Press Releases and CfPA Information

Xiaocheh Zhang currently serves on the CfPA Board of Directors. He is also a co-founder of the Crowdfunding China Society (CFCS). As a crowdfunding thought leader, he has advised many organizations in applying alternative finance and result-based approach in transforming their business models. He has provided services to World Bank, United Nations, TUEV SUED, Virginia Tech, Peking University and some other organizations in the past 15 years. Xiaochen has rich experience in both public and private sector in America, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe to incubate and scale up innovative programs and projects at all levels. He is also a recognized speaker in climate finance, green innovation and crowdfunding. Here are a few examples:

• Climate Change Investment Planning, Leadership for Climate Change workshop, Malawi, 2012
• Financing Low Carbon Cities, Low Carbon Cities workshop, China, 2012
• Policy Instruments to Support Low Emission Development , Asia LEDS Forum, Philippines, 2013
• Innovative Finance for Rural Electrifications, Sustainable Rural Electrification workshop, Malawi, 2013
• Alternative financing options for SMEs in climate business, Workshop on Accessing Finance for Green Growth and LEDS, Vietnam, 2014
• Crowdfunding for Green Development Projects in Asia, SWITCH-Asia Green Finance webinar, 2014
• Lecture on Green Innovation and Finance, University in Skopje IVth International Summer School, Macedonia
• Crowdfunding for start-ups, 2015 African Youth Forum, Ivory Coast, 2015

Rodney Sampson is an innovator, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, published author, and consecrated bishop. As an innovator and serial entrepreneur, Sampson co-founded Multicast Media Networks (Streamingfaith.com) in 2000 (acquired in 2010), a live and on-demand streaming platform that laid the foundation for companies like YouTube and Ustream. Not stopping there, Sampson co-founded Intellectual Currency (an integrated marketing, intellectual property, diversity & inclusion and business development advisory firm) in 2002, Intellect Inspire (a digital publishing imprint of Audible) in 2006, and Legacy Opportunity Fund in 2007 with investments in technology, consumer products, energy, cyber-security, publishing and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He also serves on the advisory boards of Digit, a disruptive financial technology company, Mark Burnett Productions, Springboard Fund and multiple startup and early stage companies throughout the world.

Sampson is passionate about reducing our nation’s poverty and wealth gap by advancing the cause of S.T.E.M, innovation, entrepreneurship and capital formation as a way of life for all communities. To advance this definitive cause, Sampson created Opportunity Ecosystem (OE). Opportunity Ecosystem includes Opportunity Hub, a multi-campus coworking space, coding college, entrepreneurship school, pre-accelerator and incubator. Opportunity Hub is also home to Opportunity Ventures, a new seed and early stage investment fund. In January 2013, Sampson launched Kingonomics, the nation’s leading platform for minorities and under-served communities to learn, navigate and master the investment ecosystem. Kingonomics conferences, events and trainings attract over 1,500 entrepreneurs, 500 teenagers and 100 accredited investors and mentors annually.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), Sampson is an active advocate and respected authority on Federal equity crowdfunding via the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) Act and intrastate equity crowdfunding via Georgia’s “Invest Georgia Exemption”. Always meditating, thinking, networking and connecting to disrupt economic culture, Sampson is innovating what he has branded as an “ecosystem based capital formation platform” – designed to interconnect the capital markets of minority owned financial institutions, business associations, churches, neighborhood & community organizations, historical black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and the constituents they mutually and respectively serve. The platform will allow underserved and under-represented communities to learn, engage and invest in the private capital markets by providing access to relevant investment opportunities traditionally reserved for accredited and institutional investors. The long-term outcome will result in sustainable new job creation, wealth creation and a better society for all.

Throughout this journey, Sampson has maintained the creativity of his youth and early entrepreneurial career as an experienced advisor, integrated marketer, business developer and connector. Having worked very closely on Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ, Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe & The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, Sampson was tapped in 2013 by Mark Burnett to create the diversity and inclusion initiatives at One Three Media, a joint venture between Mark Burnett Productions and Hearst. Mark Burnett is the Executive Producer of The Voice, Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, ABC’s Shark Tank, The Bible Series, Son of God Movie & A.D. In Seasons 5 & 6 of the hit ABC show Sharktank, more than 15 minority-owned startups were afforded the opportunity to pitch their companies for angel investment on the show. Even in his advisory practice, Sampson is still working tirelessly to close the wealth gap while simultaneously shifting culture’s perceptions of minority entrepreneurs and investors.

Thell Woods, a former interim president of the CfPA, founded and currently serves as chairman of Crowdfunding Services LLC. The company helps establish “Community Centric Crowdfunding” programs offering both non-profit and securities offerings. Thell serves specifically defined communities throughout Michigan developing the www.C3funding.com website as the base for these programs.

A Realtor since 1958, Woods has been President and Realtor of the year of the Gratiot/Isabella Association of Realtors and a Director of the Greater Kalamazoo Association of Realtors. He served as a Vice President of the Michigan Association of Realtors and served 8 years as a National Director of the National Association of Realtors. In 2000, he was honored by the Michigan Association of Realtors as the recipient of the Realtor Active in Politics Award.

