Partners
M.B. (Blaine) Riley, III
Managing Director – President
With over 30 years of advisory experience servicing companies in the US capital markets, Mr. Riley is the Founder, President and Managing Partner of International Monetary (IM). Under Mr. Riley’s leadership role, International Monetary has:
• Spearheaded and expanded business development efforts with private and public companies ranging from emerging growth to the middle market
• Initiated, advised and managed over 100 company clients through the initial public offering (IPO) and reverse takeover (RTO) processes providing capital formation guidance and investor awareness (investor & public relations) services
• Implemented, developed, and organized IM’s M&A advisory and consulting business making it a top M&A advisory firm, especially to micro and small cap public companies that are in need of a change of corporate direction or have the desire to consolidate their industries
• Identified and sourced middle market companies for leveraged and management buyouts (LBO’s/MBO’s), negotiating and closing Letters of Intent (LOI’s). All transactions structured using mezzanine and unitranche funds sourced through our affiliate partner firm (a prominent Wall Street NYSE-member investment bank)
• Maintained and expanded internal lists of private equity groups, investment funds, institutional and accredited investors, as well as micro and small cap investment banks/broker-dealers focused on underwriting equity financing for IPO’s, PIPE’s, and Reg A+ offerings
• Strengthened the firm’s business relationships by implementing the use of CFA analyst reports and public company valuation analyses for prospective corporate clients
Prior to founding International Monetary, Mr. Riley held key positions at Wedbush Morgan, Shearson Lehman Brothers, National Capital LLC, and iCapital Corporation.
While at Wedbush Morgan, Mr. Riley devised tactical trading strategies for trading options on Leveraged Buy Outs (LBO’s) for wealthy individuals and institutional investors. In addition, he provided capital advisory services to micro and small cap companies that were looking growth and expansion capital.
Specializing in the healthcare industry and specifically in the biotech and medical device sectors while at Shearson Lehman Brothers (La Jolla, CA), Mr. Riley focused on the discovery of undervalued healthcare companies for affluent buy-side clients that included physician groups and medical practitioners while providing capital advisory services to public company CEO’s and CFO’s in the health care industry.
As the Director of the investment banking department at National Capital LLC, Mr. Riley helped organize its investment banking, capital markets, analyst department, and assisted with the syndication of over 20 IPO and PIPE financings. His role was vital in building the company from approximately $2M in revenues to almost $30M in revenues in just under 3 years.
While principal/partner of the investment banking consultancy, iCapital Corp. (Irvine, CA), Mr. Riley directed the investment banking, capital markets, investor awareness (investor & public relations) services, and strategic advisory departments for the firm. He successfully expanded the firm’s client coverage from just a few clients to over 50.
Mr. Riley attended Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO, and has extensive business and technical knowledge in mining, oil & gas, and geology. He has been a key-note speaker and has been associated with or a member of industry organizations including:
– the Television & Radio Society of South America (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
– the Peruvian Mining Association (Lima, Peru)
– the Alliance of M&A Advisors
– the Swiss Finance Institute, (Zurich, Switzerland)
– the London Investment Banking Association
– several Investment Banking associations in the US
Steve Taylor
SEC Regulatory Compliance Specialist
For Micro/Small-Cap companies in the public marketplace, it can be very expensive and cost prohibitive to have full-time or even part-time CFO’s, CPA’s, securities and general counsel, etc. to keep up with all the compliance regulations associated with being public. For over 20 years, Mr. Taylor has been managing everything smaller public companies need in terms of exchange/market compliance with his direct handling of the reporting requirements, including preparing and filing the required compliance obligations for the SEC, individual States, all US Stock Exchanges, and the OTC.
Mr. Taylor’s clients range in size from startups to established Exchange-listed companies that includes US, Canadian, and International companies. Some have him do everything, including financial reporting with the assembling of financial statements, preparing the SEC and Exchange filings, EDGAR filings, and the writing of press releases. His regulatory compliance fees vary by the work required and complexity of the company, and is usually fared thru an annual contract basis that is far less expensive than the habitually over-priced and inflated costs associated with these professional services.
Primary services include the preparation and filing of:
• Initial S-1 SEC registration statements, including Form 10 for US domestic companies, and Form 20-F/40-F for Canadian and International companies.
• Ongoing SEC compliance and reporting, including:
o For US Domestic companies, Form 10-Q Quarterly and 10-K Annual Reports, 8-K Interim Reports, and Proxy Statements;
o For International and Canadian companies, Form 20-F and 40-F Annual Reports and Form 6-K Interim Reports;
o Crowdfunding documents, including 1-A, 1-K, 1-SA and 1-U;
o Notices of Exempt Offerings (Reg A and Reg D);
o For individuals, Ownership Reports, including Form 3, 4 and 5 for insiders and Form 13D/G for large holders.
