The Management Team
Alan Benjamin has been our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since inception. Mr. Benjamin is currently a principal at MDSolarSciences, a primary skin cancer prevention company founded by Dr. Robert Friedman, a world-renown expert in melanomas and other skin cancers. From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Benjamin owned and operated SMA Development Associates, LLC, a Connecticut based real estate investment company. Prior to this, he spent thirteen years at AIG where he last served as Senior Vice President in charge of AIG's global base metals businesses. Mr. Benjamin began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1983, where he started as a broker in their commodity's department and by 1988 he was managing the Asian operations of the firm's bullion trading activities. Drexel's commodity trading group moved to AIG in 1990 where Mr. Benjamin founded and managed their metals and foreign exchange trading operations in Asia. Mr. Benjamin is also a Managing Member of Heritage Building Group, a contractor in the luxury residential market in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Mr. Benjamin is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience trading physical metals. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in history.
Ailon Z. Grushkin has been our President and Director since inception. He is currently the General Partner of both the Nano-Cap Hyper Growth Partnership L.P., a micro-cap focused hedge fund he founded in October 1996, and the Nano-Cap New Millennium Growth Fund L.P., a similar fund he founded in January 2000. He is also currently the Managing Member of the AZG Tangible Assets Fund LLC, a commodities based hedge fund he launched in January 2004. Prior to 1996, Mr. Grushkin worked or interned at Merrill Lynch Futures Investment Partners ("MLFIP"), Thompson McKinnon Securities, Prudential Securities and Sumitomo Bank Ltd. At these firms he held various positions including assistant commodity trader, commodity trading advisor analyst and assistant derivatives trader. At MLFIP, he helped create the first Discretionary Trading Advisor Index in the Managed Futures Industry. Mr. Grushkin is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his experience purchasing and taking delivery of minor physical metals for his own personal investment as well as his experience managing the AZG Tangible Assets Fund LLC, a fund dedicated to investing in commodities and equities linked to commodities. Mr. Grushkin is a graduate of the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration.
Richard A. Biele has been our Chief Operating Officer and a director since inception. Mr. Biele is currently a Principal of Princeton Financial Partners, which owns and operates the Newtown, Pennsylvania branch of Andrew Garrett Inc., a full service boutique Broker Dealer based in New York, New York. The branch services both retail and institutional investors. In addition to being a Registered Representative in the branch, Mr. Biele has brought in investment banking clients and assists with the non-daily management of the branch. Prior to that, Princeton Financial Partners, operated as an affiliate of S.W. Bach & Company, a FINRA regulated securities firm, from 2005 to 2007. While at the firm, Mr. Biele continued to manage his brokerage business and began trading commodities for his personal account. From August 2001 through November 2005, Mr. Biele worked as a registered representative at Kirlin Securities. From January 1998 through August 2001, Mr. Biele worked at Princeton Securities where he established investment banking relationships with other broker dealers and managed his existing clientele's assets. Mr. Biele has had seventeen years of experience in brokerage, investment banking and mergers and acquisitions. In 2001, Mr. Biele formed Wall Street Contracting, a builder of luxury waterfront homes in southern New Jersey. Mr. Biele is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience in the investment banking world. Mr. Biele has a Bachelor's of Science in Economics from Old Dominion University.