Mr.
Clark is the Managing Partner of Pierce Financial Corporation
and Chairman of the Board of Counterpart, Inc., an international
joint venturing and partnering firm. Mr. Clark has twenty-five
years of experience in investment banking, project finance and
joint ventures in the U.S. and abroad. Recently he has been
concentrating in IT and telecommunications network projects
in the U.S. and Latin America. During the 1990’s Mr. Clark
worked on telecommunications and cable TV projects in Argentina,
Brazil and the US, including major backbone and CLEC operations
in both countries. He also was financial advisor to cellular
and wireless projects in Central America and the Caribbean.
Prior to founding Pierce, he served as Chief Executive Officer
of Porter International Company, a firm engaged in international
joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, technological licensing,
and project financing and as Vice President of Finance and Manager
of International Operations for G.T. Schjeldahl Corporation,
a manufacturer of high technology products. Prior to 1970, Mr.
Clark served as assistant to the Chairman and President of Deltec
International, and assistant to the Executive Vice President
of the InterAmerican Development Bank. He has a B.A. from Pomona
College and an M. A. in International Studies and Economics
from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. E-mail
John P. Clark
William
P. Graham
General Partner
Bill
has been a Managing Director of Pierce Financial Corporation,
Inc. since 1987 and is widely experienced in corporate finance,
turnarounds, workouts, management buyouts, valuations, merger-acquisitions,
contract negotiations and management consulting. Since 1982,
Mr. Graham has also structured and managed private investment
partnerships in training technology and real estate. He is a
founder and president of five corporations, known collectively
as Equisource Corporations and SRC Corporations, which manage
these partnerships. The Equisource Corporations specializes
in multimedia technology investment banking and consulting activities.
Mr. Graham began his career with IBM, holding positions as Assistant
to the President of IBM’s U.S. operations and as IBM’s
National Director of Marketing for the Finance, Insurance Communications,
Utilities and Transportation industries. He then headed and
turned around EDP Technology, Inc., which became Education Computer
Corporation, now a $50 million public company. Mr. Graham received
his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois. His biography
currently appears in “Who’s Who in the World.”
Robert
W. Tillson
Managing Director
Robert
W. Tillson is Managing Director of Pierce’s software and
information technology practice. He has experience in private
placements, venture capital, valuations, and mergers and acquisitions.
He advised the CEO of Intelligent Interactions during their
merger with 24/7 Media Services, the second largest internet
advertising network, and initiated several acquisitions and
joint ventures as an executive of CompuServe and General Electric
Information Services. He arranged financing for several early
stage software companies including Edge Technologies, Open Service,
and CavaSoft. He serves on the Boards of several software and
information technology services companies. Prior to joining
Pierce, he was a pioneer in the online information services
and software industry for over 25 years. He marketed the first
commercially available online information services as an executive
of the IBM Company. He introduced the first consumer interactive
online service as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing
for CompuServe, and was the senior executive managing the first
eCommerce services for General Electric Information Services.
