
Senior Managing Partner
Jonathan is Meridian's Head NYSE Floor Broker, an elected Senior Floor Official, President of the Organization of Independent Floor Brokers (OIFB), and is a board member of the Floor Members Emergency Fund (FMEF). He has been an active member of the NYSE Broker Handheld, Broker Technology and Floor Facilities Committees. Jonathan was previously a partner for 7 years at Polcari-Weicker, a direct access subsidiary of ICAP, serving three years as NYSE Member and four years as sales trader. Jonathan began his career with Salomon Brothers and then Gruntal & Co. Jonathan is regularly featured on CNBC, BloombergTV and Fox Business Network among appearances in other major financial news media.
Jonathan graduated from Catholic University with a BA in Politics and is Series 7, 24, 25 & 63 registered. Over the past 10 years, Jonathan has served on the Board of Directors for Iona Grammar School in New Rochelle, NY, and is the current President of The Joseph Foundation, an organization that supports and educates families of children with traumatic brain injuries.
DAN HUTCHINSON
Senior Managing Director
Dan leads Meridian's equity derivative execution desk and development of the firm's quantitative research. He joined Meridian in April of 2009 from Societe Generale, where he had built the firm's US customer facilitation and research efforts for flow derivatives. His principle imperatives are the optimal use of derivative tools, the analysis of information implied in the derivative markets and the development of bespoke research for each of Meridian's clients. His career of fifteen years also includes risk management advisory and equity derivative marketing roles at Capital Market Risk Advisors, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Wachovia.
Dan graduated from Harvard in 1989, and simultaneously earned his commission to the United States Navy through the Naval ROTC program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon fulfilling his active duty service, he completed his MBA at Columbia Business School in 1995.
PETER MACGUIRE
Senior Managing Director
Peter joined Meridian Equity Partners as Senior Managing Director with responsibility for business development across the firm’s various business verticals. Peter has spent over thirty years in the investment business, with a particular focus since 1992 on fund organization and management in the alternative investment arena. He was a founding partner of Rathnam, Hayat, MacGuire & Khaliffa, an emerging market private equity firm, and has served as president of PJM Management Inc, focusing on the organization and development of alternative investments products, since 1997. Previously, he was responsible for the creation of Coutts & Company’s North American portfolio management capability, as well as development and oversight of Coutts’ fund products in the hedge fund arena. Before joining Coutts, Peter worked in the institutional departments of leading investment banks, including Alex. Brown & Sons, Shearson Lehman and Tucker Anthony.
Peter is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University.
VIRGINIA HENNEBERRY
Senior Managing Director
Virginia currently serves as the MEP Capital Placement & Advisory Team’s Director of Marketing and Client Support. Ms. Henneberry has over 30 years experience in the financial services sector, 19 years of which encompass institutional marketing and has raised over $850 million in investor commitments from both institutional and high net worth investors. Previously, Ms. Henneberry was a founding partner of the ARIA Group, LLC., which provided third party marketing services to hedge fund and private equity managers. Prior to forming ARIA, Ms. Henneberry was a founding partner and Director of Institutional Marketing, Product Development, and Client Support for ING Capital Advisors Inc., a $6.8 billion asset management initiative. Virginia’s experience also includes earlier tenures at Citibank, Prime Asset Management, Lehman Brothers , and Drexel Burnham.
Virginia graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1973; Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, and completed graduate level coursework at the Stern Graduate School of Management, New York University.
GARY RENEAU, CFA
Senior Managing Director
Gary joined Meridian Equity Partners and serves as the MEP Capital Placement & Advisory Team’s Director of Alternative Investments. Gary, most recently worked at Hudson Securities and prior to Hudson, he served as Director of Investment Manager Research for WR Capital Management, a family office based in Sanford, CT. Gary’s extensive experience in research and portfolio management includes tenures at Stillwater Capital Partners, Comerica Bank, and Bank of America.
Gary graduated from the University of Southern California in 1978 with a B.A. in International Relations, and has received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He is a member of the CFA Institute, and the New York Society of Financial Analysts, where he is a member of the Society’s Alternative Investment Committee.
TODD T. RYAN
Managing Director
Todd joined Meridian and brings to the MEP Capital Placement and Advisory team a unique skill set with respect to asset development, negotiating investment transactions, research and trading over the course of his fourteen plus year career in financial markets. Having lived in the Middle East for over 10 years, Todd possesses an invaluable and direct access to many of the largest investors in the region. Todd began his financial career in 1995 on Cantor Fitzgerald Securities trading desk. From Cantor, he moved to Lebenthal & Co, where he analyzed client investment portfolios, and then onto Underwood Brothers, Inc in Greenwich CT where he was a founding member and senior associate. His career also includes sales and trading roles with Bluestone, AMR Capital, Terranova Institutional, LLC and New York Global Securities.
Todd is a graduate of Deerfield Academy and of Connecticut College, as well an accomplished yachtsman having participated in 12 offshore racing regattas to date. Todd was also Captain of the Connecticut College Rugby Club and is a member of the New York Yacht Club and New York Athletic Club.
JOSEPH GRECO
Managing Director
Joe manages trading and sales on our equity desk for a host of clients including hedge funds, institutions, family offices and pensions. His expertise in trading spread orderflow of merger arbitrage, convertibles and industry pair situations comes from almost a decade of exposure to these often rigorous strategies. His involvement with Meridian since early on affords him the knowledge and diversity to cover clients across all of our products and services. Prior to joining us, Joe traded merger arb spreads at Cuttone & Co on the floor of the NYSE and, separately advised private clients on financial strategies for their families and businesses.
Graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2001 with a degree in Financial Systems, Joe has always been a student of the game. Since studying in Maastricht, the Netherlands, he continues to broaden his understanding of the industry through various courses and literature. He maintains the Series 7, 25, 55, and 63 licenses.
GARRETT NENNER
Managing Director
Garrett brings approximately 20 years of combined trading experience within prime brokerage services and operations, trading , and trading technology. Prior to joining Meridian, Garrett was Managing Director at Lighthouse Prime Services where he was involved in building the PB sales offering, managing accounts, managing the electronic offering, and price negotiation. Garrett’s background includes fundamental asset management, sales trading and market making experience. He left sales trading to build the original trading desk for Millennium Partners hedge fund and managed one of their largest quantitative stat-arb portfolios among others. Later, through a company he founded, Garrett built trading desks for multiple hedge and fundamental funds. He was then recruited to manage product development and sales of the Lehman Brothers/Townsend RealTick EMS/OMS trading product.
Garrett is a graduate of Stony Brook University and Columbia University Business School with focus on Finance and Economics.
GEORGE MUNIZ
Senior Vice President
George brings over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Meridian to build the ProTrade electronic trading platform , George served as Sr. Vice President of Carlin Financial Group where he was responsible for sales and business development. George’s strong sales and marketing experience was developed through his tenures at Terra Nova Trading, Smith Barney, and Prudential Securities.
George received his Bachellor of Science degree from the university of Rhode Island and has been dedicated to public financial education and community service.
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| 5 Hanover Square, 21st Floor | New York, NY 10004 | Office: 212-500-6650 | Fax: 212-742-2737 |
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