Valerie Gospodarek, CFA
Owner, VG Financial Consulting LLC
Valerie J. Gospodarek, CFA, has over 25 years of financial industry experience and currently owns her own business, VG Financial Consulting LLC, where she helps people with planning and organizing their finances. Over her career, she has served in a variety of roles including managing individual investment and trust accounts, overseeing approximately 200 money managers, consulting on 401(k) plans, participating in asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions, and spearheading a multitude of special projects. The breadth and depth of this experience provides her with a unique perspective when helping her clients. Her need to manage her own family’s executive compensation combined with employees’ need to better understand these important investments led her to specialize in helping clients with their stock options, deferred compensation plans and concentrated company stock positions.
Mark Leeds, JD
Partner, Mayer Brown
Mark H. Leeds is a Tax Transactions & Consulting partner in Mayer Brown's New York office. His practice is focused on the tax consequences of a variety of capital markets products and strategies, including over-the-counter derivative transactions, swaps, tax-exempt derivatives, and strategies for efficient use of tax attributes. Mark advises on the tax aspects of capital markets, structured finance, derivatives, financial products, and insurance transactions and has extensive experience working with both buyers and sellers to develop and structure complex derivatives. A significant portion of his work involves the taxation of financial products and trading strategies engaged in by banks and other financial market participants. He also advises on hedge fund and other investment vehicle formation matters.
Marcel Quiroga, RMA®
Founder and CEO, TQM Wealth Partners
Marcel Quiroga founded TQM Wealth Partners in early 2016 with the purpose of providing objective advice through comprehensive financial and legacy planning to clients who value a more personable and human approach to independent advice. TQM was built for people who seek a boutique wealth management firm with large capabilities. In her role as CEO of the firm, Marcel provides strategic leadership for the team to provide their services with a total quality management approach. As a Retirement Management Advisor (RMA) and financial advisor, her primary focus is on advanced planning to help clients protect, grow, and transfer their wealth in ways that help them meet their goals efficiently and that reflect their personal and family values. Marcel is a Certified Retirement Management Advisor (RMA) with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Throughout that time, Marcel has held positions in the financial planning and advisory industry as the Chief Relationship Officer at Capital Formation Group, as a Private Wealth Advisor at Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group, and as a Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley’s Individual Investment Group. She has also held leadership positions in commercial banking and at a private financial fund in Bolivia. Marcel holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the Universidad Privada Boliviana, which was founded by Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia (Federación de Empresarios Privados).
Brian Yolles
Founder and CEO, StockShield LLC
Brian Yolles is Founder and CEO of StockShield LLC, an SEC-registered broker-dealer that specializes in protecting concentrated stock positions. He has more than 15 years of experience in the investment industry and has been awarded five US patents for his innovations. Prior to founding StockShield, Mr. Yolles served as an equity research analyst at Dowling & Partners Securities, a highly regarded broker-dealer specializing in insurance stocks. He was born in Indianapolis and is a graduate of Yale University, earning a bachelor of arts degree (summa cum laude) in American Studies and a master of business administration degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Bruce Brumberg, JD
Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder, myStockOptions
Bruce Brumberg has devoted most of his professional career to making complex legal and tax concepts understandable to people who do not enjoy reading the Internal Revenue Code and the securities laws. He is the editor-in-chief and a co-founder of myStockOptions.com, the premier provider of web-based educational content and tools on stock options, restricted stock, ESPPs, SARs, and performance shares. Bruce runs another website (myNQDC.com, on nonqualified deferred comp) and writes a popular blog at Forbes.com. He graduated from the University of Michigan and University of Virginia School of Law.