Michael Corcelli

Mr. Corcelli is the Founder & Chairman of the FLAIA and has played a critical role in establishing the vision and building the management team for the FLAIA. In addition to his work with the FLAIA, he is a Managing Partner at Alexander Alternative Capital, LLC based in Miami. Prior to joining Alexander Alternative Capital, Michael worked for UBS AG where he was responsible for portfolio management and tactical asset allocation for private clients of UBS Global Wealth Management & Business Banking. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Miami where he studied Business with a focus in Finance.

Jay Gould

Mr. Gould practices in the Corporate & Securities area and is the Co-Head of the Financial Services Practice at Winston & Strawn LLP. Jay Gould is a corporate partner in the firm’s San Francisco and New York offices and serves as co-chair of the firm’s financial services corporate practice group. Mr. Gould concentrates his practice on investment funds and investment management. He counsels clients involved in all aspects of the financial services industry. He represents U.S. registered investment companies, hedge funds, offshore investment companies, investment advisers, retail and institutional broker-dealers, and municipal bond underwriters. He has extensive experience in drafting private placement memoranda, partnership and limited liability company agreements, subscription agreements, registration statements, proxy statements, periodic reports, no-action letters, applications for exemptive relief, and other documents for filing with the SEC, FINRA, and other regulatory agencies. Mr. Gould advises investment companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers on mergers and acquisitions. He also provides counsel on matters involving corporate governance and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, mortgage securitizations and sales, collateralized debt offers, joint ventures and strategic relations, and retail, institutional, and offshore securities distribution strategies and regulatory considerations.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Gould served as Chief Counsel for E*TRADE Global Asset Management, Inc., Vice President with TransAmerica Life Companies, Senior Counsel to Bank of America NT&SA, and as an attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission and four other major international law firms. He received his B.A. from the University of Washington in 1978 and his J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in 1983.

Chris Innes

Chris has more than 25 years of experience in the finance industry as a producer and manager of financial service teams at leading American and European banks. Outside of banking, he is an investor and developer of commercial and residential real estate. Chris’s passion for finding solutions to financial problems and his interest in real estate led him to leave banking in 2017 to focus full-time on developing a lease to own business dedicated to turning renters into home owners.

From 2010 – 2017, Chris was at BNP Paribas in New York where he served as an Americas group head and global markets executive committee member. In this role, he led a 100 person sales and trading team and was responsible for developing and implementing strategy, client development, recruiting and risk management. Under his leadership, the group’s revenue grew from $25 million in 2010 to over $300 million. Earlier, from 1998 until 2006, Chris worked at Bank of America, where he was a founding member of the equity equity equity financial products group, a team he then led from 2002 – 2006 as revenue grew to $1 billion. From 1994 – 1997, Chris was at Salomon Brothers. He began his career in finance as an Investment Banking Analyst with PaineWebber in 1992.

Rich Strait

Rich Strait if managing partner of Strait LLC, an independent commodity consulting group with facilities in Miami and New York. The firm advises institutional metals mining and refining clients as well as proprietary trading firms and family offices on commodity related investments, risk management, futures/options execution as well as clearing and inventory finance. Strait LLC is active in developing commodity based yield enhancement strategies as well trading programs for institutional clients wishing to diversify into this space. Accordingly, the firm provides operations and marketing support for emerging managers in the alternative space. Before establishing Strait LLC in 2008 Rich Strait held the post of Marketing Director of Triland USA and Metals Marketing Director with the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prior to that he was employed as a market maker by several international metals trading groups and bullion dealers including Gerald Metals, Mocatta Corp, S+W Berisford Group and ING Derivatives.

The managing principal, Rich Strait’s 30+ year career focus has been directed toward international non-ferrous and precious metals trading. Richard currently serves or has served on the Boards of Florida Alternative Investment Association, National Association of Introducing Brokers and is former chairman of the metro NY chapter of International Precious Metals Institute and served on the board of the Gold and Silver Institutes. He is a former member of the New York Mercantile Exchange where he maintained a floor brokerage unit trading in gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper future/options. He is registered and in good standing with the National Futures Association where he served on the Board Nominating Committee. Richard also maintains director registration with The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).

Maurice Berkower

Mr. Berkower brings over 25 years of experience providing accounting, auditing, tax and consulting services to the FLAIA board. Maurice is the lead financial service Partner of Demetrius Berkower LLC, and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Rankin Berkower (Cayman) Ltd. He leads those respective firms’ national and international financial services practice groups. Maurice has an MBA in Taxation from Bernard Baruch College and a BS in Accounting from Brooklyn College. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the States of New York, New Jersey and California and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and California Society of CPAs. Maurice serves on the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants Investment Companies, Investment Management, Private Equity, and Stock Brokerage Committees. Maurice also serves in leadership capacities for various nonprofit and charitable organizations and is a Board Member and Treasurer of the FLAIA.

