Director, CEO & President
Mr. Erik Blum has extensive expertise in the corporate finance and equity/debt structure. He was a registered principal compliance officer for close to 27 years on Wall Street and has worked at numerous firms in many capacities.
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Erik’s career started at Lehman Brothers and Drexel Burnham California underwriting junk bonds in the late 1980’s. While at Drexel, Mr. Blum worked with Steve Nassau and Michael Milken on the 7UP and NWA LBO’s. After Drexel, Mr. Blum moved to Shearson and later found a home at Tucker Anthony /John Hancock, structuring debt, raising equity, and participating in corporate finance.
Mr. Blum then joined D. Blech & Company as an officer and principal in 1993 and was instrumental in bringing more than 50 Bio Tech companies to market including Gilead, Human Genome Sciences, Texas Biotech, VISX Laser, Guilford, and many others. In 2001 Mr. Blum moved to Florida and began structuring CMO’S specializing in the inverse floater side of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2005 Mr. Blum successfully created a reverse convertible bond desk based on volatility for Stern Agee. Mr. Blum left Wall Street in 2010 to branch off privately.
Privately, Eric founded JW Price, LLC, a corporate consulting firm, which focused on providing business development services to micro cap and other small public companies. At JW Price, Mr. Blum helped a series of companies become successful public traded entities. He has sat as CEO, CFO, and Director with multiple company’s and has been instrumental in enabling their turnarounds and growth. With over 30 years’ experience in debt, corporate finance and company management, Mr. Blum has a unique perspective on the equity markets.
Director & COO
Mr. Ronald E. Hughes has more than 30 years of experience in business development and investment markets. In 1997, Ron joined Global Securities as a Licensed Investment Advisor providing investment analysis, equity trading and capital structure strategy to corporate finance. In 2001, he began his executive roles, first as President of TransAmerican Energy Inc., and currently serves on the boards of publicly traded companies in the United States and Canada.
He has also been a partner with North Arm Capital Services, providing Investor Relations and Business Development services to domestic and international clients for nearly three decades. Mr. Hughes studied Resource Economics at the University of Alberta and then International Marketing and Management at University of Hawaii (1987).
Director & CTO
Mr. Jayakumar Gopalan has a diverse work experience spanning over two decades. Jayakumar is currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer at NOBL Q (previously ERP Logic) since August 2023. Prior to this role, he co-founded Fyniti in October 2019 and S&L Capital Markets in September 2019, where he held executive positions.
Jayakumar also worked as the VP of Technology at Netomi (formerly msg.ai) from July 2015 to October 2019. Before that, they served as the Principal Technology Architect / Vice President at BNY Mellon from April 2012 to June 2015 and as the Vice President - Prime Brokerage Technology at Citi from June 2010 to February 2012.
Jayakumar's earlier experience includes positions as a Sr. Consultant / Lead Developer at Lehman Brothers / Barclays Wealth from July 2008 to June 2010, at Merrill Lynch from November 2006 to July 2008, at UBS from September 2005 to November 2006, and at JPMorgan Chase from September 2004 to September 2005.
At JPMorgan Chase, Jayakumar led a three-person team involved in designing and implementing a migration application from Lotus platform after a merger. Jayakumar also contributed to the success of application migration by suggesting and enforcing best practices, performance tuning, enhancing authentication and authorization, and improving database operations.
Jayakumar Gopalan earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the Government College of Technology - Coimbatore, where they studied from 1993 to 1997. Additionally, they obtained certifications in financial services, including the Series 24, Series 7, and Series 63, in the year 2020.
Certified Public Accountant
Ms. Rachel Boulds has been engaged in private practice as a CPA and business consultant. Rachel specializes in preparation of full disclosure financial statements for public companies to comply with GAAP and SEC requirements. From August 2004 through July 2009, she was employed as a Senior Auditor for HJ & Associates, LLC, where she performed audits and reviews for public and private companies, including the preparation of financial statements to comply with GAAP and SEC requirements.
From 2003 through 2004, Ms. Boulds was employed as a Senior Auditor for Mohler, Nixon and Williams. From September 2001, through July 2003, Ms. Boulds worked as an ABAS associate for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. From April 2000 through February 2001, she was employed an an eCommerce Accountant for the Walt Disney Group's GO.com division. Ms. Boulds holds a B.S. in Accounting from San Jose State University, 2001 and is licensed as a CPA in the state of Utah.
Chief Financial Officier
Mr. Xuqiang (Adam) Yang, is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has been involved in the accounting and finance space for over 10 years. He brings a wealth of firsthand accounting experience from his tenure with companies like ADT, Office Depot, Envision Physicians Services, and much more. Throughout his career, Mr. Yang has demonstrated an ability to adapt to the ever fast changing world of finance and accounting. Prior to his role as CFO with SMC Entertainment, Inc, he was a controller with a startup solar company where he designed the accounting system from the ground up. Mr. Yang was also an auditor of startup public traded companies and has served as a senior assurance officer for these engagements. As SMCE is a fully reporting company, Mr. Yang is well qualified to help the management transition into our next phase of development.