Vincent T. Pica II, Advisor
Vin brings over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and financier, and he has also held a variety of senior management jobs on Wall Street. He is currently the Managing Partner of Safanad, Inc., a private equity company in New York City with a substantial capital base under management.
From 2003 through 2006, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Longwing Inc., and Longwing Real Estate Ventures, LLC, private investment firms headquartered in New York City. Longwing invested $250 million in total equity capital and produced outstanding returns for its investors. Vin merged Longwing's successor firm ARC Global in September 2007 to create Safanad, Inc.
Prior to the establishment of Longwing, Vin was at Prudential Securities from 1986 to 2000, where among many roles he founded their venture capital arm, Roman Arch Partners. He was appointed Group President of Capital Finance in 1994. Vin was also a member the firm's eight-member Operating Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of Prudential Securities Group. Vin also had the great pleasure to serve as Advisor to Pete Peterson, former Secretary of the Treasury and the founder of Blackstone, one of the country's largest merchant banking and private equity firms, on technology matters between 2001 and 2002.
Prior to joining Prudential Securities in 1986, Vin held a variety of high technology and operational positions during his ten-year career at EF Hutton & Company. Additionally, Vin was on the Board of, and Investment Committee of, EF Hutton Venture Partners, Inc., the firm's venture capital subsidiary. Among other investments, Vin led EF Hutton's investment in Redgate Communications, founded by Ted Leonsis, and sat on its Board of Directors. Later, Redgate was acquired by AOL as a key cornerstone to its extremely successful marketing strategy of the 1990s.
Vin received his BBA from Iona College in 1975 and was awarded his MS in Business Policy from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1979. Vin sits on the Board of Directors or Advisory Boards of a number of private companies. He also served for several years as an active member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Estithmaar Islamic Real Estate Fund, LP, co-sponsored by Citibank and the Dubai Investment Group targeting investments in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Vin also is heavily involved in a number of philanthropic activities, including being an active supporter of Boy’s Town of Italy, a member of the Georgetown College Board of Advisors, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City (now retired). A member of the Circumnavigators Club and a life-member of the New York Athletic Club, Vin is also District Captain in United States Coast Guard Forces and runs Sector Long Island South with its 900 fellow Auxiliarists. Vin has been honored a number of times for his works including the Blessed Edmund Rice Award by the Christian Brothers (2000), "Man of the Year" by Boys' Town of Italy (2002) and is an Ellis Island Medal of Honor winner (2001).