Maria E. Smith-Breslin  

Maria Breslin founded Intuitive Strategies Consulting LLC in 2004, an independent consulting firm specializing in strategic business development and operational risk management. Her clients include businesses and individuals from the following industries financial service, investment advisory, real estate, technology and information management, marketing, healthcare and social media. Maria brings a comprehensive understanding of risk management, compliance and operational challenges facing business today.

Maria began her career at Smith Affiliated Capital, a registered investment advisory firm in Mid-town Manhattan. There she enjoyed a 22 year tenure holding several key executive positions including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Business Development, Marketing and Sales.

During her career, Maria has held several key board positions with the Investment Advisor Association in Washington D.C. and, as an a member of the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) Board for the CFA Institute where she actively participated with regulators and industry professionals in developing global performance standards for the investment industry.

Maria stays abreast of current industry trends by taking an active role on several strategic advisory boards for emerging businesses, being actively involved with regulatory agencies, industry associations, and self study and regularly participates in multiple industry conferences.
Ms. Breslin holds an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College/CUNY in New York and a degree in Business Administration from MaryMount Manhattan College. She holds her NASD series 63 and 65.

Kamran Rafieyan  

Mr. Rafiyean is a co-founder of Lava Trading, a leading trading technology company that was formed in 1999 and acquired by Citigroup in 2004.  As CIO, Kamran led the product and technology teams until June of 2010.  Prior to Lava, Kamran spent several years designing and developing financial trading systems for firms such as GFI Group, Reuters, Nomura and Dow Jones.  He also worked for several years in the Applied Research Division of Bellcore.  Kamran earned a summa cum laude B.S.E in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and M.S. with honors from the University of California at Berkeley.

Afshin Ghiaei  

Mr. Ghiaei is Former Executive Director of the University of Connecticut School of Business in Hartford, CT, overseeing all school operations at the Graduate Business Learning Center including the MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) Programs with a combined enrollment of more than 600 students. Afshin joined the UConn School of Business in 1998 after graduating from the University with his MBA. Prior to enrolling in UConn’s MBA Program, Afshin was an entrepreneur with extensive experience in business and strategy.  Afshin is a member of the Executive MBA Council and the National Association of Graduate Admission Professionals (NAGAP).  In addition to an MBA from UConn, Afshin holds a BA in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Afshin lives in Tolland with his wife and two children.

John Holman 

Mr. Holman was most recently the Vice President of Fixed Income at The New York Stock Exchange, where he was instrumental in replacing the Automated Bond System (ABS), the Exchange’s previous bond trading platform with the NYSE Bonds which is based on NYSE Arca’s open, accessible all-electronic design. Boasting drastically increased efficiency and more transparent trading in corporate debt issues for NYSE members entering orders for bonds trading on the Exchange, the system primarily serves retail trading in corporate bonds utilizing a strict price and time priority architecture.

Prior to NYSE, Mr. Holman was a managing director at Piper Jaffray and Co., where he expanded the corporate bond-trading desk. At Piper Jaffray, he implemented a new trading and clearing platform, which integrated the firm’s institutional sales and trading team.

Prior to that, Mr. Holman served as director of Operations at Mellon Securities, a division of Mellon Financial Corp., where he managed operations and IT of the Institutional Equity and Fixed Income Trading desk.

Mr. Holman has previous experience with the expansion of trading platforms at Paine Webber, SoundView Technology and Waterhouse Securities Inc. Mr. Holman has a master of science in Management from National-Louis University in Chicago and a bachelor’s of science in Business from the University of Tennessee.