Professional Experience
Black Monday-October 1987
Managing risk and protecting capital in real time as markets fall more than 20%
Capital Markets & Crisis Experience
Market Maker & Specialist Unit
American Stock Exchange (AMEX)
Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX)
Managed capital and risk across multiple structural market disruptions, including:
1987 crash · LTCM · Dot-com unwind · 9/11 · 2008 Financial Crisis · Flash Crash
These events shaped a durable operating philosophy:
Liquidity disappears faster than models suggest
Correlations converge under stress
Incentives drive behavior more than forecasts
Structure and discipline matter more than prediction
The experience of managing capital during multiple structural market disruptions shaped a lasting principle:
Risk must be understood in real time — not reconstructed after the fact
Experience operating within regulated exchanges and complex capital structures provides perspective
directly applicable to public companies, private equity portfolio companies, ESOP-owned businesses,
and multi-generational family enterprises
Founder, Operator & Capital Steward
Founded Gateway Partners, a market-making and specialist firm, registered
broker-dealer and a member firm of all U.S. options exchanges
Architected and built the Gateway Trading System (GTS) — a proprietary derivatives
valuation and firm-wide risk infrastructure platform providing real-time
exposure visibility across nearly 500 securities
Successfully exited to a NASDAQ-listed company
Hands-on experience with:
Building regulated financial infrastructure
Capital formation and balance sheet discipline
Scaling teams in volatile environments
Supervisory and compliance oversight
Strategic transaction execution and exit
This was capital at risk — not advisory from the sidelines
Technology, Governance & Long-Term Capital
Advise fintech and technology companies on governance, risk, and disciplined growth
Founder of Gildre — an operator-led global knowledge network strengthening founder judgment,
strategic execution, and long-term enterprise building
Support venture capital firms, accelerators, and long-horizon capital partners through:
Founder mentoring and leadership calibration
Governance and board effectiveness guidance
Portfolio-level risk perspective
Capital allocation discipline
Alignment between incentives, control, and enterprise durability
Bridging capital markets discipline with modern technology, private capital, and global investment ecosystems
Board-Relevant Themes
Across public, private, ESOP, and family-controlled enterprises, I contribute a perspective on:
Capital allocation under uncertainty
Incentive alignment and governance integrity
Risk transparency and early signal recognition
Technology oversight without narrative capture
Preserving enterprise value across generational transitions
The focus is durable value creation — not episodic performance.