FOCALPOINT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Security Officer
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President
- General Counsel
- Executive Vice President & General Counsel, B. Riley Financial
- Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of B. Riley Financial, Inc.
Alan N. Forman is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of B. Riley Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Forman joined the Company in May 2015 and is responsible for all legal affairs of the Company.
From May 2010 to May 2015, Forman was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of STR Holdings, Inc., a global manufacturer in the solar industry listed on the NYSE. Previously, he was a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP, an international law firm. Forman brings extensive executive experience in corporate and securities law, including financing transactions, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions.
Forman graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in Economics and received a J.D. from George Washington University Law School.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Operating Officer, B. Riley Principal Investments / Real Estate
Ananth Veluppillai is the Chief Operating Officer of B. Riley Principal Investments overseeing the operations within the investments and delivering superior cash flows/ROI. Ananth also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Lingo Management, LLC and President of magicJack/Credo Mobile/United Online.
Ananth has over 27 years of experience in telecommunications and held various leadership positions, including serving as the COO of Global Operations for Tech Mahindra's Network Services unit and COO of LCC International, Inc., that provided consulting services in Wireless and Wireline telecommunication networks in the US and around the world. Ananth has been responsible for several key wireless network deployments across North America and Europe and brings vast engineering and management experience to the organization, including operations & financial management, strategic planning and plan execution. Previously, Ananth was with Gibbs & Cox, Naval Architects & Marine Engineers.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Chief Executive Officer of B. Riley Securities, Inc.
- Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Securities
Andy Moore currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of B. Riley Securities, Inc. In 2006, he joined B. Riley & Co., LLC as an institutional sales professional, moving on to Director of Sales in 2011. In addition to his responsibilities as Chief Executive, he plays an active role structuring Issuer financings, placing the related instruments into the firm's proprietary institutional client base, and in ensuring appropriate secondary market support. Previously, Mr. Moore held sales positions at Roth Capital Partners and Bear Stearns & Co.
Mr. Moore received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Kansas and an MBA in Finance from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Co - Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- Principal
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Financial
B. Riley's diverse suite of services goes beyond traditional financial service offerings. By leveraging cross-platform expertise and assets, we are uniquely positioned to provide full service, collaborative solutions to our clients at every stage of the business life cycle and in all market conditions. To learn more about the B. Riley platform, click here.
B. Riley Securities provides a full suite of investment banking, corporate finance, advisory, research, and sales and trading services. Investment banking services include initial, secondary and follow-on offerings, institutional private placements, merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory, SPACs, corporate restructuring and recapitalization. B. Riley is nationally recognized and highly ranked for its proprietary small-cap equity research. B. Riley Securities formerly operated as B. Riley FBR following the merger of B. Riley & Co. and FBR & Co.
Bryant R. Riley has served as our Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer since June 2014 and July 2018 respectively, and as a director since August 2009. He also previously served as our Chief Executive Officer from June 2014 to July 2018. In addition, Mr. Riley served as the Chairman of B. Riley & Co., LLC since founding the stock brokerage firm in 1997 until its combination with FBR Capital Markets & Co., LLC in 2017 and as Chief Executive Officer of B. Riley & Co., LLC from 1997 to 2006. He also served as Chairman of B. Riley Principal Merger Corp. from April 2019 to February 2020, at which time it completed its business combination with Alta Equipment Group, Inc. (NYSE: ALTG); as Chairman of B. Riley Principal Merger Corp. II from May 2020 to November 2020 at which time it had completed it business combination with Eos Energy Enterprises (Nasdaq: EOSE); and as Chairman of B. Riley Principa1 150 Merger Corp. from June 2020 to July 2022, at which time it completed its business combination with FaZe Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FAZE). He currently serves as Chairman of B. Riley Principal 250 Merger Corp. since May 2021. Mr. Riley has served as director of Select Interior Concepts, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIC) from November 2019 to October 2021. He also previously served on the board of Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: BW) from April 2019 to September 2020, Sonim Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SONM) from October 2017 to March 2019 and Franchise Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRG) (fka Liberty Tax, Inc.) from September 2018 through March 2020. Mr. Riley received his B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University.
