Melar Acquisition Corp. I
MANAGEMENT & BOARD
Executive Officers
Gautam Ivatury, 47
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Mr. Ivatury has been a co-founder and managing partner of ALMA Sustainable Finance, a debt investment firm active in the global inclusive finance and carbon finance sectors, since May 2020, and has been a senior advisor and investment committee member for Encourage Capital, a New York-based private equity firm that invests in specialty finance lenders in India among other sectors, since October 2016. Mr. Ivatury has held founding or CXO roles at ventures such as India’s first microfinance institution to IPO (SKS Microfinance), Kenya’s first mobile-based credit provider (Jipange Kusave), India’s digital micro-lender (Happy Loans), and the firm that incubated M-KOPA, Africa’s pay-go solar financier. Earlier, as a member of the management team at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a multi-donor trust fund hosted by the World Bank, Mr. Ivatury helped secure one of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s largest grants in financial inclusion and set up an industry-shaping digital finance program. He has also chaired the GSM Association’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked Fund, consulted to Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft and Visa, and developed digital finance projects in nine countries. Mr. Ivatury previously held roles at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Mr. Ivatury’s writings on the impact, business design and regulation of technology-driven financial inclusion have been published by the World Bank, CGAP, MIT Press, Springer Verlag, and media including the Banker and Revue Banque. Mr. Ivatury is a graduate of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and holds a Master’s degree and Bachelor’s degree in international economics and internal studies, respectively. We believe Mr. Ivatury is qualified to serve on our board due to his extensive experience in financial industry and management skills.
Edward Lifshitz, 65
Chief Financial Officer
Edward Lifshitz has served as our Chief Financial Officer since incorporation. He is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 30 years of professional experience, most recently as a partner at EisnerAmper LLP and its predecessors from January 2001 until his retirement in 2019. Mr. Lifshitz assisted clients with negotiating complex real estate acquisitions, lease transactions and debt financings and his practice encompassed all forms of investment properties. He provided construction cost monitoring, judicial and non-judicial debt restructuring, litigation support, valuation of real estate assets for estate and internal buyout purposes, review and analysis of troubled assets, acquisition due diligence review and various other special purpose engagements. Currently, Mr. Lifshitz advises high net worth families and acts as a principal at DSA Property Group, a real estate investment and management company he co-founded in 1994. Mr. Lifshitz is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA). He holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from Baruch College.
Eric Lifshitz, 30
Chief Operating Officer and Director
Mr. Lifshitz founded Melar Capital Group LLC, a real estate advisory and investment firm, in February 2021. Prior to that, he worked at Natixis CIB as an Associate in the Global Structured Credit division from July 2018 to December 2020. His responsibilities included structuring, marketing, and executing collateral loan obligation and structured warehouse transactions. Prior to his role as an Associate, Mr. Lifshitz was an Analyst where he focused on real asset loan syndication and CMBS transactions from June 2016 to July 2018. Mr. Lifshitz also co-founded a contracting business and advises early-stage startups. Mr. Lifshitz received a BBA from Baruch College?—?Zicklin School of Business. We believe Mr. Lifshitz is qualified to serve on our board due to his experience in financial industry.
Board of Directors
Dan Rosen, 38
Director
Mr. Rosen is a serial entrepreneur and investor with 20 years of experience leading clean energy companies and initiatives. He currently serves as CEO of Ezra Climate, a fintech enabled asset management firm. In 2009, he co-founded Mosaic, a financial technology lender in the residential solar market, and has served as its CEO, President and now Chairman of the Board since then. In 2020, he founded Solara, a fintech company focused on unleashing climate solutions in emerging markets starting in Mexico that is backed by Lowercarbon Capital and the Walton family. He helped found Navajo Power and Navajo Power Home, a solar developer focused on solar projects on the Navajo Nation and other tribes to help accelerate the transition from coal and optimize for the economic benefit of Tribal Partners, in 2018. Mr. Rosen is an Unreasonable Institute fellow and a visiting scholar at the INSS?—?Center for Climate and Security and was a founding Board member of Unreasonable Group. We believe Mr. Rosen is qualified to serve on our board due to his extensive experience in financial technology sector.
Ken Ruggiero, 57
Director
Mr. Ruggiero has more than 30 years of experience managing start-up though Fortune 1,000 companies, helping them create meaningful change and shareholder value in industries including consulting, technology and education finance. Mr. Ruggiero is the founder, chairman and CEO of GSS, a $26 billion loan servicing and asset management company, since January 2008. He also founded Goal Investment Management, a $200 million structured credit fund, in 2008. Mr. Ruggiero is the co-founder and CEO of Ascent Funding, a venture funded student success and education finance company which seeks to revolutionize the way students plan, pay and succeed in school. Previously, Mr. Ruggiero served as CFO and president of Goal Financial, a student loan company, from March 2003 and May 2010. Prior to joining GSS, he held executive positions at eAssist Global Solutions November 2000 to March 2003, NBC’s Internet Division, from April 1998 to November 2000 and the public accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, from September 1989 to April 1998. Mr. Ruggiero received his CPA in New York, an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. We believe Mr. Ruggiero is qualified to serve on our board due to his management, finance and business development experience.
Tara Kenney, 63
Director
Tara Kenney will serve as a director upon the commencement of trading of our units on Nasdaq. From March 2017 to December 2020, Ms. Kenney was a Senior Vice President for Boston Common Asset Management, a leader in ESG/impact investing. Earlier, between April 2002 and May 2016, Ms. Kenney was a Managing Director with Deutsche Asset Management, where she directed the institutional business for Latin America, and served as a Portfolio Manager and Head of Emerging Markets and Latin American Equities for nearly 2 decades. Ms. Kenney was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Scudder Investments between March 1995 and April 2002, and between October 1987 and March 1995, she worked for Bankers Trust’s Latin American Merchant Bank, where she led the Brady Plan debt negotiations for the bank. Her early career included work for the Chase Manhattan Bank, and the InterAmerican Development Bank. Ms. Kenney is currently serving as an independent board director for Fidelity Investments. In addition to her work for Fidelity Investments, she is currently on the board of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and serves on the Audit and Investment Committees for Catholic Charities USA. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame, teaching “Sustainable Accounting, Reporting and Impact Investing.” She leads the Finance and Investment Committee for Accion International, an international nonprofit organization for fintech and financial inclusion for the emerging markets. Ms. Kenney received a BA in Government and Spanish from the University of Notre Dame and later studied Economics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. She earned an MBA in Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. We believe Ms. Kenney is qualified to serve on our board due to her significant expertise in finance, emerging markets and corporate governance.