Advisory Board

Bernard Lind

Mr. Lind has extensive international financial market and consulting experience in developed and emerging markets.  His private investment activities are conducted across a range of markets including hedge funds and private equity.  He has acted as a consultant for a number of major clients including N M Rothschild and Sons, Prudential Insurance Company, Deutsche Bank, Dow Jones Markets, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, the Russian Finance Ministry, The Commonwealth Secretariat, the EBRD and the Central Bank of Ghana.  Mr. Lind has served as a non-executive Director of the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE), NLB Bank (New York) Brady PLC (risk management and trading software) and The Atrium Group Limited (Video distributions software).  As a founding shareholder, he was a Director and first Chairman of Fidelity Bank Ltd, Accra, Ghana.  He is a member of the Securities Institute and The Worshipful Company of International Bankers. Mr. Lind’s previous executive positions in London and New York have included: National Westminster Bank plc (Director of Treasury and Foreign Exchange), Midland Bank Group (Executive VP and Treasurer based in NY then Head of Global Fixed Income and Market Risk Management based in London), Credit Industriel et Commercial (SVP and Treasurer) and Merrill Lynch (Head of International Money Markets).

Mr. Lind earned a PhD (Honorary) from Schiller International University, an MBA from Columbia University Business School in International Business and a BA in Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Hugo Modderman

As a Swiss university educated economist Hugo, born in the Netherlands, started financing industrial and real estate projects in Dubai in the very early years of development of the U.A.E. in a bank called Oryx Investments, the first merchant bank in the Middle East. It was here in 1976 that he also financed his first ship, the cruise ship “Bon Vivant” for Chandris Cruises.  Hugo got his real training in ship finance at Den norske Creditbank, where he was responsible for Continental Shipping from 1983-1988. In 1988 Hugo did a buy-out of the Rotterdam office of DnC and continued under the name Dolfinance, which is still his specialized finance company, now based in Monaco and celebrating its 25th anniversary.  Whereas Dolfinance is an independent company, it has been working in the past with most Dutch banks, creating a.o. Nedscan in Bergen for ING Bank.  In the period 2001-2012 Dolfinance acted almost exclusively for DVB Bank, the specialized transport bank.  Since the sectorisation was introduced in DVB Hugo was able to enhance his knowledge of the cruise and ferry market and to develop DVB’s market position therein, providing credit, advice on Mergers and acquisitions and other financial products to the cruise and ferry world, building up a portfolio of some USD 1 bn.  Since DVB has abandoned the cruise and yacht finance sector Dolfinance has focused on further developing its niche knowledge and relationship with cruise, ferry and offshore and energy related clients.

Today Dolfinance advises, helps create mergers and acquisitions, arranges finance, both from banks as well as from private sources and funds and helps provide equity for the niche sectors it specializes in.  These are primarily cruise, ferry, offshore service but also chemical and LPG tankers.  A separate specialty is the financing of mega yachts, where over USD 350m of finance has been provided in close cooperation with European Banks.  Hugo is also the founder of the annual Marine Money Yacht Finance symposium in Monaco.

Jasjeet S. Sood

Mr. Sood is the Founder and Managing Partner of Greenwich Energy Capital Advisors, LLC, a boutique investment banking firm engaged in providing strategic advice and debt and equity capital raising services to energy companies and projects.  Mr. Sood also founded a principal investment platform backed by a multi-billion dollar hedge fund where he made successful distressed asset investments.  He has over 30 years of experience in principal investments, investment and commercial banking and project development.  His areas of expertise included project and leveraged finance, acquisition/divestitures, bank financing, restructuring, capital markets and private equity.  He has been involved in sourcing and/or executing energy deals in North and South America, Europe and Asia.  Mr. Sood has held management roles with Credit Suisse, Citigroup, GE Capital and WestLB.  He had started his career as a chemical engineer with Exxon.

Mr. Sood holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and MS and BS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carl M. Youngman

Mr. Youngman is Chairman and Senior Partner of Youngman & Charm, a financial advisory firm.  He is a private investor and is respected as one of the deans of corporate growth and renewal in America.  For over 35 years, he has been advising the management and lenders of public and private companies on how to maximize their operational and financial opportunities.  He has been involved with over 250 companies, and has been Chairman, CEO, President and Director to over 55.  He has been a NYSE Director, is a financial expert as recognized by Sarbanes-Oxley, and is currently active as Chairman and Director of a number of companies.  Mr. Youngman is a founder of The Turnaround Management Association and the author of its Code of Ethics.  He is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) and is a frequent speaker in academic and business circles throughout the United States. In addition, he is an YPOer, WPOer and University Trustee.

Mr. Youngman earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Gene Zolotarev

Mr. Zolotarev is the Founder and Chairman of Maximus Capital S.A., to its Advisory Board.  He has over 20+ years of business experience, including but not limited to serving as Chairman of the Supervisory Board for AP Anlage & Privatbank, Chairman of Parlex Asset Management, VP & COO of Republic National Bank of New York and Publisher and Chairman of The Baltic Times, the only English language independent weekly newspaper which covers the latest political, economic, business, and cultural events in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Gene holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University and has attended the MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business.