David E. Aron, Esq. formerly practiced law at the following international law firms: Schulte Roth & Zabel, where he concentrated on CDSs on CDOs; McDermott Will & Emery, where he was a partner and concentrated on commodity derivatives and energy trading; and Dechert Price & Rhoads, where he concentrated on CPO/CTA regulatory work and hedge/mutual funds’ OTC derivatives work. Earlier in his career, Mr. Aron supported the equity derivatives business (and, to a lesser extent, the credit, commodities, interest rate and FX derivatives businesses) at Citibank and worked on a variety of futures, OTC derivatives and investment matters at MetLife. Mr. Aron graduated from Syracuse University with a JD/MBA (finance) in 1993 and from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 1990. Mr. Aron is a member of the NY and DC bars. Currently, Mr. Aron is a special counsel in the Data Policy Section of the Division of Data at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington D.C.
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Richard W. Berry, Esq. is Executive Vice President and Director, FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (DRS). Prior to serving in this capacity, Mr. Berry was Senior Vice President, DRS. In that role, he oversaw the four regional offices—New York, Boca Raton, Chicago and Los Angeles—and DRS’s Case Administration unit. Mr. Berry joined FINRA, then NASD, in 1995 as head of DRS's Los Angeles satellite office. In 2001, he was named Director of Case Administration in the New York City office. Mr. Berry serves as Executive Champion of FINRA’s Toastmasters Clubs. Mr. Berry earned his Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional™ designation through the FINRA Institute. Prior to joining FINRA, he taught American law for one year in Budapest. Mr. Berry began his career practicing law in San Francisco. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Hastings College of the Law. Mr. Berry is a member of the California Bar.
Alan J. Besnoff is the founder of Securities Expert Witness & Litigation Support, LLC and serves as an expert witness and litigation consultant throughout the United States. He provides expertise in disputes concerning suitability and sales practices of securities, insurance & annuities, and employment issues within the financial services industry. Mr. Besnoff has served as a General Securities Principal with over 25 years of supervisory experience and has passed FINRA registration examinations for Series 6, 63, 65, 7, 26, and 24, as well as state licensing examinations for Life Insurance & Annuities, Disability Insurance, Long Term Care Insurance, Variable Life Insurance and Variable Annuities. He has taught securities, financial planning, insurance & annuities, and risk management at multiple universities and to financial advisors and managers throughout the industry. Mr. Besnoff holds the designations of: Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). He has been appointed by the CFP Board of Standards, and is currently serving as a Commissioner on the Disciplinary and Ethics Commission.
Dennis Boyle, Esq. is an accomplished white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation attorney who practices throughout the United States and internationally. Prior to founding Boyle & Jasari, he worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a First Assistant District Attorney, and served as a Navy Judge Advocate and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. After serving for more than a decade as a prosecutor, he became a criminal and white-collar criminal defense counsel working as a partner in several of the nation’s most prestigious law firms. He has tried over 200 jury trials to verdict in state and federal courts throughout the United States. Mr. Boyle has defended cases involving allegations of Securities Fraud, Banking Fraud, Money Laundering, Tax Fraud and Evasion, Health Care Fraud, Medicare Fraud, Wire Fraud and Mail Fraud as well as violations of Espionage statutes and other serious crimes like Narcotics Distribution and even murder. He lectures frequently on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Bank Secrecy Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Sanctions) and Anti-Money Laundering.
Peter E. Bugler has over forty years of experience in executive and managerial positions spanning regulatory; broker-dealers; investment advisers and consulting. His areas of expertise include broker/dealer and registered investment advisory compliance; equity research and trading; fixed income sales and trading; public and investment banking; prime brokerage and correspondent clearing. As an investigator with NASD, Mr. Bulger was involved in more than 70 sales practice and financial and operational examinations. As a group head, he conducted hundreds of reviews of customer complaints and regulatory for cause filings. During his career with both investment advisory and investment banking entities, he led teams in gathering and explaining workings and industry customs to defense attorneys and acted as a fact or expert witness in over 50 hearings. He is a graduate of University of Albany and Fordham University.
Kerry Campbell has over 30 years of financial industry experience. He is the principal of a financial litigation and investment management consulting firm, Kerry Campbell LLC, where he serves as a financial expert witness during litigations and provides consulting services to financial institutions and investors. He has worked in investment research and portfolio management, as a Managing Director at Arden Asset Management, and as a Senior Vice President at Guggenheim Partners. He has worked in prime broker risk management as a Managing Director at Bear Stearns. Prior to that he worked as a commissioned registered representative, a funding officer and as a credit analyst/loan officer. Mr. Campbell received a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Finance Summa Cum Laude from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business. He is an Approved FINRA Dispute Resolution Arbitrator, a Chartered Financial Analyst®, a Certified Financial Planner™, an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst™ and a Securities Experts Roundtable Member.
Paul Carroll is the Incoming President of SER and the Founder/President of Sententia, LLC. He has over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry with expertise in operational controls, processes and procedures. Since 2011 he has been providing expert consulting, expert witness and testimony working with industry regulators, regulated brokers/dealers, attorneys and private parties in connection with investigations, trials, arbitration and mediation. Sententia LLC was formed to 2012 to provide insight, expertise and assistance to attorneys, investors, industry regulators and financial services firms. Primary practice areas involve Securities Litigation consulting and Expert Testimony in connection with regulatory investigations, trials, arbitration and mediation.
Gary Cohen is the founder of Speakery where he consults with individuals and companies to help them be the best that they can be. He has deep experience managing and leading teams in both large global organizations and small remote SaaS start-ups in sports marketing, digital marketing and social media. He has consulted for numerous local B2C and B2B companies and managed large Global Transaction Services and Retirement Service divisions at Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and Citibank. Gary “speaks” the languages of technology, finance, operations, marketing and sales. He is a trusted partner for boards and management, and is accustomed to interfacing with regulators, lawyers, accountants and consultants. He has a BA Econ from the University of Cape Town, an MBA from Fordham, and is a recovering CPA. Significant roles include Client Relations/Strategy Director at RSportz; Co-Founder, CEO/CFO of Crayon; Chief of Staff for GTS at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank. He has experience in forensic accounting and litigation support.
Gontran de Quillacq, the Managing Partner of Navesink International, is both a veteran from the trading floors and an expert witness/legal consultant. He is a recognized authority in options, futures, swaps, trading, derivatives, structured products, complex securities, portfolio management, mathematical finance, quantitative investments, and strategy research in the wider segment of alternative investments and hedge funds. He has supported securities lawsuits and arbitrations involving losses, risks, frauds, manipulations, and wrongful uses of derivatives (tax trading). A proprietary and derivatives trader, Mr. de Quillacq managed derivatives products, from vanillas to exotic structured products. As a portfolio manager, he researched and managed investment strategies, delivered both in hedge fund and in structured note formats. Mr. de Quillacq ran due diligence on investment strategies and selected senior investment personnel for some of the world’s most famous and demanding hedge funds. He co-founded a quantitative fund deploying the latest machine learning techniques in global long/short equities. He is now a quantitative researcher for an institutional volatility arbitrage fund.
Patrick M. Dennis has been involved in the securities industry for over 30 years, most recently as one of the Founding Principals of Oyster Consulting, LLC. Has held CCO positions at broker/dealers, investment advisors and dual registrants including Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel to Wachovia Securities, LLC (now Wells Fargo Advisors). From 1998 to 2003 he managed the firm’s most significant securities litigation and arbitration matters. Mr. Dennis began his legal career in 1986 at the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and was Senior Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1996. He holds a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School. He is a member of the Bar in the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Virginia (Corporate Counsel) and Wisconsin (inactive). He is a FINRA Industry Arbitrator, a member of SIFMA’s Compliance & Legal Division and a member of the Association of SEC Alumni.
Elizabeth Falk is the Founder and Managing Principal at Falk Financial Analysis, a firm specializing in Securities Account Analysis and Intra-Industry Dispute reports, Litigation Consulting, and Portfolio Performance Analysis / Damages Expert testimony. Over the past 21 years in practice, she has prepared reports in more than 2,000 cases and testified more than 100 times in arbitration (FINRA and AAA) and court. Elizabeth is the current President and Webcast Committee Chair for SER. Before this current role, she served 2 years as SER’s Treasurer and FinCom Chair. She has served on SER’s Board of Directors for the past 6 years. Most recently, Elizabeth was the Moderator for SER’s “Zoom Testimony” live webcast in June of 2020. She has previously been a Speaker on the "Damages and Remedies" Panel at the NYSBA Securities Arbitration 2020:Deep Dive event in New York City in March of 2020, in the “Best Use of Experts in Every Type of Arbitration Case” sessions at the 2019 PIABA Annual Meeting in Texas, in the "Demonstrative Exhibits" session at the 2010 PIABA Annual Meeting in Florida, and on the "PIABA Nuts and Bolts Panel" at the 2003 PIABA Mid-Year Meeting in California.