He was founder and CEO of the first Sales Force Automation and
CRM software company, National Management Systems. Mr. Tillson holds a BS in Engineering from Syracuse University
and attended New York University Graduate School of Business
and Lehigh University. He is a member of the Association for
Corporate Growth, National Association of Corporate Directors,
and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Email
Robert W. Tillson
Sergei Zamascikov
Managing Director
Sergei Zamascikov joined the Pierce Group in 2004 as Managing Director of Emerging Markets, Eastern Europe. Before joining Pierce Sergei was President of ATI Consulting, an international business consultancy that specialized in business development and investment banking in Russia and the CIS. While at ATI Sergei provided corporate finance, strategic advisory and business development services to international clients in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. His assignments ranged from private placements of debt & equity, to M&A, valuations, strategic alliances, arranging lines of credit, deal structuring, legal documentation and management recruiting. Sergei took part in projects sponsored by the USTDA, US Ex-Imbank, UNCTAD, G-24, TACIS and structured project finance loans with the IFC, EBRD, Dresdner Bank, NCH, and Parex Bank. Before ATI Sergei held consulting and analyst positions with Credit Suisse First Boston, AlliedSignal Aerospace and the Rand Corporation. Mr. Zamascikov holds both a Series 7 securities license and a Series 66 Investment Advisor license. Mr. Zamascikov received his MA in International Politics and his MA in Slavic Studies from UCLA. Sergei is fluent in Russian and Polish and has reading knowledge of Italian, French, German, Latvian, and Lithuanian. Email
Sergei Zamascikov
Peter Yanachkov
General Counsel and Partner
Peter Yanachkov has over 12 years of experience in financing, restructuring and privatization in the financial, manufacturing, water, energy, oil and gas, transportation and mining sectors. Mr. Yanachkov has advised governments, multilateral institutions and strategic investors in Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. As international counsel and investment advisor, his experience includes project appraisal, asset valuation, development of restructuring and social impact mitigation plans, and preparation of investor “roadmaps”. He has advised investors in privatizations in Central and Eastern Europe - including the preparation for privatization of two large hydro power stations in Ukraine in 2001-2002.
Mr. Yanachkov is familiar with various investment guarantee mechanisms, in particular with those, designed by the World Bank and MIGA for the economies in transition in Europe, and has extensive experience in advising foreign investors on obtaining such guarantees. Mr. Yanachkov’s career has been a mixture of law and finance. After 1996 to present he worked as an attorney for Morris Deutsch/Columbia Development Corporation and for International Legal Counsels. Prior to 1996 he worked as an attorney and project finance expert for the World Bank in the European and Central Asian Deparatment and in the Private Sector Development Advisory Group. Mr. Yanachkov education includes an LLM from Georgetown University, a J.D. from St. Climent of Okhrid University – Bulgaria, and a number of specialized courses in project finance and financial markets in the World Bank. Mr. Yanachkov is fluent in: Bulgarian, English, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, and Czech.
Michael
J. Clark
Director
As
head of Pierce’s syndication desk, Michael led syndication
of US $20 million private placement of an international broadband
service provider. Michael has also managed the syndication of
multiple telecommunications and technology companies in private
equity and debt markets for a combined value of over US $300
million. Recently he has been active in the sale of distressed
telecom companies. Michael came from a background in communications
and politics and has worked on many national and statewide campaigns.
Michael attended the Claremont Colleges and the University of
Paris, La Sorbonne. Email
Michael J. Clark
Mohamed Cassam
Advisor
Mohamed
is Pierce’s Senior Advisor for energy and power. As founder
of Cassam & Associates, he specializes in formulation, development
and funding of power projects primarily in Africa and Asia.
He has completed assignments in privatization and public-private
infrastructure financing in some 20 countries including, Pakistan,
India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and most of the countries
of Africa and the Middle East. Prior to forming Cassam &
Associates, Mr. Cassam was a Manager in the World Bank’s
South Asia Region where he designed and implemented the $800
million PSIDF facility that funded 4500 MW of IPPS in Pakistan,
and closed the financing of the $1.8 billion Hub power project.
During his career, Mr. Cassam has worked for the United States
Agency for International Development, Acres International Consulting
Company and the World Bank FAO/ Cooperative Program.
Mr. Cassam earned a bachelor of Economics & History with
Honors at the Ohio Wesleyan University. He was later a graduate
student in Economics at the University of Michigan, and continued
a Postgraduate program in Economic History at the London School
of Economics. Mr. Cassam completed his studies with a Postgraduate
Diploma in Economic Development & Public Administration
from the Economic Development Institute at University of Oxford,
England.