B. Riley Financial ("B. Riley") provides collaborative solutions tailored to fit the capital raising and business advisory needs of its clients and partners. B. Riley operates through several subsidiaries that offer a diverse range of complementary end-to-end capabilities spanning investment banking and institutional brokerage, private wealth and investment management, financial consulting, corporate restructuring, operations management, risk and compliance, due diligence, forensic accounting, litigation support, appraisal and valuation, auction and liquidation services. B. Riley is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices across the U.S. as well as an international presence.
B. Riley Principal Investments leverages resources across the platform in order to identify attractive investment opportunities and develop creative solutions for distressed companies or divisions that exhibit challenging market dynamics. The team relies on its deep investment and operational expertise to self-source proprietary opportunities across a broad array of transaction types that maximize free cashflow.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Wealth
Craig A. Ellis is Director of Research and Sr. Semiconductor and Capital Equipment Analyst with B. Riley Securities. He has two-plus decades of Technology and Energy Sell Side coverage experience and prior to that extensive energy industry experience. Mr. Ellis was ranked the #4 and #2 Analyst on Wall Street of all 7,500 individuals for Stock Picking in 2019 and 2017, respectively by TipRanks, and prior to that was a top-3 II-ranked Semiconductor, Imaging, Enterprise Hardware and Integrated Oil and Independent Refiner research teams.
Prior to B. Riley, he was DoR and Sr. Semiconductor Analyst at Caris and Company and prior to that held a series of Sr. Analyst and Analyst roles at Citi and before that Schroders. Mr. Ellis received a degree in Finance with a minor in Economics from Montana State University.
Dan Shribman - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer
- Chief Investment Officer of B. Riley Financial, President of B. Riley Principal Investments
- Member of the Board of Directors of Alta Equipment Group Inc
Dan Shribman is Chief Investment Officer of B. Riley Financial where he oversees the asset base alongside Co-Chief Executive Officer Bryant Riley. The portfolio consists of several wholly owned operating businesses in addition to cash and investments that have grown from $500 million to over $2.5 billion during Shribman's tenure. The investment mandate is wide and includes both debt and equity in public and private markets. In virtually all investments, B. Riley Financial is involved at the board level and active in business and capital allocation decisions. Shribman has worked in close collaboration with management teams and boards to maximize shareholder value in the form of operational turnarounds, capital market financing and communication, and capital deployment initiatives.
Shribman has served as a member of the board of directors of Alta Equipment Group Inc. (NYSE: ALTG) since February 2020, Arena Group Holdings (NYSE: AREN) since June 2021, NextPoint Financial Inc. (OTCMKTS: NACQF) since August 2021, AltEnergy Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: AEAE) since November 2021 and FaZe Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: FAZE) since July 2022. Shribman also serves as a board observer or at the board level of several private companies. Shribman has served as the CEO and CFO of 250 Merger Corps. since May 2021.
Prior to joining B. Riley, Shribman was a Portfolio Manager at a special situation asset manager with over $15 billion in assets under management. During his tenure, he led investments in dozens of public and private opportunities across the general industrials, transportation, automotive, aerospace, gaming, hospitality and real estate industries. These investments ranged from public equities and bonds to deeply distressed securities, par bank debt, minority owned private equity, and majority owned private equity.
Previously, he worked at a private equity firm and in the restructuring advisory group at Lazard Freres.
Shribman holds an AB in Economics and History from Dartmouth.
Job Titles:
- Chief Administrative Officer
Dawn M. Farrell serves as Chief Administrative Officer with B. Riley Securities, responsible for providing broad oversight and coordination between its various business units.
In addition to her role, Ms. Farrell is focused on ensuring best in class execution for the firm's Capital Markets division. An 18-year veteran of the Capital Markets, Ms. Farrell specializes in syndication, distribution and marketing of new issue offerings for institutional clients. Her expertise includes IPOs, follow-on equity offerings, SPACs, convertible offerings, PIPEs, block trades, bought deals and cross-border transactions. In total, she has facilitated over 450 transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $50 billion for issuers across the multiple sectors.