• Any applicable Exchange compliance documents and individual State compliance requirements, including “Blue Sky” regulations.
Mr. Taylor is also a registered EDGAR filing agent and can provide filing services and XBRL tagging to clients as needed.
Before his career in compliance, Mr. Taylor was a securities analyst and registered representative and held Series 7 and 63 licenses being particularly focused on smaller public and private equities, including initial US market exposure and private placement financing. Subjects included Canadian and Pacific Northwest companies, including Natural Resource, Emerging Technologies, and Start-ups. He also prepared and distributed research reports, offering documents and private placement memorandums.
Steve holds a B.A in Economics and History from Claremont McKenna College.
Outside Legal Counsel – Securities & Business Law
Don Davis is a prominent International Lawyer actively practicing Securities, Business and International Law across the globe. Mr. Davis’ experience includes many years of work as an International Lawyer, Securities Attorney, Law Professor, Bar Association Chair, Lecturer, Arbitrator, Expert Witness and Professional Negotiator.
With over four decades of experience practicing and teaching law, Don Davis has been rated “Very High to Preeminent” in legal ability by Martindale Hubbell Directory of Lawyers. He is listed in Who’s Who in California; Who’s Who in the United States, and Who’s Who in the World.
Mr. Davis is a sought-after speaker and lecturer on the subjects of Asset Protection, International Law, International Business, Corporate Law, Securities Law, and Tax and Entertainment Law.
Managing Director – Corporate Finance
Transitional Investors, LLC (Affiliate)
Stuart has over 20 years of banking, investing and financial management experience. Completed over $40 Billion of Debt and Equity transactions as an underwriter, agent or principal. Prior to joining Transitional Investors, LLC, Mr. Shelly was the CFO of Affinity Internet, Inc. (from September 2000). Prior to joining Affinity, Mr. Shelly was the West Region Manager of GE Capital’s Merchant Banking Group, responsible for all Sponsor Coverage, Private equity Investments, Fund Investments, LBO Senior Debt and equity co-investments. Mr. Shelly joined GE in 1999, after running Bank of Montreal’s LFG (“BMo”). Mr. Shelly joined BMo as a result of the sale of KPMG BayMark Capital, where he was responsible for private capital arrangement assignments from 1994 until its sale to BMo in 1997. Mr. Shelly joined KPMG after directing a number of private equity investments for Shelton Capital Partners (a family Private Equity firm). Mr. Shelly had previously worked in the private finance group at Dean Witter Reynolds and Bank of America (“BofA”). Mr. Shelly was a founding member of Bank of America’s Leveraged Finance Group, he also opened and ran BofA’s LFG in Europe. While at BofA, he established the credit metrics, monitoring and reporting methodologies as well as the analytical tools and due diligence program used by the bank for leveraged transactions. Mr. Shelly hired and trained all the junior team members of LFG and oversaw the credit analysis of every LFG transaction undertaken during the late 1980’s. Mr. Shelly also taught the financial analysis modules of the bank’s Senior Credit Officers Credit Training Program. Prior to joining BofA’s LFG, Mr. Shelly worked in Bank of America’s Capital Markets group (both in Mortgaged Backed S ecurities and Interest Rate Swaps).
M&A – Senior Advisor
Scott has 30 plus years of experience in the financial services industry. He is proactively on the forefront of raising capital for entrepreneurs, family businesses, and different institutions. Through his extensive experience in investment banking, Scott has established relationships with high-net-worth individuals, family offices, private equity firms, venture capital firms, various lenders and debt investors, resulting in over $550 million of capital raised. His associates include merchant bankers, consultants, lawyers, brokers, and accountants.
He also has expertise in capital markets and asset management. Prior to founding MFS Associates in 2012, Scott managed over $100 million, served as Vice President of Sales at Morgan Stanley and Prudential Securities, worked as Managing Director at Spencer Trask Ventures, was Chief Executive Officer of Concord Equity Partners and became Managing Director at Axiom Capital.
Besides his career in the finance industry, Scott has managed to have significant achievements in the sport of water polo as well. As a former National team player, all time leading scorer in NCAA history, and seven-time National Champion, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the New York Athletic Club in 2001.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Services from Bucknell University.
M&A – Director
Mike Tikkanen has orchestrated the acquisition, merger, and joint-venture strategy for over 100 companies over thirty years. Specializing in highest-value candidates, he has pioneered a proven, effective, and low-risk process that creates successful transactions and measurable results.
