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01:44
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00:44
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23:44
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22:44
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21:14
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Operating Officers

Organizational Chart

Senior management history averages 45 years’ each experience completing numerous advisory, funding, and transactions assignments with a combined deal value of well over US$ 10 billion, including landmark transaction achievements in Southeast Asia. Senior management and complementary support expertise have been seasoned under complex real-world circumstances at other major institutions, and while working together at Baron Point. Experience in senior roles includes success during the early 1990s U.S. recession and the first Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the technology boom of the 1990s and subsequent Dot-com bust at the end of the 20th century, the time-frame during the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City in America, the U.S. Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom of the early 2000s and subsequent Commodity Bust, the Great Recession near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, and the COVID-19 pandemic and hysteria of 2019-2022. These nine monumental periods, and their structural impact to business and the regulatory landscape caused substantial change. All different and challenging time spans, in their own way, that we learned and adapted from.

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Experienced Management and Other Stable Support Personnel:

Jim Coppola, Chairman Emeritus

With a passion for strategic guidance, Jim Coppola significantly shapes Baron Point’s long-term vision, planning, and objectives, particularly in fund accounting, business management, and physical commodities trading. Boasting over five decades of expertise as a business leader and lumber industry veteran, Mr. Coppola, alongside his father and eight siblings, transformed his family’s lumber and building supply business into a community staple.

 

 

James Philip Coppola III ("J.C."), Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer

Mr. Coppola III joined with Baron Point in 2007 and has since headed all aspects of the enterprise from funding to deal making.  Mr. Coppola III has spent over three decades in investment banking, asset management, M&A, private equity and the securities industry. According to Morningstar, his track record ranked him in the top 25% of fund managers for over a decade (1998–2010). Morningstar and Barron’s ranked Mr. Coppola, the #1 Global Macro Fund Manager, separately, for the years 1994, 1995, 2000, and 2001.  From 2010 to the present, his focus has been on systematic trading, structured and credit rated notes, and the investment banking business at Baron Point.

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Martin John McCarthy, Partner, CEO of Portfolio Company(s), Energy & Chemicals Group

Joining with Baron Point in 2024, he is a seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with nearly four decades of experience in senior executive posts at multinational integrated energy and petroleum companies, including CEO of TotalEnergies businesses in 10 countries, to develop downstream retail, commercial and energy activities (United Kingdom, France, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan/Afghanistan, Cambodia, Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea).

 

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Todd R. Hollander, Partner, Global Head of Business Development

Joining Baron Point in 2025, Mr. Hollander oversees business development as well as heading up the ETF business and working with the multi-asset structuring team. Starting his career at Susquehanna Investment Group as an index options trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, he has spent nearly four decades on Wall Street. At Susquehanna he was a protégé of New Market Wizard Jeff Yass. He was the first market maker to trade SPY (S&P 500 Index ETF) in 1993, the first ETF listing in the US. After, he was one of the first employees and investors at Jane Street.  In almost two decades at the firm his multiple roles included building and expanding both the ETF trading and customer businesses, globally, and opening the London office. 

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Tunji Abiola, FCA, Chief Financial Officer

Joining with the Baron Point team on assignment in 2025, he is an accomplished Fellow Chartered Accountant at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales with over two decades of professional experience with a career spanning audit, treasury and CFO assignments with increasingly senior posts at global leading commodity and agribusiness companies.

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Glenn S. Coppola, Partner, Controller

Joining Baron Point in 2007, he has over five decades of business experience, with keen knowledge in alternative investment fund accounting, finance, business accounting — including US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), budgeting, and cost control principles. He has managed several audit processes being conducted by Big Four accounting firms and worked with some of the largest fund administrators in the world during his career, including master-feeder structures with US and offshore entities.

 

 

Andrew A. Alberti, BA, JD, External Chief Risk Officer at Baron Point & Chairman of the Board at the Bermuda General Business Insurance Company

Associated with the principals at Baron Point since the early 2000s, he is a seasoned insurance and securities professional that has over five decades on Wall Street. A member of the New York State Bar Association and the Insurance Federation of New York, he served as Deputy Superintendent of the State of New York Insurance Department’s Liquidation Bureau. Prior to this, he served as the Bureau’s General Counsel and Attorney of Record and served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the New York State Senate Insurance Committee.

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Ira E. Blumenthal, Esq., General Counsel

Counseling Baron Point and its principals since 2009, Ira Blumenthal assumed the role of General Counsel in 2022, enhancing the firm’s legal, compliance, and deal-making capabilities. A serial entrepreneur and co-founding partner of Blumenthal Richter & Sumet, a leading independent law firm, he brings over 40 years of transactional and deal making expertise to Baron Point.

