About Merlin

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 securities analyst at Delafield and Delafield. Steve received a B.S. from Babson College in 1967, and serves on a number of boards, most notably Hedge Funds Care.

Aaron is a founder and Senior Partner of Merlin Securities, serving as the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to founding Merlin, Aaron was a Principal at New Enterprise Associates, a $6B venture capital firm, investing in Software and Technology companies from 2000 to 2003. Previously, Aaron was a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Technology Partners in the San Francisco and the Zurich, Switzerland offices specializing in systems integration and database architecture projects for Fortune 500 companies. Aaron received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and a B.A. in History and German from Washington University in St. Louis.

Bob joined Merlin from Deutsche Bank, where he was global head of execution services technology. Prior to this, he was global head of equities electronic trading technology. Before Deutsche Bank, Garrett ran the equity derivatives trading platforms (trading and risk) for Bank of America and subsequently headed the company’s electronic trading IT organization. Garrett spent six years as a technology consultant at Sapient, driving strategy and implementation projects. He began his career at AT&T as a systems developer and architect. Bob holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Computer Science from Dickinson College

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.

Jud is responsible for Client Services functions including new account transition, product training and support, and relationship management for Merlin. Jud started at Merlin in 2008 and managed the technology team for several years before moving into his current role. Prior to joining Merlin, Jud was at Bank of America in Equity Derivatives technology. He started his career spending 11 years as a senior consultant at Sapient in New York. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.

Eric Morgan manages all trading relationships, systems, execution platforms and both the outsourced and Agency trading desks for Merlin Securities. Prior to joining Merlin in 2005, 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.

John joined Merlin in 2004 as an investor and member of the sales and marketing team. He is currently responsible for the business development of Merlin Technologies and its flagship product, Merlin SHARP. Previously, John was a Senior Managing Director at Incepta Plc, a global business and marketing consultancy. He was a member of the firm’s North American Board and Chaired their worldwide financial services practice.

Ron Suber has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development across the hedge fund, broker dealer and registered investment adviser 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 Adviser businesses. Ron began his career in 1982 at Pershing LLC. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Ron is a founding member of the West Coast executive committee of Hedge Funds Care and now serves on the National Board of Directors.