Bernard
Filler
Advisor
Bernard M. Filler is Senior Vice President of the Kinsella group of Chicago, a middle market investment bank concentrating on M & A, and capital sourcing. Senior Advisor and Representative in Chicago for Pierce. As Sr. Vice President of Kensella and formerly President of Lidemara Enterprises, Bernie has represented many corporate clients in energy, real estate, entertainment, media and finance. Bernie assisted in capital formation, project development and management, project finance and domestic and international strategic joint ventures and alliances. He was a Senior Executive of Storm Drilling & Marine, Inc., a publicly held energy services company; and was President of Capital B Corporation, which syndicated and managed over 20 private investment partnerships with capital in excess of $250 million. While working in these companies Mr. Filler acted as developer and operator of several international electric power plants and other industrial projects. He was also an investor and active participant in four emerging companies active in global energy/environment technologies. During the 1990’s, Mr. Filler served as Senior Commercial Account Representative with MetLife Insurance Company. Prior to 1970, Mr. Filler served as Corporate and Securities Attorney of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. Mr. Filler is a graduate of Stanford Law School.
Darío
M. Goussal
Advisor
Dario
Goussal is an Advisor to Pierce in Rural Telecommunications
and backbone networks. Since 1980 he has been teaching at UNNE
and UTN Schools of Engineering, Argentina, where he has consulted
on network design and installation, authored technical papers
and gave conferences to international meetings held in Argentina,
Brazil, Mexico, Perú, USA, Canada, Germany, Greece, Austria,
Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Scotland, Syria, Japan and China/Hong
Kong. He participated in both the I and II ITU World Telecommunications
Development Conferences in 1994 and 1998, in the ITU-D Study
Group 2 in 1999 and also as member of the ITU-D Focus Group
7 (FG 7) devoted to Rural Telecommunications issues. In 1994
he obtained a full-time faculty position as a Research Coordinator
of GTR, and in 1999 became full-time professor at Department
of Electronics, UNNE /School of Engineering where he is currently
serving. During his 10-year R&D assignment at GTR-UNNE he
carried out consultancies and advanced studies on rural telecommunications,
demand/ cost-benefit analysis and innovative applications of
ITC for development. He designed / conducted specialized surveying,
project evaluation and field work in Universal Access initiatives
such as community telecenters in Brazil (1995-1996), Suriname-Barbados
(1998), Argentina (1999), and other consultancy projects in
Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Vietnam (2001-2002).
Dario Goussal authored a comprehensive report on public access
to information and community telecenters in South America (1999),
after performing short-term missions as Senior Consultant of
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, 1998). From
1998 to 2000 he was invited as panelist, guest chairman and
paper reviewer in specialized seminars organized by ITU-D, UNESCO
and ECOSOC-UNO in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
Mr. Goussal graduated in 1979 in Electronics Engineering from
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional of Tucumán, Argentina
(UTN). He also completed postgraduate program certificates in
Rural Telephony at IMC-OEA, Mexico, in 1988 and in International
Data Telecommunications Engineering at KDD-JICA, Japan, in 1990.
He is currently Ph.D. candidate in Rural Telecommunications
Engineering at Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (UNNE).
Richard
Holwill
Advisor
Ambassador
Richard Holwill is a Consultant and Senior Advisor to Pierce
Financial Corporation specializing in oil, gas and electric
power investments. He has been actively involved in projects
in Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and the Caribbean. These
projects have included electric power generation, distribution
and cogeneration facilities as well as structuring the funding
of natural gas drilling and development programs. in the Caribbean,
he assisted a company obtain government contracts to provide
waste-to-energy technologies on several of the smaller islands.
Mr. Holwill provides government relations consulting services
to clients through Holwill & Company. In this capacity,
he assisted a major US oil company resolve a $500 million dollar
dispute with a foreign government on terms that were highly
favorable to the company. He assisted a major US electric utility
obtain government approval for projects in South America and
a second US electric utility resolve operations disputes with
a government in Asia. He has also conducted due diligence investigations
for US firms that sought to do business in the newly independent
states in Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Holwill has extensive
experience in the US Government where he served as US Ambassador
to Ecuador, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs. He is a member of the Panama Canal Commission Board
of Directors and Counselor to the Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency. He received the State Department's Superior Honor Award
for crisis management and Meritorious Award for resolving expropriation
cases and assisting US businesses abroad. He managed the efforts
that obtained Senate consent to ratification for the START,
CFE and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaties. In the 1970's Mr.
