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Brian Dunnis the CEO of Growth Capital Services, a firm he founded in 2001. Growth Capital Services provides regulatory infrastructure for affiliated private placement agents, enabling them to conduct securities business legally and efficiently. Dunn also uses his network to find and evaluate investment opportunities for a select group of private equity investors.
Previously, Brian was a founding partner of Aquillian Investments, a leading private investment firm oriented towards sustainability. He guided the firm's financial, legal, and operational implementation from the firm's first days. When Growth Capital Services spun out from Aquillian in 2008, Dunn maintained his affiliation as Aquillian's advisory board member and broker dealer of record.
Dunn learned the craft of investment banking at Tennyson West, a boutique capital advisory firm located in San Francisco, where he worked on private equity deals in the natural foods and clean tech sectors. His first job post-graduate school, from 1998-2001, was as Executive Director of Investors' Circle, a socially minded angel investment group that currently has invested in over 100 ventures since its creation in 1993. Dunn spent his pre-graduate years working in micro-finance development in Ouagadougou (West Africa) , Brazil, Haiti and Mozambique.
A born adventurer, Brian has stepped on the soil of 100 countries. In his youth, he canoed the Congo, Yukon, and Amazon rivers; bicycled from San Francisco to New York; and hopped freights from Portland, OR to Cincinnati, OH. Now settled in San Francisco with his wife and daughter, he channels that energy through music, playing bass and saxophone in a local band. Brian swims frequently in the San Francisco Bay's cold waters, and is proud to serve on the board of Save the Bay, a 50 year old organization that protects, restores and celebrates San Francisco Bay.
Dunn earned a BA (UC Berkeley), an MA (Johns Hopkins University), and an MBA (Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania). He has FINRA Series 7, 24, 27, 63, and 65 registrations.
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Tom Kennett is a Principal and Compliance Adviser with Growth Capital Services. He has over 30 years of experience in securities, investment management, banking, insurance and management consulting.
Before joining Growth Capital Services, he gained significant compliance experience as national Director of Sales at Niemann Capital Management, Managing Director of the Pacific Region at Response Compliance & Regulatory Services, and Compliance Director and Supervising Principal at MONY/AXA Financial.
He has also served as VP marketing at Delaware Capital Management, an affiliate of Delaware Investments; SVP and National Sales Manager at RDY Investors/SKB; senior business development principal at Alexander Proudfoot; executive vice president of American Savings Bank; Regional vice president of Guarantee Savings; and financial adviser at Smith Barney.
An entrepreneur at heart, Tom has founded three companies: Expert Analytics (a growth and exit strategy advisory firm), FCA Asset Management (an institutional asset manager), and American Group Financial Corporation (a broker dealer specializing in investment securities).
Tom holds FINRA 7, 24, 39 and 66 registrations, is a former Certified Investment Management Analyst and Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional. A former high school All American swimmer, Tom competes in US Masters Swimming programs and enjoys hiking, climbing, kayaking, lifting, chess, and backgammon for blood. He is an avid naturalist who favors high and low coastlines in the West. He has a degree in Philosophy from the University of California at Irvine.
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Ed Murphy is a marketing executive with over 17 years of experience in finance. He has focused on product areas such as emerging market and asset-backed securities, alternative investment fund raising, independent primary research, and technology. Currently, Ed is an MD and Director of Business Development for DQS Global, Inc., a technology firm focused on integration and high-end business solutions with a special emphasis on M&A.
Previously, Ed was the Director of Marketing for Clinical Advisors (now Guidepoint Global) which is an independent research firm that provides timely customized research and consulting services to premier financial institutions. Ed “cut his teeth” in fundraising at Brittany Capital Group, a boutique investment banking firm specializing in assisting and advising alternative asset managers (principally leveraged buyout firms, hedge funds, and venture capital firms) in raising limited partnership interests from institutional investors. He has Series 7, 63, and 24 registrations.
Ed enjoys scuba diving and is an avid golfer.
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James Nixon is Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Sustainable Systems, Inc., a business and economic development corporation, located in Oakland, CA, that provides market-based strategies for the achievement of sustainable development and smart growth. Sustainable Systems is also the Lead Consultant to the Bay Area Council for the Bay Area Family of Funds, a $200 million + Double Bottom Line Initiative.
Prior to assuming these roles, he served as Senior Vice President for Social Research and Network Services for 12 years with Progressive Asset Management, Inc., the first socially responsible investment broker/dealer. Mr. Nixon co-coordinated three international “Building the Sustainable Economy” conferences and drafted Building the Sustainable Economy: An Opportunity for Oakland, a policy framework unanimously adopted by the Oakland City Council. He also chaired the Task Force that led to Oakland’s Sustainable Community Development Initiative.
James is co-author of The Double Bottom Line Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Regional Double Bottom Line Investment Initiatives and Funds, the first comprehensive study of the $12 billion + asset class of Double Bottom Line private equity investment funds. He is also the organizer of the Oakland Green Finance Network, made up of 40+ investors interested in investing in Green Businesses in Oakland. He Nixon is Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Community Development. He also is a member of the Advisory Committee of Inner City Advisors, a participant in the Innovation Network for Communities, and co-founder of Café de la Paz, a restaurant and community center in Berkeley, California. He holds a Series 7 Securities Registration and a Series 24 Principal's Registration with Growth Capital Services. |
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