Executive Officers

Gus Garcia, 43
C0-Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Garcia formerly served as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director of GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with Bitcoin Depot Inc. in Q2 2023. Prior to that Mr. Garcia served as Co-President and Director of Graf Acquisition Corp. IV, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with NKGen Biotech, Inc. in Q3 2023. Mr. Garcia is the former Head of SPAC M&A for Bank of America Securities, where he was responsible for advising private companies and SPACs on all aspects of mergers involving SPACs. In his last 12 months at Bank of America, Mr. Garcia advised on 13 SPAC transactions with approximately ~$20 billion in negotiated equity value in the aggregate. The five most recently announced SPAC transactions that Mr. Garcia advised on are the sale of BuzzFeed to 890 5th Avenue Partners, the sale of Velo3D to Jaws Spitfire Acquisition Corp., the sale of Spire Global to NavSight Holdings, the sale of Origin Materials to Artius Acquisition Inc. and the sale of XOS to NextGen Acquisition Corp. In addition, Mr. Garcia has worked on and overseen transactions with an excess of $150 billion in value across PIPEs, corporate separations and other mergers & acquisitions. Prior to being the Head of SPAC M&A, Mr. Garcia led the separations practice for Bank of America where he focused on complex corporate transactions such as spin-offs (including one of the top 5 largest spin-offs in corporate history), splitoffs, reverse Morris trusts, carve-out IPOs and structured private capital raises. Prior to the merger with Bank of America, Mr. Garcia worked at Merrill Lynch in the Corporate Finance group where he also focused on complex corporate transactions, as well as structured investments held on the bank’s balance sheet in partnership with Merrill Lynch’s Global Principal Investment group. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Mr. Garcia worked in HSBC’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group, and prior to HSBC, he worked in Wells Fargo Securities’ M&A group. Additionally, Mr. Garcia is a co-founder and partner of SPAC Advisory Partners, LLC, a boutique financial advisory firm focused on the special purpose acquisition company market. SPAC Advisory Partners is an affiliate of our underwriters. Mr. Garcia also sits on the Board of Directors for New York Cares, the largest volunteer network in New York City, serving nonprofit organizations and schools. Mr. Garcia graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in International Commerce & Finance from Georgetown University in 2003.

