EXCELSIOR CAPITAL PARTNERS - Key Persons
Dakota has a strong background in the energy and infrastructure sectors where she has been active both as a corporate executive and principal. She founded and built one of the largest Medical Waste companies in New York State which she then sold to a public company. Ms. Forgione has coordinated development and financing structures for a wide range of projects including co-generation, heat recovery and alternative energy facilities both in North and South America.
She lead the strategic acquisition and roll up of one of the largest environmental response companies on the West Coast, for Foss Maritime, a 1.3 billion dollar company. She then provided strategic consulting services for a variety of fortune 500 companies who were seeking to acquire energy and alternative energy assets.
Dakota is a project finance specialist focusing on establishing structured financial products for the private equity and institutional capital markets encompassing a wide range of development projects. She has structured traditional debt and equity transactions as well as innovative lease platforms and alternative asset financing's for projects ranging in size from 20-400 million USD,
Ms. Forgione attended the State University of New York at Buffalo for her undergraduate studies and then participated in an accelerated Graduate program in Environment Policy.
Robert has over twenty years of banking and investment experience. Previously, he was a managing partner of Turnstone Capital and a founder of RLR Ventures, both New York City-based financial advisory and private equity firms. Ricciardelli was a founder and managing director of Golden Gate Investment Advisors based in Los Angeles, a fund that provides venture capital to early stage companies in select sectors. In his banking career, Robert has worked as an advisor to international infrastructure projects and as an executive at Standard Chartered Bank and ANZ Investment Bank, where he was an associate in the structured trade finance group and a manager in the project finance group respectively. In the project finance field, Ricciardelli has handled the financing of infrastructure projects such as power plants, heavy industrial manufacturing facilities, mining and oil & gas assets. Subsequently, and at ANZ he served as a senior manager in the media & telecommunications group that financed cellular telephone networks, multiplex cinemas, and other media businesses. He was a Managing Director of Cedar Lane Asset Management, the former asset manager of the Cedar Lane Entertainment Fund, a Cayman Islands-based entertainment lending fund. Ricciardelli received a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College (1986) and an M.B.A from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth (1995). He holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 79 securities registrations.
Based in Los Angeles, California, Scott has over 15 years of experience in the field of financial structuring and business consulting for various industries. After a successful career in the entertainment industry as an actor, he segued into the business side of the entertainment industry. As Executive Producer and owner of his own production company, Scott held development/production deals at major networks and several production studios. Mr. Valentine branched out into the Real Estate and other developmental markets as both an equity investor and independent banker in 1999. In 2003, Valentine became a managing partner in Merrit Capital, LLC. Valentine left Merrit Capital in 2005 to become a director of Excelsior Capital.
Scott attended Skidmore College and after receiving his degree moved to New York where he attended and completed the American Academy of Dramatic Arts program. He complete this three year program in only 18 months and graduated with honors.