 

 

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Muhammad As'ad Masood, Director & Treasury

Associated with senior management since 2015, he has over a decade-and-a-half of institutional banking experience at financial services firms such as Citigroup, Mashreqbank, and Banque Misr. Developing several portfolios and operating in a diversity of sectors, he has structured several mergers, acquisitions, syndications, and secondary market transactions, facing many top-tier counterparties such as Morgan Stanley, Natixis and Goldman Sachs.

 

 

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Peter John Gregory, Director, Energy & Chemicals Group

Joining Baron Point in 2015, Mr. Gregory has over four decades of experience in senior management roles handling large projects at major companies. An expert in the oil, gas, and energy sectors, he is particularly well versed in Middle East and Southeast Asian businesses. Prior to joining with Baron Point, his most recent post was serving in the role of President-Business Development for Punj Lloyd Ltd.

 

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Steven James Drayer, Director of International Business (Secundo), Global Markets Group

Mr. Drayer is focused on Baron Point's building materials and physical commodity trading with an emphasis on the Middle East and ASAEN exit markets. Close to the Coppola family for over three decades, he spent his formative years in business covering the Coppola Family account while developing his skills at Georgia Pacific Corporation (later BlueLinx) and is now a Director of International Business Development and Territory Manager at the BlueLinx Corporation. He is also a Secundo member of the Baron Point team as well.

 

 

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Andrew M. Sullivan, Vice-President, Business Development, APAC

Joining with Baron Point in 2026, he is a seasoned executive with 20+ years’ experience leading institutional trading, investment strategy, and client development across Asia-Pacific. Recognized for thought leadership, rapid adaptability, and a strong command of Asian equities and trading ecosystems. He fills a senior strategic role in Asia for Baron Point, with valuable long-term vision and practical execution.

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Phillip John Evans, Executive Vice President, Project Management & Information Technology

Associated with principals of Baron Point since 2007 and joining the executive team in 2023, Phillip has over three decades of experience associated with technology and technology infrastructure projects in East Asia. Appointments in his career include senior management and/or senior advisory level positions. Most recently, pre-covid, he held a senior management post on a private equity financed greenfield assignment in Southeast Asia, which evolved into a major operating company, along with a successful secondary offering, in which some of the largest private equity firms participated.

 

 

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Matthew Megally, Vice-President, Business Development and Real Estate Development

Joining with the Baron Point team in 2013, Matthew has over a decade of combined experience in engineering, business development, and strategy on complex assignments. He started his career with the firm securing over US$ 120 million in revolving investment commitments and negotiated contracts advancing key projects in infrastructure and commodities. He has developed and managed key client relationships, including those with the Carlyle Group, Pertamina, PetroVietnam Oil, a member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi, and Credit Suisse.  Having a passion for trading, he is a registered large trader with the CME and SEC and is experienced in equities, digital assets, and their derivatives. He has degrees in Engineering and Soil Sciences from Texas A&M University and has attended the Booth School of Business in Chicago and the University of Washington in Seattle.

 

 

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Phan Cam Tuan Huy, Associate Vice-President & Senior Process Engineer, Energy & Chemicals Group

Joining Baron Point in 2018, Phan Cam Tuan Huy was appointed by Petrovietnam Oil in a senior management role to lead a landmark bilateral project between Vietnam and Cambodia, developed as a public-private partnership with Baron Point. Currently a senior executive at Baron Point, he has over 15 years of expertise in process engineering and financial modeling in the oil, gas, and chemical industries.

 

 

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Serhat Ozvaris, Research & Analysis

Spending nearly a decade in financial analysis in varying and increasingly senior roles, he has worked as an analyst, risk manager, and in audit and fund operations.  Earning a bachelor’s degree in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics from Marmara University in Istanbul, ‎Turkey‎, he has earned several advanced certifications including Advanced Level Capital Market, Activities License (Level III) (CMB 3 License), Credit Rating License (CMB Credit Rating License), and a Derivative Instruments License (CMB Derivatives License).

 

 

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Raymond S. Houpt, Business Manager - Lumber, Timber, and Building Materials

Associated with Baron Point since 2017, Mr. Houpt has over four decades of experience in the lumber, construction management, and building materials distribution businesses. An expert in his field, Mr. Houpt ran the tropical hardwoods division for over a decade at a major exporter focusing on trademarking and branding of woods, to create exclusive branding and pricing power in the market. Afterwards, he spent his time working in lumber mill work, sales and trading.

 

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San Anh Hong, Business Manager - Lumber and Timber

Associated with Baron Point since 2018, Mr. San brings over three-decades of experience at major corporates and in the timber and lumber trade.  He is an expert at grading logs for milling into building and furniture lumber.  He heads up the trading desk from Southeast Asia and was formally based in North America, and the Middle East where he formed deep commodity trading relationships all over the world.