Rainford Knight

Dr. Knight has over 20 years of experience in financial services including investment management, mergers and acquisitions, and hedge funds either as an advisor, principal or consultant. As consultant, Dr. Knight was part of a sovereign advisory group on $40 billion financial sector collapse that required the formation of government asset management vehicle for asset disposition and IMF funding. Dr. Knight’s has been an advisor to emerging manager hedge funds, family office, private equity firms and start-ups on variety areas including operational and investment due diligence, investment strategy development an valuation. Dr. Knight is also the managing partner and founder of the Florida Institute of Finance (FIF). Academically, Dr. Knight is a member of the finance faculty at Florida Atlantic University and former finance faculty member at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ and the University of Miami. He is a former director and current member of the CFA Society of South Florida and member of the CFA Institute. He has also been an instructor for Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and a board member of FLAIA. Dr. Knight has a PhD in finance from Florida Atlantic University with a specialization in IPO performance and valuation.

Nanette Aguirre

Shareholder of the Corporate & Securities Group at Greenberg Traurig, Nanette Aguirre concentrates on derivatives and structured products. Her experience includes negotiating all forms of international derivative (ISDA), trading and prime brokerage agreements with global institutions. Additionally, she regularly advises on regulatory issues affecting the derivatives market, including without limitation, Dodd Frank and related cross border regulation. Nanette works throughout Latin America, in countries like Mexico and Colombia, advising banks, endowments, clearing organizations and other financial institutions. She has structured and negotiated finance and derivative transactions (including Indian and Chinese swaps, and generally, credit and fund-linked derivatives, loan, credit default and equity swaps), exchange traded derivative agreements (including SEFs, and Futures and Options), repurchase agreements, securities lending agreements, prime brokerage (Reg T, Portfolio Margining and Enhanced Leverage), clearing (ISDA-FIA, DTCC, ISDA Amend/Markit.com), electronic trading agreements, tri-party and give-up arrangements.

Nanette Aguirre serves as a Board Member of Structured Finance & LATAM for the Florida Alternative Investment Association. Prior to Greenberg Traurig, Nanette spent eleven years in the Structured Products and Derivatives department of a major New York law firm serving the financial services sector and working closely with some of the industry’s largest hedge funds, mutual funds and pension plans.

Meyer Ben-Reuven

Meyer Ben-Reuven is the founder and current CEO of Chelsea Technologies. He launched Chelsea Technologies in 1990 to provide customized, state-of-the-art IT programs and support to the financial services community. Together with a talented team of IT professionals, he has formulated solutions that streamline methodology and promote seamless execution, while successfully addressing the most complex business challenges.

Currently, in addition to his executive responsibilities, Meyer leverages his IT expertise to research and evaluate emerging technologies for their relevance and value to his clients. He also serves as a Board Member of Information Technology & Security for the Florida Alternative Investment Association. Meyer began his career in 1987, when he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank as a member of its trading room redevelopment team. While at Chase, he built and implemented applications to support a number of technology infrastructure initiatives. Meyer is a graduate of New York University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science. He has received formal Mayoral recognition for more than twenty years of personal and professional accomplishments and success in New York City.

Theresa Gusman

Theresa is a business builder and transformer with extensive leadership, investment, and sustainability/corporate governance experience. Her former positions include Global Head of Equities, Head of US Equity Research and Global Head of Commodities at Deutsche Bank. A passionate investor, she managed domestic, international and commodity strategies, with assets ranging from $4 to $17 billion. In October 2013, Theresa was tapped to become the first Chief Knowledge Officer of Deutsche Bank’s $1 trillion asset and wealth management business. Theresa is deeply committed to sustainability, corporate governance, diversity, wellness, the environment, and building a winning culture.

After leaving Deutsche Bank, Theresa founded ENDURANCE LLC, where she helps clients do good, be great and deliver long term performance by transforming their businesses for a more sustainable future. She works with corporate leaders, asset owners and investment professionals to accelerate the identification, implementation, institutionalization, communication, and monetization of sustainability performance strategies that drive long-term value creation for clients, employees, shareholders and society. Her specialties include investment process enhancement, strategy assessment and transformation, sustainable/ESG investments education, culture change, and diversity and inclusion.

Eric Westphal

Dr. Eric Westphal has been working in finance for 18 years. Upon leaving academia with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology from Caltech in 1998, he went to work for various trading groups within Koch Industries, the largest privately held company in the world. Here he carried out a wide variety of projects including rating and hedging crop insurance policies, structuring arbitrage trades based on weather derivatives, providing risk management for trading groups, and selecting and managing a portfolio of hedge funds. Ultimately, Dr. Westphal served as senior researcher and as portfolio manager, creating and trading systematic strategies in a variety of markets including equities, currencies, interest rates, options, and futures. After leaving Koch Industries he served as portfolio manager at IKOS for their systematic futures and currencies products. He went on to co-found dormouse in Malta with Martin Coward, George Dowdye, and Hans Drescher, where he served as portfolio manager for the first four and a half years and is now opening a US office in Miami. Dr. Westphal has an NFA Series 3 license and is licensed as a portfolio manager under MiFID.