Principal Bios

Christopher A. Marlett, Co-Founder - Chairman and CEO

Anthony DiGiandomenico, Co-Founder - Head of Investment Banking

Gary Schuman, CFO and CCO

Peter J. Conley, Managing Director

Robert M. Levande, Managing Director - Investment Banking

Anthony P. Mazzarella, Managing Director – Merchant Banking

Jeffrey R. Marshall, Ph.D., Managing Director - Investment Banking

Cary Hurwitz, Managing Director - Investment Banking

Jeffrey Sun, Managing Director - Asia Pacific

George H. Brandon, Managing Director - Business Development

Jon R. Hickman, Equity Analyst - CleanTech, Internet & Healthcare

Amy Wang, Ph.D., Equity Analyst - Life Sciences

Gary S. Hobbib, Equity Analyst - Life Sciences

 

Christopher A. Marlett, Co-Founder - Chairman and CEO

Mr. Marlett is a founding partner of MDB, focusing on equity financing and capital formation for growth-oriented companies. Mr. Marlett’s experience includes all phases of corporate finance from the completion of initial public offerings, secondary offerings, PIPEs and strategic consulting. Mr. Marlett’s clients have included companies as varied as biotechnology, medical products, entertainment, direct marketing, environmental, computer-related technology and nutritional supplements. Prior to forming MDB, Mr. Marlett held the position of Managing Director with Laidlaw Equities, an investment firm focused on financing small capitalization growth companies. Mr. Marlett has over 20 years experience in investment banking. Mr. Marlett holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Anthony DiGiandomenico, Co-Founder - Head of Investment Banking

Co-founder of MDB, Mr. DiGiandomenico focuses on corporate finance and capital formation for growth-oriented companies. He has participated in all areas of corporate finance including private capital, public offerings, PIPEs, business consulting and strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. DiGiandomenico has also worked on a wide range of transactions for growth-oriented companies in biotechnology, nutritional supplements, manufacturing and entertainment industries. Prior to forming MDB Capital, Mr. DiGiandomenico served as President and CEO of the Digian Company, a real estate development company. Mr. DiGiandomenico holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelors of Science Degree in Finance from the University of Colorado.

Gary Schuman, CFO and CCO

Mr. Schuman joined MDB Capital Group in 2009 and serves as the firm’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer.   Leveraging more than 18 years of securities industry experience where he has been instrumental in the launch of several investment firm start-ups, including hedge funds, broker-dealers, and investment advisors, Mr. Schuman is responsible for all financial reporting, compliance and general administration at MDB.   Previously, Mr. Schuman was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of USBX Advisory Services, LLC, an investment banking firm focused on mergers and acquisitions, and Chief Financial Officer of its parent company, USBX, Inc.  Mr. Schuman also served in several managerial capacities at Equibond, Inc., a securities broker-dealer based in Los Angeles.  Mr. Schuman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UCLA and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Peter J. Conley, Managing Director

Mr. Conley brings to MDB over 20 years of institutional research, equity capital markets and investment banking experience. Prior to MDB, Mr. Conley was co-founder of The Analytiq Group, a top-decile-ranked equity research firm covering emerging technologies for Global Investor 100 clients. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Conley was Managing Director of GlobalEuroNet, a private equity fund focused in early-stage technology companies. In 1999, Mr. Conley was co-founder of E*Offering, the investment bank of E*Trade, where he was Head of Equity Capital Markets and involved in over 100 public offerings raising over $3 billion, including some of Wall Street’s largest public and private offerings including UPS, Phone.com, Red Hat, Sina, CarsDirect, among others. Mr. Conley began his career at Lehman Brothers in 1988 and joined Cruttenden & Co. in 1991 (later Cruttenden Roth / Roth Capital Partners) to start the firm's institutional equity business and serve as Head of Institutional Equity Sales, where he played a key role in over 100 equity financings raising over $1.4 billion.

