Our Executive Committee includes:
Steve is a founder and the Managing Partner of Merlin Securities. Prior to founding Merlin, Steve founded and was President and CEO of Montgomery Prime Brokerage which later became Banc of America Prime Brokerage and is today BNP Prime Brokerage. Prior to founding Montgomery Prime Brokerage, Steve was a Partner and Managing Director at Furman Selz in New York in the Prime Brokerage Division. Furman Selz Prime Brokerage Division is part of the UBS Prime Brokerage platform. Steve also was an institutional salesman at L.F. Rothschild & Co. and a security analyst at Delafield and Delafield.
Steve has a B.S. from Babson College, 1967. He serves on a number of boards most notably Hedge Funds Care. He lives with his wife in San Francisco.
Prior to founding Merlin, Aaron was a Principal at New Enterprise Associates, a $6 billion venture capital firm, from 2000 to 2003. Previously, Aaron was a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Technology Partners in the San Francisco and the Zurich, Switzerland offices. Aaron received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in History and German from Washington University.
Prior to founding Merlin, Chuck was a Founder, Managing Director and Chief Operations Officer of Thomas Weisel Partners. From 1983 to 1999, Chuck was Senior Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Montgomery Securities and NationsBank.
Amr is responsible for the design and management of the Merlin’s technology platform. Prior to founding Merlin, Amr was a Principal at Banc of America Prime Brokerage Services in the technology group. He was responsible for the firm’s portfolio and risk reporting systems. Prior to his tenure at Banc of America Securities, Amr co-founded and launched the first ISP in Egypt in 1996, Egypt Online. He received a BS from Cairo University in Computer Science in 1996.
With offices in both San Francisco and New York City, Mr. Morgan manages all Merlin’s trading relationships, systems and execution platforms. Specializing in agency execution for Equities, Derivatives and International Trading, Mr. Morgan founded the San Francisco office of Susquehanna in 2001 and managed that firm’s West Coast Institutional Sales Traders. Mr. Morgan started his career in Institutional Sales Trading at Banc of America Securities in 1994. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University at Sacramento.
Ron Suber has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development across the hedge fund, broker dealer and registered investment advisor industries. Prior to joining Merlin Securities, Ron was President of Spectrum Global Fund Administration. He worked at Bear Stearns from 1992 to 2006 where he was a Senior Managing Director and the Manager of Global Clearing Sales for the Prime Brokerage, Correspondent Clearing & Registered Investment Advisor businesses. Mr. Suber began his career in 1982 at Pershing LLC. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Suber is a founding member of the West Coast executive committee of Hedge Funds Care and now serves on the National Board of Directors.
Ian comes to Merlin after seven years with UBS as a Senior Vice President, Investments, and ten years at Paine Webber with the same title. Ian brings Merlin many years of experience in originating and developing investment ideas for industry-leading long/short equity hedge funds. His relationships in the hedge fund community extend from junior analysts and startup managers to well-established portfolio and fund managers. Ian consults with a number of funds of funds on manager selection, and serves on the Board of Directors of Greenlight Re (GLRE- OTC).
John Hiestand oversees finance operations, accounting, treasury, taxes, financial planning and analysis, and human resources. Mr. Hiestand brings to Merlin 16 years of experience with public and private companies, most recently Chief Financial Officer at Merriman Curhan Ford Group (NASDAQ:MERR). Previously, Mr. Hiestand was a Senior Manager at KPMG serving financial services and technology companies. Mr. Hiestand has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. Mr. Hiestand is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.