Lewis Silberman, 45
Co-Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Silberman formerly served as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director of GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with Bitcoin Depot Inc. in Q2 2023. Prior to that Mr. Silberman served as Co-President and Director of Graf Acquisition Corp. IV, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with NKGen Biotech, Inc. in Q3 2023. Mr. Silberman is the former Head of SPAC Equity Capital Markets for Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., where he led financings for the firm’s SPAC IPOs and business combination clients. In his last 12 months at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Mr. Silberman managed several SPAC IPOs, including Gig4 Acquisition Corp. (GIGG), Noble Rock Acquisition Corp. (NRAC), MDH Acquisition Corp. (MDH), Class Acceleration Corp. (CLAS), and Rodgers Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. (RSVA). Additionally, over the past several years, Mr. Silberman has acted in an advisory or placement agent role on transactions including Kingswood Acquisition Corp.’s combination with financial services company Binah Capital Group, CIIG Capital Partners II’s combination with electric mobility firm Zapp, Ascendent Acquisition Corp.’s combination with financial media and content company Beacon Street Group Holdings, Rodgers Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp.’s combination with next-generation battery manufacturer Enovix, Alpha Healthcare Acquisition Corp.’s combination with bioengineering firm Humacyte, Acies Acquisition Corp.’s combination with mobile gaming and loyalty rewards program company PlayStudios, and Roth CH Acquisition I Co.’s combination with PureCycle Technologies. Prior to his role in Oppenheimer’s Equity Capital Markets group, Mr. Silberman was the Head of Equity Sales for Oppenheimer for five years. Before joining Oppenheimer, Mr. Silberman spent three years at CIBC World Markets Corp., where he worked in a special situations client-coverage group focused on strategies including merger-arbitrage, ADR-arbitrage, and closed-end fund arbitrage. Prior to CIBC World Markets, Mr. Silberman worked at PaineWebber, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Silberman is a co-founder and partner of SPAC Advisory Partners, LLC, a boutique financial advisory firm focused on the special purpose acquisition company market. SPAC Advisory Partners is an affiliate of our underwriters. Mr. Silberman is also a Director at Chain Bridge I, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company. Mr. Silberman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, with a dual major in finance and marketing (2000), as well as a Master of Business Administration from the Stern School at New York University, with a dual concentration in Financial Markets and Management (2010). Mr. Silberman has completed three New York City Marathons (2017, 2018 and 2019) as a member of Fred’s Team to raise money for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Anantha Ramamurti, 48
President and Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Ramamurti has over 26 years of experience in the Technology sector across engineering, corporate finance and investment banking roles. Mr. Ramamurti formerly served as President and Director of GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with Bitcoin Depot Inc. in Q2 2023. Prior to that Mr. Ramamurti served as Chief Financial Officer of Graf Acquisition Corp. IV, a blank check company that completed its initial business combination with NKGen Biotech, Inc. in Q3 2023. Mr. Ramamurti was most recently a Managing Director and the Head of Global Mobility Group at Bank of America Securities where he was responsible for the coverage of the AutoTech sector and other emerging technologies since joining the firm in 2017. During his career at Bank of America, Mr. Ramamurti advised on several SPAC merger transactions, including the acquisition of Lucid Motors by Churchill Capital Corp. IV, the sale of Xos Trucks to NextGen Acquisition Corp., the acquisition of EVgo by Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corporation, the sale of Proterra to ArcLight Clean Transition Corp., the sale of Lightning eMotors to GigCapital3, the sale of ChargePoint to Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation, the sale of Canoo to Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV, and the sale of Velodyne Lidar to Graf Industrial Corp., among others. Prior to Bank of America, Mr. Ramamurti worked at Deutsche Bank since 2010 where he was most recently a Director in the Technology Investment Banking group and covered clients across semiconductor, communications, networking and cleantech sectors. Mr. Ramamurti started his investment banking career in 2009 at Guggenheim Securities in its Consumer & Retail investment banking group. During his banking career, Mr. Ramamurti had led execution on over 65 transactions totaling over $80 billion in transaction value across all product areas, including equity offerings, debt issuances, SPAC mergers and other M&A advisory. Prior to banking, Mr. Ramamurti served as a Senior Financial Analyst at Taco Bell, a division of Yum! Brands, where he oversaw the operations of company-owned stores in several states in the Midwest. Prior to finance, Mr. Ramamurti spent almost 12 years in various engineering roles at Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, Texas Instruments and several other firms, where he was responsible for the design and development of semiconductor processor chips. Mr. Ramamurti holds four patents in the areas of design and development. Additionally, Mr. Ramamurti is a co-founder and partner of SPAC Advisory Partners, LLC, a boutique financial advisory firm focused on the special purpose acquisition company market. SPAC Advisory Partners is an affiliate of our underwriters. Mr. Ramamurti has an MBA with Honors in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a Master’s with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor’s with Honors in Instrumentation Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India.

Yuya Orime, 36
Chief Business Development Officer

Mr. Orime currently also serves as Senior Vice President of SPAC Advisory Partners, a boutique financial advisory firm focused on the SPAC market. SPAC Advisory Partners is an affiliate of our underwriters. Most recently, Mr. Orime was Senior Vice President at GSR II Meteora Acquisition Corp. (GSRM), which successfully closed a SPAC transaction with Bitcoin Depot (NASDAQ: BTM) in June 2023. Prior to GSRM, Mr. Orime worked at Bank of America Securities from 2012 to 2022 where he was most recently a Director in the Technology Investment Banking group and covered clients across AutoTech and Enterprise Software sectors. During his career, Mr. Orime has advised on several SPAC mergers, including the sale of Zapp Electric Vehicles to CIIG II, sale of Spire Global to NavSight, acquisition of Lucid by Churchill IV, sale of Xos to NextGen, acquisition of EVgo by Climate Change Crisis I, sale of Proterra to ArcLight, sale of Lightning eMotors to GigCapital3, sale of ChargePoint to Switchback, sale of Canoo to Hennessy IV, and sale of Velodyne Lidar to Graf Industrial. Mr. Orime received his B.S. in Business Administration from University of Southern California in 2011.

Board of Directors

TBD
Director

TBD