Senior Advisory Partner

John Siciliano has over thirty years of experience in the financial services industry as a senior executive at several prominent global financial institutions. His expertise is in defining strategic and business challenges; outlining and assessing potential solutions; and leading the management team to agreement on and implementation of the final business plan. In addition, he has broad experience in talent management and team development.

At present, John is Chairman of Avondale Strategies LLC, a provider of advisory services to asset management firms, as well as a Senior Advisor to both Kingsland Capital Management LLC and RFPWin LLC. In addition, he is an Advisory Partner at Grail Partners LLC.

As Chief Executive Officer (2008-2010) of the five money management firms ($95 billion in AUM) owned by New York Life, John was responsible for oversight of: product development; investment process and performance; distribution; strategy; and the reorganization of the leadership of: McKay Shields, Madison Square Investors, McMorgan & Company, New York Life Capital Partners, and Institutional Capital.

Prior to joining New York Life Investments, John was Managing Partner of Grail Partners LLC (2007-2008), a merchant bank focused on investing in and providing advisory services to the investment management industry.

From 2005 to early 2007, John was the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of BKF Capital Group, Inc. a NYSE listed company, after its hostile takeover by a group of hedge funds. John was recruited to replace the founding CEO and worked to resolve the conflicts amongst management, shareholders and employees, as well as manage numerous regulatory inquiries.

Previously, he was the head of the global institutional business for Dimensional Fund Advisors (2001-2005); a Managing Principal of Payden & Rygel, a fixed income investment management firm, and President of its mutual fund company, Payden & Rygel Investment Group (1998-2001); co-head of North American Corporate Finance at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (1995-1998); co-head of West Coast investment banking for Prudential Securities (1989-1991); and founder and head of the Los Angeles investment banking office for Smith Barney (1984-1989). He also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Technicolor Inc. (1991-1995).

John holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Pomona College and a Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has served on numerous non-profit boards and was honored with the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the New York City Catholic Big Sisters/Big Brothers in 2008.

John and his wife, Wendy, have three boys, Stuart (26), Alex (24) and Stephen (20). They reside in New York City and in Los Angeles.