High Return, Low Risk. The Path to Prosperity Investing in Education

Stanford Silverman is President of Silver Betty, Inc./Devotion Internet, Inc., Advertising and Marketing Agencies located in New York, N.Y. Silver Betty, Inc. is one of the largest proprietary education marketing and advertising companies in the United States. The agency has represented over 200 private and publicly traded universities, colleges and schools. The success of an investment in the Education Space requires the ability to leverage social media, search engine optimization, web site design, pay per click and pay per lead advertising to generate new student leads which translates to students in chairs and revenue. Stanford is an authority in these areas.

Stanford is a sought-after authority and is a contributor to Prentice Hall, Advertising Proceedures-7th. Edition-by Otto Kleppner, a contributing columnist in Advertising Age, Media Decisions & Radio-Television Age, and a guest lecturer at NYU, Pace, Hofstra & Cornell Universities on media negotiation and target marketing. In addition, he has served as a panelist on NBC Network-Demographic Marketing in the U.S. and as a radio personality with various stations on Marketing & Demographic Studies.

Stanford’s experiences have brought him to his present position and visionary of Minerva Capital Management. His attention has been focused on bringing together a powerful operational education management team headed by his colleague and co-founder, Dr. Jon Coover. The team has an impressive track record of R.O.I for its investors over three decades and continues to generate a significant rate of return for new investors.

Stanford holds his B.S. in Economics from Hofstra University and graduate, MBA work at Hofstra and at New York University.

Jon R. Coover is President and Co-Founder of Minerva Capital Management. Throughout Dr. Coover’s education career of 30 years plus, he has written and managed P&L budgets from $7 million to in excess of $400 million. He directed acquisitions and their integration into Career Education Corporation (CECO: NASDAQ) including the integration of the Whitman School Group, the initial franchise arrangement with Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Division, Paris, France and the development of the International Division within CECO. Following CECO’s acquisition of American Intercontinental University (AIU) Jon co-authored the AIU Online Division. As co-founder of CECO and one of three Group Presidents, Jon built the Admissions Department for CECO and opened campus satellites and branch campuses in the United States, Europe, Canada and the Middle East. Following these achievements, Jon continued participation in the education vertical with Premier Education Group, Empire Education, and assisted Porter and Chester in upgrading their Admissions system establishing processes synergistic with present market demands.

Dr. Coover co-founded Minerva Capital Management, Inc. (MCM) hedge fund. Minerva Fund 01 invested in a group of schools that realized, in its first year, 56% growth in population and revenues over previous year yielding substantial returns. Jon has a reputation for compliant operations successfully turning around school groups, jump starting performance and meeting plan expectations. He brings the experience of having performed in all the roles at the campus and corporate levels. His style of mentoring staff and faculty to a clear, student-centric outlook has proven to capture employee loyalty and performance while achieving expected outcomes.

At CECO, he held the positions of Academic Provost, Executive V.P. of Admissions & Marketing and Group President, overseeing 37+ schools, colleges and institutes growing the company’s revenues from $65 million to a market cap on NASDAQ of $4 billion. He focuses on the importance of partnering marketing and admissions efforts with education, financial aid, placement and student organizations to achieve consistent student services impacting the intake and retention metrics. Dr. Coover established branding and marketing B2B and B2C in the domestic and international markets including closed loop and social media strategies affecting organic growth.

Jon is a recipient of the prestigious Department of Defense Certificate of Esteem; was appointed by the Commonwealth of Virginia to the State Board of Education for Proprietary Schools Student Tuition Guaranty Fund Advisory Committee and has been a member of the National Paralegal Association, The Actuarial Society and World Trade Association (Mergers & Acquisitions) – Palm Beach, Fla. Dr. Coover is a charitable donor of Brown University, Providence, R.I. Jon holds a B.S./M.B.A. with an emphasis on international finance, mergers and acquisitions from California Western University. Dr. Coover’s Ph.D. in Business, focused on Education Management. He is unquestionably passionate about career training and how it changes people’s lives and supports families and impacts communities.

Joseph R. D’Angelo, Partner at Carl Marks Advisors has more than 20 years of experience in operating and advisory roles with regard to improving underperforming businesses and advising debtors and lenders in complex restructuring matters. He works with company management to develop and implement business plans that create profitable growth and increase enterprise value. Mr. D’Angelo also represents secured creditors in restructuring cases and is known for being proactive in developing solutions to maximize client recoveries.