In addition to his real estate activities, he has served as the Securities Broker for his Syndications Corporation Broker Dealer which then had over 100 Realtors as licensed direct participation program securities representatives. During this time he also developed and sold over 60 Reg. D type private Real Estate offerings.

Among his other businesses, he developed Internet Connection Services an early Kalamazoo Area internet service provider and established Qualified Intermediary Services to facilitate section 1031 tax deferred exchanges and has earned the CES Certified exchange Specialist designation from the Federation of Exchange Accommodators.

Brian Korn was elected to the Board of Directors (Legal P.O.V.) of the Crowdfunding Professional Association in January 2014. Brian is a corporate and securities attorney at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and has had multiple appearances on Fox Business Television, Bloomberg, CCTV America and National Public Radio as an expert on the JOBS Act, including its impact on crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, IPOs and market trading dynamics. He has been published or quoted in Forbes, CNBC, MSNBC, New York Law Journal, Law360, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Financier Worldwide and The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation.

Brian is the author of several articles on capital raising and investor liquidity, and has several clients in the peer-to-peer lending space. Brian is the author of “The Trouble with Crowdfunding” published in Forbes, as well as the Forbes article announcing the SEC’s crowdfunding rules proposal. Prior to joining Pepper, Brian was Head of Equity Capital Markets and Syndicate Compliance at Barclays and was Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Brian is an honors graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the Northwestern University School of Law.

Brian Christie is CEO of Brainsy, Inc. – an innovative SaaS company offering a white label social media engagement platform that can reward participants for their engagement and that can be owned by the community. Brian’s vision for Brainsy is that it will spawn thousands of social media micro-networks – each using their own incentive system and currency (optional) to reward their community of contributors.

Brian is also an Advisor at Crowdfund Holdings Innovators (CHI), a company that incubates innovative crowdfunding concepts and advises issuers on raising money through regulated investment crowdfunding. Brian has advised or invested in various start-ups and served in a board or executive role at companies such as LTVtrade, Promontory Interfinancial Network, and quantumStream. Specialties include: fintech, digital marketing, strategic alliance formation, impact investing, international business development and cross border transactions. He’s a fan of any movement, innovation, technology, law, or regulation that creates opportunities, serves the public interest, and levels the economic playing field.

Brian received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Miami University and an MBA from Georgetown University

Darren Marble is the CEO of CrowdfundX, a pioneering crowdfunding agency serving corporations and entrepreneurs across a wide mix of industries and geographies. The company helps clients to effectively architect and execute strategic equity and rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns that build brand equity and drive growth.

Notably, under Darren’s leadership, CrowdfundX designed, produced and marketed the Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaign for Elio Motors, which raised just under $17 million from 6,200+ investors. Elio subsequently listed on the OTC Markets OTCQX under the symbol “ELIO,” making it the first company in the United States to have completed a Reg A+ equity crowdfunding offer and list shares on a public exchange. At present, CrowdfundX is currently managing more than a dozen Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaigns.

Darren is a featured LinkedIn contributor and an active public speaker, having recently spoken as a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, USC Marshall School of Business, UC Irvine, the CSUN Entertainment Alumni Network and the ESGCI Business School in Paris, France. His insights have been featured in Forbes, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Bankless Times and others.

Thomas Lawson is vice president of private issuer services for VIA Folio, Folio’s private capital network. In his role at VIA Folio, he provides legal and regulatory guidance to business development and operations. As part of this work, he supports VIA Folio’s online transactions in unlisted securities. He joined Folio in 2015.

Prior to joining Folio, Tom was a chief counsel for the enforcement department of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and assistant director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In total, he brings more than 25 years of experience in securities law and financial industry regulation.

Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in Classics from Union College and a law degree from Hofstra University’s School of Law.

AdaPia D’Errico is the Chief Marketing Officer at Patch of Land, where she heads up marketing, which includes strategy, brand, communications, partnerships and client services. Prior to joining Patch of Land, AdaPia ran a consulting company that developed growth strategies for major brands at Disney and Mattel, as well as technology and new media startups. AdaPia began her career at CIBC and subsequently spent 8 years in banking and investment management with a focus on customer relationship management, investor relations, and corporate communications. AdaPia is a published writer, blogger for The Huffington Post, and is a public presenter on topics including growth strategies, entrepreneurship, crowdfunding and brand development. AdaPia holds a B.B.A from the University of British Columbia and a B.A in International Business Economics from Hogeschool Zeeland, The Netherlands.

Dara Albright is a recognized authority, thought provoker and frequent speaker on topics relating to market structure, private secondary transactions, next-gen IPOs, P2P, FinTech and crowdfinance. Albright has held a distinguished 23 year career in IPO execution, investment banking, corporate communications, financial marketing as well as institutional and retail sales.