Holwill was Vice President and Member of the Board of Energy
Decisions Inc., where he directed government relations’
services for clients and contributed to strategic planning studies
on oil and gas economics. In 1981, he managed ED's sale to a
larger firm. He was Vice President of the Heritage Foundation
during the 1980's and is currently a visiting fellow there.
He earned a BA from Louisiana State University, and pursued
graduate studies at the University of Missouri and Wharton School
of Business.
Armistead
C. Leigh
Advisor
Armistead
(Ted) is an advisor to Pierce specializing in the arrangement
of vendor financing for power, telecommunication and internet
companies. For the past 13 years, Mr. Leigh has been engaged
in financing and developing early-stage wireless communications,
environmental and energy companies. Prior to joining Pierce,
Mr. Leigh worked on financings for such telecommunications companies
as Winstar, SAIC, and American National Communications. Mr.
Leigh also represented Combustion Engineering to members of
the U.S. Congress on major pieces of legislation and regulation
in the areas of oil and gas policy, coal slurry, nuclear policy,
and tax legislation. Mr. Leigh assisted the power systems group
to develop projects. While on Capitol Hill, Mr. Leigh served
as an economic analyst for Rep. Bethune, a member of the Budget
Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Leigh was
a senior economist for Gulf Oil Corporation. Mr. Leigh received
his M.A. in Economics and his B.A. in Management from Clemson
Univerity where he taught Economics.
Donald
Scott
Advisor
Donald
Scott is the U.K Representative of Pierce. He qualified as a
Solicitor in 1956 and practiced as an Assistant Solicitor until
1960. Since 1960 Mr. Scott has been actively involved in corporate
finance and portfolio management. He worked with Samuel Montagu
& Co. until 1964. Thereafter until 1971 he was assistant
to the Chairman of Corob Holdings Ltd and Investment Manager
of Western and Northern Investments, Ltd., a publicly quoted
Investment Trust. In 1971 he joined Wm Brant's Sons & Co.
Ltd, as a Senior Investment Manager, responsible for the US
portfolio investments. After Brant's investment portfolios were
acquired by Lloyd's Bank, he became a Director of Van Cutsem
& Associates who specialized in financial services and investment
management. Recently, Mr. Scott has been acting as a financial
consultant to a number of companies. Mr. Scott is a Graduate
of University College, Oxford, where he read law.
Dr. Tim Shi
Advisor
Dr. Tim Shi is co-founder and CEO of EC TECH LLC and Adivisor to Pierce. Dr. Shi is
in charge of the Company overall business project initiative, planning, and
development.
Dr. Shi has over 15 year international business experiences, including
initiated several multi-laterals trade missions among China, Africa, and
USA. He was the key person to set up the first computers assembly factory
in Ghana, West Africa. He and his team were also contracted exclusively
by Geerly Auto Co., the No. 1 private Auto Manufacturer in China to
export Geely’s vehicles to West Africa. As senior advisor for China
Oversea Investment Committee, he has involved in negotiation with FDI for China Special
Economic Free Zone projects.
He and his team are currently developing the Luxury SUVs direct sales model to China by
combing the traditional trade and e-commerce concepts together.
Dr. Shi holds MD and PhD degrees and studied at Univ. of London, U.K. and School of Medicine
at Johns Hopkins Univ. and Univ. of Maryland. He is also the co-founder of the GlobalMD.Org,
which is one of the largest medical professionals’ social networks in the world.
Isabelle Janus
Ms.
Janus is a Senior at Virginia Commonwealth University finishing her degree in Social work. Email
Isabelle Janus