 

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Jackie Zhang Jian 张健, Business Manager - People's Republic of China

Associated with Baron Point since 2019, Mr. Zhang has over two decades of experience in financing, investments, overseas market & sales development, and international trading (minerals & energy). He also has experience in international resources integration, management, and business planning. Prior to Baron Point he was a General Manager of Investments, Energy, & Mineral Resources at Silk Road Economic Promotion and Investment Dev. Co., Ltd. in their Financing Division.

 

 

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John D. Pickard, Enterprise Business Technology

Joining with the Baron Point team in 2007, he spent over two decades with Lloyds Bank where he became a Regional Manager and was later assigned by the company CEO to head a special IT task force. Shortly after, he founded an independent consulting firm acting as a strategic outsourcing partner to multinational institutions where he designed large multi-regional corporate systems serving several regulated asset managers in Asia, while providing expert guidance to small and medium sized businesses experiencing rapid growth in their development cycle.

 

 

Experienced Strategic Advisory Board:

Victor H. Sperandeo ("Trader Vic"), Non-Executive Member Strategic Advisory Board Director at Baron Point

Working with Mr. Coppola III on assignment for over the past two decades, “Trader Vic” is the Founder and CEO of Alpha Financial Technologies ("AFT") and EAM Partners L.P.  EAM's and AFT's principals are highly experienced in derivatives, structured notes, and other complex instruments. He has over five decades of experience on Wall Street, trading in numerous markets. Inducted into the Trader Hall of Fame in 2008, he has traded the full exposure of George Soros' Quantum Fund, as well as trading capital for Leon Cooperman, T. Boon Pickens, and BT Alex Brown.

 

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Patrick Daly, Non-Executive Strategic Advisory Board of Director at Baron Point, and Managing Partner, Sextant Securities LLC.

Joining with Baron Point in 2025, Patrick Daly has over three decades of experience in the alternative asset and financial services, and he is currently the Managing Partner of a U.S. FINRA broker dealer.  He was a partner at Blackstone from 2006 to 2015.  In 2006, he co-founded the hedge fund and credit placement business for Blackstone’s Park Hill Group.  Blackstone successfully exited PJT Partners in 2015, and from 2019 to 2023 he was a Partner of PJT Park Hill Group.  Mr. Daly was a Director in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Private Fund Group and a Managing Director at Norfolk Markets, specializing in fixed income products and alternative investments.  Mr. Daly began his career as a trader on the mortgage desk of Morgan Stanley in 1991.  He received a BBA from James Madison University and is a CAIA Charter holder.

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Benjawee Niyompornphat, Board of Director at Baron Point

Working in varied roles and on assignment with senior management since 2006. Since 2015, she has supported senior members in the deal advisory and asset management function, on location, focused on Southeast Asia transactions and on extended stay with veteran deal makers which included dealings with members of a National Oil Company in Vietnam, and in Abu Dhabi on a Fund investment vehicle whose partner is a Member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi.

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Vu Hai Binh, Non-Executive Member Strategic Advisory Board Director at Baron Point

Associated with senior management at Baron Point since 2017, he has held numerous senior executive positions in a successful career spanning over three-decades. In his past, he served at the Vietnamese National Oil company in increasingly senior rolls as a Managing Director, Capital Representative for strategic NOC subsidiaries, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Investment Officer, and Senior Assistant to the Chairman of the NOC. He also served as a CEO of a private asset management company. 

 

 

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Iqab Fraij, Non-Executive Member Strategic Advisory Board Director at Baron Point

Over the last 3 decades, Iqab Fraij was instrumental in growing a business fabricating construction materials such as steel, aluminum, and other metal products established by his grandfather in 1935. Working with notable global steel mills such as Nippon, Sumitomo, Hyundai, Posco, METInvest, MMK, Severstal, Dufurco, and Salzgitter, Mr. Fraij has played an instrumental role in operating strategic offices he established throughout the Gulf, China, and Russia.

 

 

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Lynn R. Murtagh, Non-Executive Member Strategic Advisory Board Director at Baron Point

Mr. Murtagh has spent three-decades in the real estate development business. A LEED accredited professional, he has earned the distinguished building certification through the USGBC and has earned a national reputation for his visionary leaderships and innovation.

Michael E. McMurtrey, Non-Executive Member Strategic Advisory Board Director at Baron Point

Michael has maintained a trading relationship with Baron Point's CEO since 1995 and has over three decades of institutional trading experience. Formerly he was the Head of NASDAQ Trading for Bridge Trading Company (then a division of Reuters). Mr. McMurtrey's trading desk ranked 5th in the world in terms of alpha production as published in a research survey by Institutional Investor Magazine. In the past he was a Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Advisors and is currently a SVP at RBC in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

 

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