John Foster is the President and CEO of Bedford and Main Financial Consulting, which provides specialized consulting services primarily for broker-dealers and RIAs. In 2019 Bedford and Main became listed in the FINRA Compliance Vendor Directory. John calls upon his in-depth knowledge of broker-dealer management, operations and compliance to offer expert opinions and testimony. He specializes in clearing services and industry infrastructure litigation, along with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) issues for broker-dealers. He is proud to represent either side of the legal table to support the highest standards of fairness for broker-dealers and clients alike. Prior to founding Bedford and Main in 2011, John worked for 13 years in “C” level positions for a large, multi-national clearing firm, allowing him to develop expertise with foreign accounts and anti-money laundering issues. He later served as the President/CEO of an independent broker-dealer, where he was responsible for a retail-based business and on-line brokerage services. The experience provided John with a uniquely relevant understanding of core SEC and FINRA compliance issues, such as suitability, supervision, senior issues, churning and written supervisory procedures.
Brett M. Friedman has managed risk for over 30 years and has broad experience working with financial institutions in risk management and operations. He has built and managed three risk management organizations from scratch, two trading startups, and has transacted on numerous exchanges and OTC markets, He brings a vast amount of first-hand management, operations, and valuation experience. Mr. Friedman was formerly the COO/CRO of Brick Accretive Management, an absolute return hedge fund. He was also the Chief Risk Officer of Ospraie Management, an $8 billion natural resource-based hedge fund and private equity group. Mr. Friedman has experience in all asset classes and specializes in options risk, hedging, and valuation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Friedman served as a Partner at Risk Capital Management, Chief Risk Officer for three energy trading firms, worked for 10 years as a futures and options trader, and traded foreign exchange futures and options for the Union Bank of Switzerland. He started his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. Mr. Friedman earned a BA in Economics from Columbia University.
Geraldine Genco Dube’s career in finance began in 1987 at Chemical Bank’s corporate offices in New York. She was the first person to hold the office of Compliance Director for the bank’s wholly owned Private Banking affiliate located in Rockefeller Center. GG has held the position of Chief Compliance Officer for two national broker/dealer firms and registered investment advisors, J. W. Seligman in New York City and J. W. Charles in Boca Raton, FL. She also worked as a consultant for NYLife in New York City. In 1995 she began work as an expert witness. She has testified as an expert witness over 100 times and been retained for more than 500 cases. Her clients have included the Securities and Exchange Commission, the State of Florida Division of Securities & Finance, attorneys, brokerage and advisory firms. GG was a Board Member of the Loxahatchee River Management Coordinating Council, appointed by Congress and Mayor Emeritus for The Village of Tequesta. She is a Board Member of The Treasured Lands Foundation, as well as SER.
Barclay Leib, CFE, CAIA, head of Sand Spring Advisors LLC, has spent the majority of the past twenty years investigating hedge funds and other alternative investments for family offices and RIAs as an outsourced due diligence consultant. Barclay is particularly adept at analyzing issues around securities manipulation, trading practices, derivatives, structured products, Level 3 valuation issues, and fiduciary duty. He has a nearly 20-year career as a successful derivatives trader at firms including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. He holds active FINRA Series 7, 63, and 65 Licenses, and is an approved FINRA Non-Public arbitrator. Barclay graduated as a Wilson Scholar from Princeton University’s School of International & Public Affairs. He recently co-authored 2020 and 2021 CFA Society textbook chapters (Level 1 and Level 3) on hedge fund and alternative investing.
Michael Liftik, Esq. is Chair of Quinn Emanuel’s SEC Enforcement practice, and Co-Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office. His practice focuses on government and internal investigations, regulatory enforcement defense, securities litigation, cryptocurrencies, congressional investigations, crisis management, and cybersecurity. Michael has extensive experience as a securities litigator, having worked on matters stemming from major securities regulatory crises, including market timing and late trading, stock options backdating, and the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Michael spent nearly a decade at the Securities and Exchange Commission where he developed a unique depth of knowledge working on enforcement and regulatory matters at all levels of the Commission. Michael has appeared on CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg TV and has frequently been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times for his expertise on these topics.