Ms. Farrell serves on the board of the Woman's syndicate association which works to promote woman on Wall Street. She is also involved in numerous other charity organizations.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Services
- Co - Chief Operating Officer, B. Riley Corporate Services
Gary Chase serves as Co-Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Services for B. Riley Financial. He is responsible for a wide variety of business operations and technology initiatives. Chase works closely with the department heads across our diverse business streams and is instrumental in expense control and vendor management. Amongst his many responsibilities, Chase manages the company's portfolio of real estate leases.
Prior to joining B. Riley in 2016, Chase held various senior technology leadership roles throughout his 30 plus year career. He has extensive experience leading large global application development teams and managing complex projects across a variety of industries, including financial services, investment banking, and mobile payments and commerce in a startup environment. He spent 11 years at UBS, plus time at GE Capital, Spear Leeds & Kellogg (now Goldman Sachs), CS First Boston, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Softcard.
Chase holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance with a minor in Computer Science from Lehigh University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Accounting Officer
- Senior Vice President
Howard Weitzman has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer since December 2009. Prior to December 2009, Mr. Weitzman served as a Senior Manager in the SEC Services and Financial Services audit practices which included twelve years in public accounting at two of the "Big 4" accounting firms, most recently as a Senior Manager in the financial services audit practice of Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Mr. Weitzman also held various senior financial management positions, with Banner Holdings, Inc. as the Chief Financial Officer of Central Financial Acceptance Corporation and Controller and Principal Accounting Officer of Central Rents, Inc. Mr. Weitzman also served as a Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Peoples Choice Financial Corporation. Mr. Weitzman received a B.S. in Accounting from California State University, Northridge and is a California licensed Certified Public Accountant.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Advisory Services / Investment Banking & Capital Markets
Jen Arnett is the Chief Marketing Officer for B. Riley Financial and manages the firm's corporate marketing team, directing all corporate marketing, branding and communications. In addition to traditional methods of marketing, Arnett focuses on marketing from the inside, out; executing programs to facilitate education and collaboration of B. Riley's 2,000 professionals, for the purposes of cross-utilization, cross-sell and raising awareness of the firm's vast platform. Prior to B. Riley, Arnett led marketing for internet service providers NetZero and Juno during her 15-year career with parent company United Online (which was acquired by B. Riley in 2016), where she held several business development, marketing, product and market research positions. Prior to United Online, Arnett worked for entertainment research firm Frank N. Magid Associates and her alma mater as a recruiter.
Arnett holds a B.A. in Communications from Villanova University.
Job Titles:
- President & Head of Capital Markets, B. Riley Securities / Principal Investments
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Services for B. Riley Financial
- Co - Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services
John DeSena serves as Co-Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Services for B. Riley Financial. He is works closely with Tom Kelleher and cross functional department heads focusing on vendor management, acquisitions, centralizing and supporting corporate initiatives/projects, and operational efficiencies among other things. John was formerly the Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Secretary for National. Prior to joining National, he was the Chief Operating Officer for Group Technology & Operations for the Americas, the Head of Operational Excellence, and Head of Americas Finance Infrastructure/Shared Services at Deutsche Bank. At Merrill Lynch, John served as Head of Global Markets & Investment Banking Financial Planning and Analysis, and Chief Financial Officer of Americas Investment Banking. He holds his Series 99 License.
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Officer
- Chief Business Officer, B. Riley Financial
Jon Merriman serves as Chief Business Officer for B. Riley Financial, the holding company for RILY's diverse operations, as well as Senior Managing Director, Investment Banking, with B. Riley Securities, the firm's investment banking arm. In these dual rol es Merriman works closely with public and private corporations across multiple industry groups, private equity investors, law firms and IR firms to leverage the firm's resources to create solutions and drive revenue to the firm.