Robert M. Levande, Managing Director - Investment Banking

Mr. Levande leads our East Coast investment banking effort. Prior to joining MDB, Mr. Levande was co-head of Life Sciences Corporate Finance at Gilford Securities. Previously, he founded the Palantir Group, Inc., which specializes in providing strategic advice in business development, mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising for the medical technology industry. From 1972 through 1999, Mr. Levande held a number of managerial positions of increasing responsibility with Pfizer Inc., principally in its Medical Technology Group (MTG). Mr. Levande's tenure included 21 years with MTG's largest operating unit where he helped to grow the business from sales of $50 million to over $800 million. At Howmedica, Mr. Levande was a corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Canada, Latin America, & Far East Division. He devised the strategy to create this division, established seven additional business units, and negotiated over 25 distribution agreements during its implementation. He was subsequently promoted to Senior Vice President with responsibilities that included finance, planning, and business development. From 1996-1999, Mr. Levande was Vice President - Business Analysis & Development of MTG. During his tenure at Pfizer, he actively participated in more than 20 acquisition and technology transfer agreements. Mr. Levande's other experience includes director of Orthovita, Inc. (NASDAQNM: VITA), founder / director of VirnetX Inc. (now VirnetX Holding Corp. (Amex: VHC)), director of Integrated Surgical Systems (OTC: ISSM.PK), and member of the Healthcare Advisory Board of Prism Venture Partners. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance & Commerce. Mr. Levande has also completed the Japanese Business Study Program at the Institute for International Studies and Training in Tokyo, Japan and the Spanish language program at Rennert Bilingual Institute.

Anthony P. Mazzarella, Managing Director – Merchant Banking

Mr. Mazzarella is Managing Director of MDB’s Merchant Banking operations. Mr. Mazzarella possesses over 28 years of experience in technology, general management and finance.  Prior to joining MDB, Mr. Mazzarella was founding CEO of AOptix Technologies, Inc.  AOptix is the world leader in adaptive optics laser communications, as well as a significant player in the biometrics field.  Before co-founding AOptix, Mr. Mazzarella was founding investor, COO and CFO of iMALL, Inc, a publicly-held e-commerce enabler, and played a key role in the sale of iMALL to Excite@Home in 1999 for $565 million. Mr. Mazzarella was subsequently a founding investor of GreatDomains.com and was instrumental in its sale to Verisign for over $100 million.  He was also a founding investor and/or director of numerous other IT/technology startups, including Mustang Software (sold to Quintus for $225 million), SuperNation (sold to InterMix Media/MySpace), eForce Media, RealtyTracker, and Reunion.com.  Early in his career, Mr. Mazzarella was managing director of Geller & Friend Capital Partners, vice president of investment for The Davis Companies, director of planning for Twentieth Century Fox, management consultant with Deloitte & Touche, and an engineer at The Boeing Company.  Mr. Mazzarella currently serves as a director of AOptix Technologies, and MyLife.com (formerly Reunion.com). Mr. Mazzarella holds a BA in Physics from Pomona College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jeffrey R. Marshall, Ph.D., Managing Director - Investment Banking

Dr. Jeffrey Marshall has been closely following the biotechnology and life sciences capital markets for over 10 years. Prior to joining MDB Capital Group LLC in December 2009, Dr. Marshall was a founding partner of FairLook Advisors LLC, a life science and healthcare investment management/advisory firm. At FairLook he advised early development stage corporate clients on valuation and financing strategy, assisted in financial structuring and capital raising, and managed a long-only investment portfolio comprised solely of publicly traded life science and healthcare equities. Prior to forming FairLook Advisors LLC, Dr. Marshall helped establish a Life Science and Healthcare practice for the Fairview Capital Group, LLC, the institutional division of Whitaker Securities in New York, NY. There, first as Sr. Biotechnology Analyst he initiated and maintained formal coverage on underfollowed micro and small cap biotechnology companies, and later as Director of Life Science and Healthcare Investment Banking he executed in excess of $250 million of equity financings on behalf of US and European corporate clients. He is a confidant of senior management teams capable of leading technical and strategic dialogues and a well-respected voice within the institutional investment community. Dr. Marshall graduated with a B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Marquette University and received a Ph.D. in Biochemical Pharmacology from The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Cary Hurwitz, Managing Director - Investment Banking

Mr. Hurwitz has eight years of investment banking, financial advisory, and buy-side expertise. For the past two years, Mr. Hurwitz was the President and Chief Operating Officer of New Providence Capital Management Partners, a $50 million private Bahamian hedge fund, created to invest in mezzanine, bridge, and second mortgage real estate opportunities. Prior to this tenure, Mr. Hurwitz served as financial advisor in connection with the public emergence of eight companies and the placement of over $275 million in debt and equity securities within the real estate, entertainment, technology, consumer products and healthcare industries. Mr. Hurwitz has also served as President of his own firm, C S Capital Resources, Vice President of Capital Transactions at New Capital Advisors, a boutique Los Angeles financial advisory firm, and as financial analyst at AEW Capital Management, a bi-coastal real estate investment banking firm. Mr. Hurwitz holds a J.D.- M.B.A. from the Pepperdine School of Law and Graziadio School of Management and is a member of the State Bar of California.