Hollie Mason has more than 15 years of financial industry experience, involving Securities litigation and regulation. Prior to joining Brattle she served as senior enforcement counsel at FINRA, where she was responsible for ensuring that its members complied with FINRA and SEC regulatory requirements. Ms. Mason was also a certified FINRA dispute resolution arbitrator for over 10 years. She spent several years as senior in-house legal counsel for a large broker-dealer, where she handled complex litigation and compliance matters, including matters that involved auction rate securities, market manipulation, margin requirements, supervisory systems, and suitability obligations. Ms. Mason provides expert testimony as well as consulting services concerning securities markets and regulation, regulatory compliance and risk management. Ms. Mason holds a J.D. from Creighton University School of Law and is licensed to practice law before the Supreme Court of the United States, and in Nebraska and Iowa.
Pamela J. Parizek is a managing director in the Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice of Kroll, based in the Washington, D.C. office. She leads the Financial Investigations practice in North America. Pam has more than 30 years of experience advising audit committees, C-suite executives and outside counsel on complex accounting, legal and regulatory matters. Before joining Kroll, Pam served in the enforcement division of the SEC. She has also led the Washington, D.C. forensic practice of a Big Four accounting firm. Pam has led over 100 engagements in 30 countries, including numerous cross-border investigations into alleged anti-bribery and corruption violations. She has developed anti-bribery and corruption training programs, risk assessments, compliance audits, due diligence procedures and remediation plans for clients in EMEA, South America, APAC and the U.S. Her findings have been presented to the SEC, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Serious Fraud Office, and other U.S. and foreign regulatory authorities.
Charles W. Ranson has 35+ years of experience in the financial services industry. Mr. Ranson held positions at Legg Mason in Washington DC beginning in 1983, at Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer between 1986 and 1990 and entered the banking industry in 1990, at the Trust Department of Citizens and Southern Trust Co (Bank of America). He joined Chase Manhattan Private Bank in 1991, rising from VP for business development and marketing to Managing Director at Chase Manhattan Bank NA, ultimately becoming President and CEO of the Chase Manhattan Private Bank in Florida. Mr. Ranson worked with OCC regulators in all aspects of the bank’s audits and compliance with regulations. In 2001 he became Managing Director of US Trust Company of Florida, and in 2002 he opened the Florida offices of Atlantic Trust Co. He formed Integritas Advisors, an independent investment advisory firm, in 2004. From 2006-2010, he was Founding Chair of Tiger 21, the nation’s leading peer-to-peer learning group for ultra high net worth investors.
Ross Tulman began his career in the financial services industry as a licensed securities broker in 1982. In 1985 Mr. Tulman became an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Today he is the Managing Principal of Trade Investment Analysis Group in Columbus, Ohio. TIA Group’s focus is to provide expert consulting services to counsel engaged in securities and investment arbitration and litigation matters. Mr. Tulman began his career as an expert after the 1987 stock market crash. He has provided testimony in both state and Federal court, and in arbitrations before FINRA (formerly NASD), AAA, NYSE, CBOE, JAMS, CPR and the Pacific Exchange and is one of the few experts who is routinely retained on behalf of both claimants and respondents. Mr. Tulman served for three terms on the Board of Directors of SER and as their President in 2006-2007, and 2016-17. He has been a frequent public speaker on topics of securities arbitration. Mr. Tulman earned a BA in English from Emory University, an MBA in Taxation from Xavier University, and an MS in Finance from Johns Hopkins University.
Gordon Yale is the principal of Yale Forensics, a Denver-based forensic accounting and financial consulting firm specializing in securities fraud and professional negligence as well as president of Yale Group, Inc., a boutique investment bank. Mr. Yale, a former securities analyst, has served as a special investigative consultant to the SEC, the states of Colorado, Florida and Hawaii, and as an expert for both plaintiffs and defendants in many civil matters on behalf of institutional and other clients. He has been engaged by claimants’ counsel in scores of alternative investment claims involving adequacy of due diligence and disclosure. Mr. Yale has also been engaged by SEC-appointed receivers, has advised creditors’ committees and has conducted internal investigations on behalf of publicly-held companies. He has written on accounting and auditing issues for both business publications and professional journals. A past president and board member of the Securities Experts Roundtable, he was also the Alumnus of the Year of the School of Accountancy of the University of Denver.