Mr. Merriman specializes in act ively advising high growth public and private companies on complex financing, capital markets related and operational issues. With over 35 years of experience in the investment banking, brokerage, and trading businesses, he has deep experience in corporate turnarounds, debt and equity transactions and helping companies grow across a broad variety of industries, including the healthcare, technology and consumer sectors. He also has experience in managing fast growing organizations, having spearheaded the gr owth of the investment bank Merriman Holdings, Inc. From zero to over $100mm in revenues in less than five years. During the pandemic, he was very active with equity and equity linked solutions for a variety of clients in the technology, media, and entertainment sectors, including AMC's $2.2 billion ATM financing solution and RumbleOn's Acquisition of RideNow.
Prior to his appointment as B. Riley's Chief Business Officer in April 2019, Mr. Merriman served as head of Capital Markets, during which time he was tasked with helping expand and enhance the firm's capital markets and investment banking business prior to its merger with FBR & Co. in 2017. Today, the combined business, B. Riley Securities, is a leading investment bank which provides corporate fina nce, research, and sales & trading to corporate, institutional and high net worth individual clients. Investment banking services include initial, secondary and follow-on offerings, institutional private placements, and merger and acquisitions advisory ser vices. The firm is nationally recognized for its highly ranked proprietary equity research and is a recognized leader in financing and advising companies under $2 billion in enterprise value.
Prior to joining B. Riley, he was co-chairman and CEO of Merriman Holdings, Inc. Before forming his own firm, Mr. Merriman was Managing Director and Head of Equities for Wells Fargo Securities (WFS), formerly First Security Van Kasper (FSVK), and served on FSVK's Board of Directors. As a result of a financing complet ed by WFS, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of RateXchange Corporation, a publicly traded telecommunications company. Mr. Merriman was subsequently appointed Chairman and CEO of RateXchange, which he restructured into Merriman Curhan Ford, known as Merriman Capital, Inc.
Over the course of his finance and managerial career, he has served on multiple private, public and non-profit company boards and continues to be active as a board member and advisor. Mr. Merriman's extensive institutional and perso nal network and trading experience provide him with unique perspective when serving as a board member, as well as working with investment banking clients and institutional investors. His broad experience across banking and brokerage, as well as his prior management and board activities, has earned him a reputation as a leading private equity and portfolio company advisor among his peers.
Mr. Merriman holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and is based in the firm's Los Angeles office.
Job Titles:
- President
- President of B. Riley Financial / Chief Executive Officer of
- President, B. Riley Financial Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Principal Investments
Kenneth "Kenny" Young is President of B. Riley Financial as well as CEO of B. Riley Principal Investments which acquires, invests and operates companies with a focus on maximizing cash flows through operational expertise. He also serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), a leader in energy and environmental products and services for power and industrial markets worldwide.
Young has more than 30 years of operational, executive and director experience primarily within the energy, communications and finance industries, on a global basis. Before joining B. Riley, he held executive leadership positions with Lightbridge Communications Corporation (LCC), which was the largest independent telecom construction and services company in the world and a recognized leader in providing network services. Initially serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Americas for LCC, he was named President and CEO in 2008, serving in that position until he led the company's sale in 2015. Under his leadership, LCC's revenues grew more than 200 percent and the company expanded its geographical presence into more than 50 countries.
Prior to joining LCC, Young was Chief Marketing and Operations Officer with Liberty Media's TruePosition and held various senior executive positions with multiple corporations, including Cingular Wireless, SBC Wireless, Southwestern Bell Telephone and AT&T as part of his 16-year tenure within the now-combined AT&T Corporation.
Young has previously served on seven public company boards and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Sonim Technologies NASDAQ: (SONM) and Babcock & Wilcox NYSE: (BW).
Young holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Graceland University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Illinois.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief
- Information Officer
- Deputy Chief Information Officer & Head of IT Infrastructure
Michael Biener serves as Deputy Chief Information Officer & Head of IT Infrastructure for B. Riley Financial and co-manages the firm's Corporate IT department.
In his position, Biener co-manages a centralized IT Department of nearly 30 professionals responsible for providing 24/7 day-to-day IT Support services to all employees while maintaining the necessary corporate network and infrastructure to support seamless IT integration and efficiency across the B. Riley Financial platform of companies. As Head of IT Infrastructure, he is responsible for the Networking & Telecom, Server & Storage and the Corporate Support Desk Team.