As a past president of the Minnesota Entrepreneurs and founding member of Inner Circle International, Mike has kept his finger on the pulse of best practices for corporate growth for many years.
He has developed the following tools:
- M&A/Joint Venture Activity Cost/Benefit Analysis
- Prospect Profiling & Criteria Measurement
- Board Training
In an area that can consume significant corporate resources and where nationwide industry research consistently show negative results, Mike’s expertise outperforms national averages.
His experience is extremely valuable to both, sellers and buyers, going thru a Business Transition.
Mike is a graduate of Moorhead State University and is an author and public speaker on at-risk children’s issues.
Mr. Smith currently serves as Managing Director of Healthcare at International Monetary. Mr. Smith possesses extensive expertise in the DME/HME industry having previously founded and operated his own national DME/HME company. Mr. Smith is an executive with broad experience in all aspects of operational management, business development, margin enhancement, strategic planning and analysis in the healthcare industry. In addition to a business background Mr. Smith also has a clinical background acting as a ATP (assistive technology practitioner) overseeing several clinical programs for various DME/HMEs. Mr. Smith is a regular columnist for HomeCare magazine, where he provides analysis on healthcare marketplace trends and innovative business strategies for healthcare companies in the DME, urgent care, home health care, hospice, pharmacy, medical devices, and related healthcare verticals.
Mr. Smith attended Stephen F Austin State University where as an undergraduate he began working for a local DME. After finishing his school he partnered with his current employer and opened his first DME. In 2009 after selling his DME he went back to school and studied business administration at The University of Notre Dame.
Mike Pagani
Business & Technology Development
Mike Pagani, as an affiliate of IM, is currently the founder and Principal Technical Marketing Consultant for Tech-Sector Advisory Group, Inc., (www.tech-sector.com) a consulting firm that specializes in contracting with new and growing High Technology corporations that require Marketing consultation during the “Go to Market” and early phases of development for company/product “Value-Proposition Blueprinting”, Branding, Positioning, Packaging, Messaging and Funding-related initiatives. Formally educated in Computer Science, Mike now has over 15 years of experience in the Computer Hardware and Software industry. Prior to founding Tech-Sector Advisory Group, Inc. in May of 2001, he has held senior executive and director-level Marketing and Product Management positions with organizations such as Quest Software, Magellan Software, Redwood America and Quad Research. An experienced and accomplished public speaker, Mike has been a regularly invited industry expert as speaker/presenter, panelist and/or panel mediator at major industry events within the Application Service Provider and Streaming Media marketplaces.
Advertising & Marketing
Mr. Santarelli is IM’s marketing consultant. As Principal Marketing Consultant at Y2Marketing; the nations largest and leading marketing consulting firm. Y2Marketing was recently ranking #42 in Inc. magazines Top 500 list of the fastest growing privately held companies. Prior to Y2Marketing, Mr. Santarelli owned and operated several businesses, including a large procurement firm for the golf club industry, an IT consultancy as well as a website development firm producing over 150 corporate sites. He is still the owner of Submit360, a search engine optimization firm. Mr. Santarelli has worked with many large clients in a consultative capacity including Deloitte & Touché, ITT Cannon and Hoag Hospital. Mr. Santarelli attended the University of Calgary and has extensive business and technical knowledge including Internet commerce.
Managing Director – Corporate Finance (Real Estate & Natural Resource Mining Development)
Neil Tobin is an accomplished professional in both private and public sectors with over 20 years of experience. Mr. Tobin has played a variety of roles in real estate development, finance, energy, politics, and law, around the globe creating numerous strategic alliances and creative partnerships; all of which have brought value to constituents and principals. With an unwavering commitment to creating truly innovative opportunities, he combines his entrepreneurial savvy and proven ability to bring together the right partners to accomplish a singular goal. Mr. Tobin has particular expertise in the areas of new business development, both domestically and internationally, identifying funding partners and the of raising capital, strategic planning, design, development, as well as mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Tobin, in Q3-4 of 2009 thru Q3-4 of 2010, has established capital relationships with groups based in London, the Middle East, Canada and China as well as the Indian Tribes in the United States. Most recently Mr. Tobin has found a great amount of success in sourcing capital for the purchase and development of gold mines around the world by leveraging in-ground assets as a means of drawing down a LOC (letter of credit) putting Mr. Tobin in a unique position to move capital into a market that is ‘standing by’.
He has held licenses in Stocks, Real Estate and Insurance and received his BA from University of San Francisco, CS from Oxford University and attended USF Law School.