Alec Salemon, Managing Principal

Alec Salemon brings over 10 years of investment management, commercial banking, retail lending and financial advisory experience to BWS Capital Partners, LLC. Prior to founding BWS Capital Partners, LLC., Mr. Salemon was an buy-side equity analyst at Huntington Holdings, Inc., responsible for the managing  over $100 MM in total aggregate portfolio value.  Previously, Mr. Salemon held an integral part at Wells Fargo's Charitable Management Team within their Portfolio Services Group as an Institutional Portfolio Managers managing 80 institutional clients nationwide worth over $400 MM in total portfolio market value.

Mr. Salemon began his career in the investment management / financial advisory industry with UBS Financial Services in 1998. Mr. Salemon holds a B.S. degree in Finance from the Sid Craig School of Business. Mr. Salemon is an active member and contributor to the Los Angeles Chapter of Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFALA). Mr. Salemon is also one of the managing principal of Golden State Community Bank Fund I, LP., a private equity fund that focuses on investing in the micro-cap banks and thrifts in the state of California.

Seira Aredia, Managing Principal

Prior to joining BWS Capital Partners, LLC., Seira was the acting CFO for Dynaco Food Services, Inc., responsible for executing numerous strategic initiative for expanding the company's operation within its Central California region of operation. She was responsible in executing and overseeing various merge, acquisition and reorganization as well as valuation projects internally. Previously, Seira held a Finance Director position at ConAgra Foods, Inc. (Fresno) for 2 years. At ConAgra, she was responsible in the implementation of internal ad-hoc reporting and analysis for its multiple regional centers within the Central Valley region of operation.

Seira holds a B.A. in accounting from Sid Craig School of Business.

Golden State Capital Management, LLC.

In November 2008, Alec Salemon established Golden State Capital Management, LLC. (GSCM), for the purpose of managing the investments of the Golden State Community Bank Fund I, LP (the ”Fund”). The objective of the fund is to make equity investments in publicly-traded  as well as non-public community banks and thrifts located in the State of California with emphasis on banks with asset size of generally less than $5 Billion. The primary investors of the fund are expected to be public retirement systems, fund of funds, local and regional community banks, strategic individual investors and other relevant institutional investors.

Golden State Capital Management, LLC., is an affiliate of BWS Capital Partners, LLC. The Managing Principals of Golden State Capital Management, LLC., are Mr. Alec Salemon, Mr. Mark Davis of DRHH Advisers, LLC., and Mr. Dan Jessee of Gael Partners, LLC.

Dan Jessee, Managing Principal

Dan has over 15 years of private equity investment and fund management experience, most of which is directly related to the types of investments that the Fund proposes to make. Mr. Jessee co-founded Gael Partners, LLC. in 2005. Gael Partners, LLC., is the General Partner of Central Valley Fund, a $60 Million private equity capital fund focused on providing growth capital to companies in the Great California Central Valley. Mr. Jessee was also one of the Founding Principals with Stonehenge Partners. Stonehenge currently manages $475 million in committed private mezzanine and equity capital. Formerly, Mr. Jessee was the Vice Chairman of Banc One Capital Markets.

Prior to his tenure at Banc One, he held senior level investment banking positions at Meuse, Rinker, Chapman, Endres & Brooks and Rotan Mosle, Inc. He began his investment banking career in 1978 with E.F. Hutton and Co., Inc., after spending time with Price Waterhouse & Co. Mr. Jessee holds a B.A. degree from Tulane University, an MPA (Health Care Administration) from the City University of New York and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

Mark A. Davis, Managing Principal

Prior to joining Golden State Capital Management, LLC, Mr. Davis is the managing principal of Davis, Ross, Hockman Investment Advisers, LLC (the “Firm”), an SEC registered investment adviser which was founded in 2002. Prior that, Mr. Davis spent more than twenty years with Diamond Hill Investment Group, Inc. (formerly known as The Banc Stock Group, Inc.), an Ohio-based investment adviser.  From 1992 to 2001, Mr. Davis served as the Vice President and Director of Research at Diamond Hill Investment Group, Inc. and in 1995 became the company’s sole portfolio manager responsible for the firm’s Small Cap Bank Product. 

Mr. Davis was responsible for portfolio management on behalf of institutional accounts, commingled funds and a top-performing mutual fund (symbol: BANCX) until his departure from the company in June 2001.  Mr. Davis's investment opinions have appeared in publications such as SmartMoney, TheStreet.com, Investor’s Business Daily and the American Banker.  His responsibilities with the Firm include research, stock selection, and portfolio management of separately-managed accounts as well as the DRMM Total Return Fund, I. L.P., a long/short commingled vehicle dedicated to the community bank space.  Mr. Davis attended Yale College for the 1969 to 1970 academic year.