Board of Directors

Alexandre Zyngier

Acting Chairman

Mr. Zyngier has over twenty years of investment, strategy, and operating experience. In 2013, Mr. Zyngier founded Batuta Advisors to pursue investment and advisory opportunities in both the public and private markets. Mr. Zyngier has extensive experience serving on boards of directors. He is currently a director of Atari SA, Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc., AudioEye Inc., Applied Minerals, Inc., and certain other private entities. He was previously the chairman of the board of Vertis Inc., a director of Island One LLC and executive chairman of DTV America Corporation. Mr. Zyngier holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from UNICAMP in Brazil.

---

Richard Kolman

Director

Mr. Kolman presently serves as the head of the municipal group and member of the firm-wide operating committee for Academy Securities, a military and disabled veteran-owned investment bank. Following a twenty-five year career with Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kolman left his position in 2007 as co-head of the municipal department at Goldman Sachs to serve as vice chairman of the Municipal and Infrastructure Assurance Corporation until 2010, when Mr. Kolman became a managing director and head of the municipal securities group at US Bank. Mr. Kolman left his position at US Bank in 2016 for his current role at Academy Securities. Mr. Kolman has served on the executive committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and received the SIFMA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He also was a member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board from 1996 to 1999 and is presently a member of the municipal executive committee for SIFMA. For over fifteen years, Mr. Kolman has served on the board of managers for the East Side House Settlement, a community-based organization serving the Mott Haven district of the South Bronx. He presently serves as treasurer and chair of the Finance Community.

---

Jim Montes

Director

Jim Montes joined the Touro Law family as Assistant Dean for Career Services in September 2014. Previously he was a partner at the global law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, based in Manhattan, where he concentrated in public and project finance. He was involved in public and private securities offerings and securities registration, and served as bond and underwriter’s counsel in connection with tax-exempt and taxable bond financings. He also led Nixon Peabody’s New York State practice serving local municipalities as bond counsel.  His legal experience is enhanced by over 20 years as a senior executive in the banking industry prior to becoming an attorney. He received a B.S. in Finance and International Business from NYU, and his J.D. from Fordham.