Jeffrey Sun, Managing Director - Asia Pacific

Mr. Sun has over 20 years of experience in equity trading, cross-Pacific JV formation and investment banking.  Prior to joining MDB, Mr. Sun worked in marketing and product development at firms such as, P&G, Texas Instruments, and Bank of America.  His responsibilities at MDB have included running the equity trading desk, investment banking and strategic consulting for firm clients.  Mr. Sun initiated the first NYSE IPO for a Chinese regional company in 1996. He has also directed MDB’s investment banking services that have included PIPE’s, reverse mergers, and other cross border transactions for Hong Kong listed companies.  His extensive cross-Pacific JV experience spans numerous Asia Pacific companies in sectors, such as mining & refineries, alternative energy, wireless communications, and waste recycling.  He currently serves as a director for several JV and Chinese companies. Mr. Sun received his M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

George H. Brandon, Managing Director - Business Development
Mr. Brandon has 24 years of investment experience working on both the buy and sell side. Prior to joining MDB, he served as the director of business development for Dallas, Texas based start up, MileMeter Insurance. Mr. Brandon’s business focus has primarily been with entrepreneurial start-ups, micro-cap and small cap companies. He has served as a partner of Trinity River Advisors, LLC, a turnaround consulting firm, targeting small companies dealing with financial distress. Mr. Brandon also served as a partner for a micro-cap investment firm, Sawtooth Capital Management Inc. His security related experiences include institutional sales of distressed securities at Drake Capital Securities and manager of the Los Angeles Office for Robert Thomas Securities, a division of Raymond James Financial. Mr. Brandon received a B.A. from Concordia University- Irvine.

Jon R. Hickman, Equity Analyst - CleanTech, Internet & Healthcare

Jon Hickman joined MDB Capital in 2005 to cover emerging growth companies in the technology, media, and health care sectors. Mr. Hickman has over 29 years of investment experience as both a sell-side and buy-side analyst and senior portfolio manager of small cap growth equities. At MDB, Mr. Hickman has consistently earned Bloomberg’s #1 BARR ranking on the majority of his research universe and is regularly called upon by the financial media to discuss his coverage in cleantech, digital media, internet and medical device sectors. Prior to MDB, he was an Equity Analyst at Security Research Associates and Halpern Capital covering technology and life science companies. Mr. Hickman began his career in 1980 working with Bank of America’s Trust Department in San Francisco analyzing private companies. He then spent 16 years managing institutional growth oriented money at Wells Fargo Bank’s Wells Capital Management and later at Jurika & Voyles, where he was the Head of the Aggressive Growth Investment Team. Mr. Hickman has a B.A. in Chemistry and MBA in Finance from Brigham Young University.

Amy Wang, Ph.D., Equity Analyst - Life Sciences

Dr. Amy Wang joined MDB Capital Group in 2007 to support and further its life science research endeavors. She has an extensive scientific background as well as biotechnology industry experience. Prior to joining MDB, she was a development scientist at Invitrogen, Corp.'s Biosource division where she led a team in the Signal Transduction Assay group and spearheaded development of the Epigenetics program. Prior to Invitrogen, Dr. Wang served as a staff scientist at private biotech company Amycte, Inc., where she performed cell therapy research for type I diabetes. Prior to Amcyte, Dr. Wang was a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA in Michael Grunstein's laboratory where she worked on chromatin modifications and gene regulation. She has also worked as a research associate in microbiology and pathology. Dr. Wang received her BS in Biochemistry and Ph.D. from the department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA and is currently a UCLA Anderson MBA candidate.

Gary S. Hobbib, Equity Analyst - Life Sciences
Mr. Hobbib has been engaged in an analyst capacity covering the biotechnology and healthcare space since 2001. Prior to joining MDB Capital, Mr. Hobbib was a founding partner of FairLook Advisors, LLC a Life Science and Healthcare Investment Management./Advisory Firm. FairLook Advisors advises corporate customers by developing strategy, providing valuation and financing advice/marketing and also assists in financial structuring and capital raising. Prior to forming FairLook Advisors LLC, Mr. Hobbib was Research Director and Sr. Analyst specializing in special situations in the healthcare and life sciences industries with the Fairview Capital Group, LLC, a boutique institutional division of broker - dealer Whitaker Securities LLC. At Fairview Capital, Mr. Hobbib initiated formal coverage on over 25 companies and advised Fairview’s institutional clients on numerous others. Prior to Whitaker Securities, Mr. Hobbib developed a long/short sell-side equity research product for Westrock Advisors, a regional retail/institutional broker-dealer headquartered in New York, NY. and oversaw investment initiation coverage on 38 companies. Mr. Hobbib graduated with B.A. degrees in Mathematics and Psychology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.