Prior to founding Grandwood Securities, Mr. Birnbaum spent over 18 years working with some of the largest investment banks and financial institutions in the world. Mr. Birnbaum joined Dean Witter in 1985 where he supervised investment banking professionals and dedicated groups focused on serving the needs of multi-unit retail and restaurant establishments. During his career at Dean Witter, Mr. Birnbaum was a part of a team that helped to develop and create some of the most innovative securitized franchise finance structures. When Mr. Birnbaum joined Prudential Securities in May of 1997 as a Managing Director, he was one of the first investment bankers at a major full service Wall Street Firm to start and oversee an investment banking group specifically dedicated to serving the needs of business service and outsourcing companies.. During his career at Prudential Securities, Mr. Birnbaum was a member of the Business Review Committee, Investment Banking Fairness Opinion Committee and Group Head Management Committee. He also sat on the investment committee of Prudential’s Roman Arch Venture Capital Fund.
Mr. Birnbaum graduated magna cum laude from New York University with a BS in international business and finance where he was a recipient of the John Ben Snow Academic Scholarship and the Financial Executive Institute’s award for outstanding scholarship in Finance. Mr. Birnbaum received his MBA in Finance from New York University. Upon graduating from New York University, Mr. Birnbaum was with Touche Ross & Co.
Previous to founding Grandwood Securities, Mr. Mortell was a Managing Director and Group Head of the Private Equity Financing Group (“PEFG”) at Prudential Securities’ Investment Banking Division. Under Mr. Mortell’s rein, the PEFG became one of Prudential’s strongest franchises closing over 27 deals in a variety of industries and raising over $750 million of capital. Additionally, Mr. Mortell was involved with a number of other transactions including mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, private debt and restructurings. Mr. Mortell was promoted to Group Head after just two years at Prudential and served on a number of different committees including the Roman Arch Fund investment Committee, the Management Committee responsible for running the investment bank and the Fairness Opinion Committee. Mr. Mortell was also a frequent lecturer at Private Equity Conferences and was widely quoted in industry magazines and periodicals.
Previous to Prudential, Mr. Mortell spent six years working for Zolfo, Cooper & Co. as a management consultant specializing in corporate turnarounds and restructurings. While at Zolfo, Cooper & Co., Mr. Mortell represented numerous debtor organizations including bankruptcy and out-of-court restructurings, in addition to representing creditors and creditor committees, both secured and unsecured, and also in and out of bankruptcy. Mr. Mortell also served as an interim chief financial officer for a $120 million specialty retailer.
Mr. Mortell began his career at the General Electric Company (“GE”) graduating from GE’s financial management program with honors and spending two years with GE’s highly-regarded corporate international audit staff.
Mr. Mortell received a B.S. degree from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. and received his MBA in marketing and finance from the University of Chicago. Mr. Mortell was also an instructor in Finance and Accounting at University of Chicago’s School of Continuing Education.
Prior to joining Grandwood Securities, Mr. Dawson was a Senior Associate in the Business Services & Consumer Group with Prudential Securities Investment Banking Group. While working at Prudential, Mr. Dawson worked with some of the leading business services and consumer companies in the world, including Jack Henry & Associates, Bunge Foods, Kraft, Interstate Bakeries and Electronics Boutique.
Before joining Prudential, Mr. Dawson practiced law for over five years focusing on commercial transactions & litigation, banking law, bankruptcy law, real estate law and collections. His clients included General Electric Capital, Chrysler Credit, MBNA and Dillards.
Mr. Dawson received his MBA from The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and his BGS and JD from Louisiana State University.
Prior to joining Grandwood Securities, Mr. Seery was a partner at a New York City boutique investment bank from 2007 throught 2009. Mr. Seery was the Chief Financial Offiicer of The Standard Group, a privately held manufacturer of folding cartons from 2002 throught 2007 . Prior to that, Mr. Seery was a Managing Drector at CIBC World Markets where he ran the Information Technology Services and Communications Groups. Prior to this, Mr. Seery spent four years at Prudential Securities where he was Managing Director and led the Information Technology Services and Communications Software investment banking efforts.
Previously, Mr. Seery spent six years at Tucker Anthony Incorporated raising public and private capital and providing financial advisory services to companies in diverse industries including business services, information technology, medical supply distribution, industrial sand processing, consumer products and restaurants.. Mr. Seery began his investment banking careet working as an associate from 1989 to 1990. Mr. Seery began his financial careet as a commercial banker, working for five years with exposure to Fortune 1000. middle market, asset based and leveraged buyout clients at Marine Midland Bank and European American Bank, where he was creditt trained.
Mr. Seery has a BA degree in economics from University of Virgian and his MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
Email: wseery@grandwoodsecurities.com
John Schneller - Managing Director
Prior to joining Grandwood Securities, Mr.. Schneller was a partner at a boutique investment bank located in New York City. Mr. Schneller brings a unique perspective and set of skills as a banker because of his many years of experience as an investment manager and a sell-side research analyst focused on small and mid-cap stocks including investing and structuring PIPES. Before this, Mr. Schneller worked as an analyst at Knott Partners, a multi-billion dollar, value-oriented, New York hedge fund from 2002 through 2007. Mr. Schneller's expertise was analysis and investing in micro-to-mid-cap, long/short debt and equtity securities. His investments included securities in the fields of intellectual property, technology, content distribution, nanotechnology, healthcare, non-bank financials (brokers and asset managers and insurance companies), business services, clean-tech, packaging and retail.
Prior to joining Knott Partners, Mr. Schneller held Senior Reseach Analysts positions at CIBC World Markets and Stephens Inc. from 1997 - 2001 and an Associate Analyst position at Donaldson, Luftkin and Jenrette.
Mr. Schneller received his BA degree in History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, his MA in Public Adminstration from Suffolk University in Boston and his MBA from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Email: jschneller@grandwoodsecurities.com
Brian Zucker
Mr. Zucker has over 20 years experience as a Certified Public Accountant and began his career as a Senior Consultant at both Price Waterhouse and Deloitte Haskins and Sells. He holds a Bachelors degree in Public Accounting from Pace University in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and New York State Society of CPA's. NASD licenses include series 7, 63, 24 & 27.
Adam Birnbaum - Managing Director 
Michael Mortell - Managing Director 
Mylan Dawson - Managing Director
Brian Zucker 