Mr. D’Angelo has served in various roles for a myriad of companies ranging from middle-market to large enterprises. including Chief Restructuring Officer. Chief Executive Officer. Chief Operating Officer. Chief Financial Officer and Advisor. His engagements have encompassed turnarounds. operational and financial restructurings. mergers and acquisitions. cash management. operational and financial assessments. due diligence and examinations. and Chapter 11 reorganizations and §363 sales.

Mr. D’Angelo’s industry experience has included automotive, consumer direct marketing, Digital media, education, government contracting, oil & gas fracking services and suppliers, manufacturing, specialty finance, staffing and telecommunications (wireline. cable. broadband. wireless. and satellite).

His recent engagements have involved representation of borrowers and lenders in the for-profit education sector. Mr. D’Angelo’s subject matter domain expertise enables him to deliver critical insight and solutions in out-of-court situations.

Other notable recent engagements include Corinthian Colleges, Exide, New Vitality, Cooley Law School, and Corporate Resource Services Corp.

Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors. Mr. D’Angelo was a Principal at XRoads Solutions Group and previously served as managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, LLC. Prior to entering the restructuring industry. Mr. D’Angelo held several management positions at Sprint Corp.

Mr. D’Angelo earned a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Lauer, President of Hedge Fund Concepts has more than three decades of Hedge Fund experience and a record of high-performance achievements.

During a thirteen-year career as a securities analyst. Mr. Lauer’s success as one of the nation’s top stock-pickers was recognized by the prestigious Institutional Investor Magazine, which ranked him as an All-Star Analyst for seven consecutive years. Other securities analyst rating institutions, such as the Wall Street Journal and Greenwich Associates also bestowed top laurels on Mr. Lauer’s analytical skills.

Having enjoyed exceptional success as a securities analyst/investment banker, Mr. Lauer launched his long/short equities hedge fund organization. During the subsequent ten years, the funds generated a compounded annual rate of return north of 40%, net to investors. Mr. Lauer’s accomplishments as a hedge fund manager were featured in a book “Stock Market Wizards: Interviews With America’s Top Stock Traders”, authored by Jack D. Schwager.

Mr. Lauer ‘s MBA concentration is in Finance, while his undergraduate major is in International Relations and Russian Studies (Mr. Lauer is trilingual).

Further reflecting Mr. Lauer’s passion for performance-driven activities, Mr. Lauer is an avid global participant in motorsports, having raced in amateur and professional events, including at the “Triple Crown” of endurance racing, the “24 Hours of Le Mans,” “24 Hours of Daytona” (winning the class in 2002) and the “12 Hours of Sebring.”

Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Wall Street Financier, Author, Philanthropist, Activist, Lobbyist, Oil & Gas Trader & President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a New York based private equity “family office” that focuses on originating, structuring, advising and acting as equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financing in companies and projects based both in the US and emerging markets and the trading of key physical commodities.

Mr. Abdelnour is also Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council ; a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential powerbrokers and policymakers.

Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions worth in aggregate over $10 billion in the investment banking, high yield bond and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors.

Mr. Abdelnour is an astute market player who also serves on the Advisory board of DPG Investments, a recognized premier multi strategy global merchant banking, alternative investment, management and advisory firm.

On a more personal level, Mr. Abdelnour, former President of the Arab Bankers Association of North America, is the author of “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” ; a best seller manuscript written for investors that need to navigate the troubled geopolitical waters of the post-crisis world and a prolific writer for 100+ entrepreneurial and financial publications advising and educating investors in private equity, hedge funds, crowdfunding, Sovereign Wealth Funds, fund-of-funds, angel networks, venture capital and family offices.

Mr. Abdelnour is also a regular speaker on Private Equity, Physical Commodities trading and Middle East geo-political analysis at industry conferences & TV outlets nationwide including but not limited to Fox News, Newsmax, etc…and a key “influencer” in his own right having a hard core constituency of over 2 million viewers having read his blog postings and analyses since January 2014.

Mr. Abdelnour holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut.

He was recently listed as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.