Professionals

Investment Banking Team

Brian Friedman
Head of Investment Banking

Mr. Friedman joined National Securities in 1997 as an Associate in the investment banking department. Prior to National, he served as an Associate at Liberty Hampshire, where he helped structure, raise capital, and operates a special purpose finance company that grew to over $1.0 billion under management. Mr. Friedman is the Executive Vice President of National Holdings Corporation and a Director of National Asset Management, Inc. He earned his B.A. from the University of Iowa and J.D. and M.B.A. from IIT.

Kevin Brooks
Managing Director of Investment Banking
Energy and Clean Tech Practice

Mr. Brooks joined National after 14+ years of Wall Street Institutional and Corporate Client experience. Prior to joining National, Mr. Brooks was a Managing Director of Pali Capital's Clean Tech Investment Banking Practice. As a First Vice President with Merrill Lynch, Mr. Brooks was the Power Generation & Electric Utilities Specialist at the company's World Head Quarters on the Institutional Equity Research Sales & Trading desk. His team was voted the #1 ranked Utility Equity Research Team by Institutional Investor Magazine for each of the years in this role on the team. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Mr. Brooks was an equity research analyst for The Robinson Humphrey Company, in the market strategy, quantitative analysis, technical analysis, & model portfolios group. Mr. Brooks graduated from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina.

Michael Compton
Associate

Mr. Compton joined National Securities after graduating with his MBA from Rollins College.

Paul Manzano
Managing Director of Investment Banking
Energy and Clean Tech Practice

Mr. Manzano joined National in 2007 as a Managing Director. Prior to National, has was a Managing Director with Pali Capital in New York City, where he was a member of the Alternative Energy investment banking team specializing in biomass, waste-to-energy, hybrid transport, wind turbines, and coal gasification. Mr. Manzano began his career at William Blair & Company in Chicago. He is a graduate of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, attended Oxford University Law School (St. Edmund Hall) in Oxford, England, and holds dual graduate degrees in law and business from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Peter Menachem
Associate

Prior to joining the Company Mr. Menachem held various roles at Motorola including the Corporate Mergers & Acquisition group. Mr. Menachem received a B.A. in Economics from Duke University.

Daniel Nicholas
Managing Director of Investment Banking
Energy and Clean Tech Practice

Mr. Nicholas is a twenty-five veteran of Wall Street and a leading authority in the alternative energy field. Dan began his career on Wall Street in 1982 when he joined the Dreyfus Corporation as an energy and technology research analyst. By the mid-1980's Dan was recognized by Institutional Investor magazine as one of the top buy-side analysts. Dan joined W.H. Reaves & Co. by the early 1990's, where as a partner he was responsible for one of the largest energy and utility equity portfolios. The average annual return to investors during Dan's time at W.H. Reaves was 18.9 percent. Through DMN Group, Dan became Chief Executive Officer of Foresight Research Solutions. Pali Capital was a core investor into Foresight, and upon the sale of Foresight, Dan joined Pali to run the Alternative Energy / Clean Tech practice. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

Malcolm Plett
Head of Institutional Sales

Mr. Plett joined National's Investment Banking Department in 2005. Mr. Plett spent 12 years at Smith Barney in the Private Client Group. As member of the company's Chairman's Council, he built an Equity Research Sales practice servicing Middle Market Institutions in the US, UK and South Africa. Originally from Zimbabwe, Malcolm graduated with two degrees from the University of Cape Town's School of Architecture.

Matthew Portes
Associate

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Portes was a Financial Analyst consultant to IBM. Mr. Portes received a B.A. from the University of Illinois and his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Consultants

Seth Lederman
Healthcare Consultant

Dr. Lederman is a tenured Associate Professor at Columbia University and a managing partner and founder of Konanda Pharma Partners, a private equity firm focused on mature pharmaceutical brands. Lederman was a co-founder of Vela Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Lederman was also a co-founder of Targent Pharmaceuticals and Ivrea Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Lederman graduated from Princeton in Chemistry, Columbia Medical School in Medicine and became Associate Professor at Columbia. He is author of numerous scientific articles and inventor on a number of patents. He serves on the board of the Research Corporation, a non-profit that funds basic research in academic institutions.

David Zenker
CleanTech Consultant

Mr. Zenker has been President of Van Beuren Capital Management for the past fifteen years. He has acted as both principal and financial advisor in connection with private equity investments related to energy, real estate, gaming, advertising, building materials and home furnishings. From 1983 through 1993, Mr. Zenker worked at Bear Stearns & Co., Oppenheimer & Co. and Jefferies & Co. specializing in the institutional sales and trading of securities and claims of distressed and bankrupt companies. From 1987 through 1982, Mr. Zenker was a partner in a London-based management and marketing consulting firm specializing in the Arabian Gulf. Mr. Zenker received his undergraduate degree with honors from Brown University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. He also attended the Investment Analysis and Research Department training program at J. Henry Schroder Wagg in London.