Prior to joining B. Riley in 2004, Biener worked with the Green LA program at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as a dedicated desktop support specialist. While he is a Boston native, Biener has lived in Los Angeles for almost 40 years.
Biener holds a BA in Linguistics & Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Job Titles:
- President, B. Riley Real Estate / Retail
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Advisory Services
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Wealth
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
- Chief Human Resources Officer for B. Riley Financial, Is a Member of Our Corporate Shared Services Organization and Is Responsible for Our Human Resources and Risk Insurance Programs
Feeney oversees our HR programs and initiatives with the belief that employees are our Company's most important asset, and B. Riley's culture is an important industry differentiator. Feeney and the HR team work to create an environment that positions employees to reach their fullest potential. We strive to attract, develop, and retain a talented and engaged workforce.
Since joining B. Riley in 2016, Feeney has enjoyed supporting the Company's continuous growth; growing from 200+ employees to over 2000 today. In her role, Feeney led the integration of several acquisitions, including United Online (July 2016), FBR Capital Markets (June 2017), Wunderlich Securities (July 2017), and GlassRatner (Aug. 2018) and the creation of our corporate shared services organization (Jan. 2019).
Feeney has over 25 years experience in the B2B professional services and technology sector and has spent the past 12 years focused on driving change management and developing global organizational efficiencies. She has extensive experience in evaluating and improving processes, delivering efficiencies through technology, and creating global shared services organizations.
Before joining B. Riley in July 2016, Feeney spent 10 years with LCC International, a global provider of consulting services for the wireless and wireline telecommunications sector doing business in 23 countries with over 6500 employees in the USA, EMEA, and CASA regions. At LCC, Feeney led Marketing, IT, Human Resources, Corp. Risk and M&A integration activities. Prior to that, Feeney spent 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area working with start-up/turn-around companies in the data and telecommunications industries.
Feeney holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Dayton.
Nancy Feeney, Chief Human Resources Officer for B. Riley Financial, is a member of our Corporate Shared Services organization and is responsible for our Human Resources and Risk Insurance programs.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer, B. Riley Financial
- Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of B. Riley Financial Inc.
Phillip Ahn is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of B. Riley Financial Inc. Ahn has spent over 20 years in the financial services sector, beginning his tenure with B. Riley Financial in 2010 as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development.
Prior to joining B. Riley Financial, Ahn served as Vice President at middle market private equity firms Altpoint Capital Partners and Stone Tower Equity Partners where he helped manage several of the firms' majority-owned portfolio companies. Prior to that, he held positions at the NY State Common Retirement Fund, Salomon Smith Barney, CIBC World Markets and Standard & Poor's J.J. Kenny division.
Ahn received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and his Master of Business Administration in Finance from Columbia University. Ahn is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the NY Society of Security Analysts.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Retail Solutions
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President, B. Riley Retail Solutions
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
Tim Wood leads B. Riley's Information Technology group and is responsible for the company's IT applications and infrastructure. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in the financial industry, and was named the "Best Sell-Side Technology Executive" in the 2014 American Financial Technology Awards. Wood joined B. Riley with its acquisition of FBR & Co. in 2017 where he was the CIO.
Prior to FBR, Wood held roles at UBS Investment Bank and CIBC World Markets leading IT teams for Distribution & Research, Equities Program Trading, Fixed Income Sales & Research, and Credit Derivatives among other business areas.
He has a B.A. in Physics, Economics & French from Duke University and an M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Job Titles:
- President, B. Riley Venture Capital
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board
- Co - Chief Executive Officer, B. Riley Financial
Tom Kelleher has served as our Co-Chief Executive Officer since July 2018 and as a member of our board since October 2015. He also previously served as President from August 2014 to July 2018. Kelleher previously served as Chief Executive Officer of B. Riley & Co., LLC, a position he held from 2006 to 2014. From the firm's founding in 1997 to 2006, Kelleher held several senior management positions with B. Riley & Co., LLC, including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer. Kelleher served on the board of directors of Special Diversified Opportunities Inc. from October 2015 to June 2017.
He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University.