Executive Team
Paul DiFrancesco - Natural Resources / Greentech
Paul DiFrancesco has over 20 years experience in the financial sector. Currently, Mr. DiFrancesco is a partner at Viewpoint Securities, LLC.. Prior to his work at Viewpoint, Mr. DiFrancesco co-founded and was the president of Decision Capital Management, LLC, a multiple single manager platform that offered a versatile range of alternative investment strategies through investment partnerships and managed accounts.
Prior to co-founding Decision, Mr. DiFrancesco was Senior Managing Director of Preferred Capital Markets in San Francisco. Mr. DiFrancesco was responsible for the institutional research, investment banking, sales and trading departments. During Mr. DiFrancesco’s tenure, Preferred Capital Markets was named by Fortune Magazine several years running, as one of the top 100 fastest growing private companies. In 1995 Mr. DiFrancesco joined Apodaca-Johnston Investment Group as Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. DiFrancesco was responsible for all daily operations, and trading for the firm. In 1990 Mr. DiFrancesco started his trading and NASDAQ market-making career at Torrey Pines Securities, where he built up and managed the trading desk. Within 3 years of assuming this position, the trading desk made a market in over 100 stocks serving both a retail and institutional client base. Mr. DiFrancesco started his career in 1987 with IDS Financial Services as a registered representative in Spokane, Washington.
Bruce Forest - Life Sciences
Bruce Forrest joined Viewpoint Securities in 2010. Dr. Forrest has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry involving product development including vaccines and biopharmaceuticals. He was previously Senior Vice President at Pfizer, Inc. and before that Senior Vice President in Vaccines R&D at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for clinical and development activities for all late phase programs, as well as identifying in-licensing opportunities. As a Board Member of Wyeth K.K. and head of Wyeth’s R&D organization in Japan, Dr. Forrest oversaw industry-leading innovation in pharmaceuticals development in Japan/Asia-Pacific. He has extensive experience in achieving global regulatory and marketing approvals for vaccines and biopharmaceuticals.
Dr. Forrest is a medical graduate (MD) from the University of Adelaide (Australia) and has an MBA from the Warwick Business School (UK).
Yves Gut - Natural Resources / Greentech / Media / Life Sciences
Yves Gut joined Viewpoint Securities in 2007, continuing a successful 25 year career in the institutional brokerage and banking business. He has previously held senior positions at some of the largest multi-national firms, including UBS AG (ex Swiss Bank Corp), PaineWebber Inc., Shearson Lehman Bros., Prudential Bache Securities, SG Cowen and Raymond James & Associates, in Geneva.
During his career, Mr. Gut has built up extensive European institutional contacts with pension funds, independent portfolio managers, private bankers and high net worth individuals. He has considerable strengths in bringing unique investment recommendations to his clients, as well as sourcing financing projects.
Mr. Gut is an investment banker for Viewpoint Securities in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a Swiss national, and speaks English and French fluently.
Roger Levine - Greentech / Technology / Life Sciences
Roger Levine joined Viewpoint Securities as an investment banker in 2006. He was previously a Partner and Head Trader at Pacific Crest Securities, and was a member of the firm's Management Committee, where he was responsible for technology integration, capital commitment and risk management. Mr. Levine began his trading career in 1981 at Goldman, Sachs and Company, trading on the arbitrage and NASDAQ departments, Roger subsequently worked as Vice President of NASDAQ trading for Montgomery Securities, trading large blocks of technology issues during Silicon Valley's hyper-growth period. As Partner and Director of Trading for Volpe Brown Whelan and Company, Mr. Levine assembled and managed a highly visible trading department focused on life science and technology issues. He later served as a Managing Director of Preferred Capital Markets in San Francisco, directing sales/trading.
From 1997 to 1998 he was First Vice President of the San Francisco Security Traders Association and served as a Governor of the Security Traders Association (National) from 1999-2000. Mr. Levine served three years on NASDAQ's Market Regulation Committee, and in 1996 was elected Chairman of the Committee, overseeing adjudication for all NASD registered representatives.
Mr. Levine focuses on due diligence, structure, and distribution across several sectors, and is also Viewpoint's Director of Sales.
Seth Leyton - Custody & Clearing / Compliance
Seth Leyton is a Partner, Director of Custody and Clearing services and the firm's Chief Compliance Officer. He is responsible for overall supervision of the firm's securities business. Seth puts his 18 years of experience managing operations and compliance for regional broker dealers to work. Seth continuously strives to enhance the overall business and operating model within the dynamic and continuously changing regulatory framework. Mr. Leyton’s responsibilities include oversight of all trade processing, domestic and international settlements, management of the firm's custody and clearing relationships, the firm's introduced prime brokerage customers, overall firm compliance, financial and regulatory audits, trade processing and settlements.
John McDermott - Greentech / Media / Technology / Life Sciences
Mr. McDermott joined Viewpoint Securities as an investment banker in 2010. As a registered securities principal John has overseen marketing, sales, compliance and portfolio management of equities, bonds, CDs, cash, mutual funds, fee based accounts, annuities, private placements and IPO's. John's background also includes corporate stock re-purchases, corporate insurance planning and corporate retirement account administration and management.
In 2006, John incorporated McDerMedia and launched The CEO Radio Network, a premier, interactive research tool which provides listeners the opportunity to hear the latest corporate and business news first hand. McDerMedia services allow small and micro-cap issuers access to high quality distribution and data-mining, while investors are provided with an additional communication directly from the source.
John specializes in small-cap analysis, corporate consulting and shareholder development, including investment marketing programs, retail and institutional shareholder development and disclosure obligations.
He is an active member of the Greater Clairemont Chamber of Commerce, the San Diego Police Captain's Advisory Board for the Northern Division and the Southern California Investment Association. He received a Masters in Public Administration, Governors State University (Illinois) and a B.A. Political Science, Northern Illinois University.
Raghu Saripalli - Gaming / Consumer / Business Services
Mr. Saripalli has over 14 years of strategic advisory, capital markets and operational experience with both public and private companies. Prior to joining Viewpoint Securities, Mr. Saripalli had served as the Chief Financial Officer of HemoLife Medical, Inc., a medical device company and Multistat, Inc., a software company. From 1994 through 2005, Mr. Saripalli was an investment banker focusing on providing mergers and acquisitions, financing and strategic advisory services to public and private company clients. He has worked at Deutsche Bank, Wasserstein Perella and Barclays Capita and advised on over 20 significant transactions worth over $45 billion.
Mr. Saripalli has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with distinction. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology in India and has dual Masters degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering.