Managing Director
Cliffwater LLC
Chris is a Managing Director of Cliffwater LLC in our New York office and a member of the hedge fund research team. Prior to joining Cliffwater in 2011, Chris was a Senior Analyst at SAIL Advisors, where he focused on manager selection and due diligence as Head of Research for tactical trading and relative value strategies. Previous experience includes working for ING Investment Management, Antarctica Asset Management, Societe Generale Barr Devlin, and CIBC World Markets.
He earned a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris is a Certified Public Accountant, holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designation, the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Chris has broken 6 Guinness World Records, has run marathons on all 7 continents and in all 50 US states.
Chris Solarz, Cliffwater LLC
Chris is a managing director of Cliffwater LLC in the New York office and a member of the hedge fund research team.
Prior to joining Cliffwater in 2011, Chris was a senior analyst at SAIL Advisors, where he focused on manager selection and due diligence as head of research for tactical trading and relative value strategies. Previous experience includes working for ING Investment Management, Antarctica Asset Management, Societe Generale Barr Devlin, and CIBC World Markets.
Chris earned a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris is a Certified Public Accountant, holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designation, the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.
Soriano Group Family Office
I’m a Partner and Chief Investment Officer at the Soriano Group Family Office, a leading consortium of global enterprises some privately-held others publicly traded, of approximately 500,000 employees with offices in the United States, Europe, LatAm and Asia. My key strategic experience involved:
• Domestic and cross-border private equity-backed and strategic mergers and acquisitions involving private and publicly-listed companies;
• Private equity and venture capital fund formation & management;
• Shareholder activist matters, including Advisory Board Memberships
• Public offerings and private placements of equity securities;
• Global Business Development
• Venture capital investments.
Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of leading a number of the world’s most recognized mergers, acquisitions, public offerings and fund formation transactions.
Prior to joining The Soriano Group, I served as a VP at Goldman Sachs Private Banking side in London, UK and The World Bank Group as a Senior Financial Analyst under the Special Representative to the United Nations.
Appraisers Association of America/DGS Art Consultants
Deborah Gerstler Spanierman, AAA, is President of DGS Fine Art Consultants, Inc., a full service fine art appraisal company and private art advisory founded in 2008. With nearly 30 years in the art business, Ms. Spanierman, has a wealth of experience that is invaluable to both new and seasoned collectors. She earned her Art History degree from Barnard College/Columbia University and spent considerable time with Sotheby’s in the department of American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture followed by 10 years an Associate Director at Spanierman Gallery, LLC in New York. There she focused on sales and acquisitions of art among private collectors, corporations and museums as well as curating important exhibitions for the gallery and traveling venues.
Ms. Spanierman, is a Certified Member and President of the Board of Directors of the Appraisers Association of America, the pre-eminent membership organization for independent appraisers of fine and decorative art. She prepares appraisals necessary for financial planning; insurance schedules; damage/loss claims; settlement of estate taxes for the IRS; determination of tax relief for the IRS in a non-cash-charitable donation; equitable distribution such as division of property in a divorce or business dissolution; disposition of collections or individual works and basis for collateral loans. Her appraisals comply with the highest standards in the field, known as USPAP, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. In a profession that is unlicensed, USPAP standards promote and maintain the highest level of public trust in appraisal practice by establishing requirements for appraisers that are accepted by such agencies as the Internal Revenue Service. Ms. Spanierman also adheres to the Appraisers Association’s extremely stringent code of professionalism and ethics.
Ms. Spanierman advises collectors in the sale and acquisition of 19th and 20th American Art, Post-War and Contemporary and Fine Art Prints. Her art advisory services are confidential to protect clients’ privacy. They include assistance in developing areas of interest for collectors, both new and experienced; advice on purchase and sale of works of art privately and at auction; market analysis, determination of value and sensitive price negotiation; evaluation of condition; research and documentation; assistance with framing and installation.
Ms. Spanierman speaks on issues relating to art collecting and valuation. She was presented at the Appraisers Association’s 2009 National Conference entitled New Vistas in the Marketplace and on November 15th, 2011 participated on a panel entitled Beyond Valuation: A Practical Discussion of Stolen Art Issues and the Legal and Ethical Questions Faced by the Collector and Appraiser held at New York University’s annual Art Law Day. She is also a Chubb Masterpiece ® Protection Network Preferred Provider, an Antiques Roadshow appraiser, and has taught as an Adjunct Instructor in the Appraisal Certificate Program at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies.
Michael Spiro
Michael Spiro chairs the firm’s Tax group where his practice focuses on providing federal and state tax advice in connection with domestic and international transactions, including hedge and private equity fund formations, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity financings and restructurings.
Mr. Spiro holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Journal of International Economic Law; an LL.M. in Taxation from Temple University Beasley School of Law, where he was the recipient of the Faculty Award in Taxation; and a B.A., magna cum laude from Brandeis University.
Mr. Spiro is admitted to practice in the States of Connecticut and New Jersey and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. Mr. Spiro also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Taxation at the Fairfield University Dolan School of Business.