She is a visionary who continues to introduce rising asset classes and crowd-structured financial products to the Wall Street community. Albright was one of the earliest voices covering the JOBS Act and advocating for greater democracy in the equity and credit markets. She produced the very first crowdfunding conference in January 2012 which was headlined by key JOBS Act architects: Congressman Patrick McHenry and Dave Weild. That event helped birth the crowdfinance movement and led to the establishment of the industry’s trade and leadership organizations – which she co-founded. In 2013, she co-founded LendIt, the largest and most recognized global p2p & online lending conference organization. In 2015, she co-founded FinFair, the first conference platform to feature the leadership, products and technologies driving the crowd-centric retail alternatives market. Some of the most prominent figures in the financial industry as well as the legislature continue to participate in Albright’s events. Her leading-edge articles that have helped shape the direction of the crowdfinance industry can be found on Equities.com, Crowdfund Insider, Seeking Alpha, Investing.com, FINalternatives and Business Insider. She has been featured in the NY Times, Forbes, ABA Banking Journal, Thestreet.com, Private Wealth Magazine as well as in a number of leading industry trade publications. Albright continues to help issuers, investors as well as financial service providers across the globe capitalize during this unprecedented period of financial industry disruption and regulatory reform. Prior firms she worked for include: Unterberg Towbin, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Divine Capital and Citigate Dewe Rogerson. She is a graduate of the George Washington University and holds securities industry Series 7, 24, 31 and 63 licenses.

Jordan Fishfeld is the former CEO and co-founder of PeerRealty (sold), and current Chairman of the Board and co-founder of CFX Markets and OpenFinance Network, secondary market platforms for traditionally crowdfunded and digital assets, respectively. In this role, he focuses his time on strategic planning and general oversight in the new and growing digital marketplace. With over 8 years of compliance, legal, investing, and sales experience in regulated markets, Jordan understands the need for a single coherent voice in the crowdfunding and blockchain industries.

Prior to founding PeerRealty, Jordan worked as a finance attorney for Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP, where he assisted on more than $1 billion worth of syndicated loan transactions.

Additionally, Jordan sits on the board of Upstart, a national non-profit tasked with bringing bold, new and innovative Jewish ideas to light through its accelerator and mentorship program.

Jordan received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida and his Masters of Business Administration and his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

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Dr. Richard Swart is recognized as the global thought leader in the crowdfunding industry. Richard is a founding board member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), the Crowdfunding Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CIFRA), and an early leader in the field. Richard co-organized the first major national conference on crowdfunding and coordinated several educational events on the JOBS Act throughout the United States for the White House.

As a research scholar in the Institute for Business & Social Innovation in the Haas School of Business, he is the University’s resident expert on crowdfunding and evolving models of alternative finance. He also organized the Annual Academic Symposium on Crowdfunding Research. He currently advises the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and works with several other prominent foundations, think tanks, funds and corporations. He is co-author of the forthcoming book Crowdfunding: The Corporate Era, being published in June 2015.

Richard has emerged as the global expert in developments in crowdfunding. He was the lead author on a research project for the World Bank exploring crowdfunding and funding models for innovative technology. He has lectured in Europe, the UK, Africa, the Middle East and throughout the United States. In recognition of his research in the United Kingdom, he was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr. Swart was the lead author or researcher on the World Bank’s report on Crowdfunding and it’s Potential Impact for the Developing World. He partnered with the University of Cambridge to complete the first Country level-study of alternative finance: The Rise of Future Finance: The UK Alternative Finance Benchmarking Report. With Crowdfund Capital Advisors he authored the report: How Does Crowdfunding Impact Job Creation, Revenue and Professional Investor Interest? – the first report that empirically demonstrated crowdfunding’s effects on job creation and future investments.

After leaving Utah State University’s Huntsman School of Business where he taught Information Systems, he has worked with a number of startups and has become a key organizer in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is a former COO of an Internet startup that had a successful exit in 2010. Richard is a board member and strategic advisor to firms in the crowdfunding and alternative investing space.

Scott McIntyre. 2024 marked Scott’s 9th term as Chairman of the CfPA’s Board of Directors, having served in leadership since formation in 2012, including four terms as President & Chair.

Complementing his work at CfPA, Scott founded 501(c)3 non-profit WEconomy-US, Inc. to implement the breakthrough economic development platform he co-authored, the Sustainable Communities Framework (SCF). Scott serves as a director and advisor to both the Sustainable Communities Foundation, a 503(c)3 fiscal policy NGO responsible for the SCF, and at Community Vision Associates, helping preserve legacy neighborhoods sustainably and equitably with novel real estate strategies.

Scott is a proponent of regenerative agriculture, actively supporting the development of an industrial hemp ecosystem domestically. He is a partner at Renaissance Park Corporation, a JV-driven R&D firm based in Sausalito, California, and founded Ohio-based co-op Hemp Made Products (HMP) to help farmers and their communities prosper from the re-shoring of this important industry as shareholders, not just stakeholders. Scott served an interim role as CEO at Root Origins and at a unit of Groupo Venture Capital, a Chilean investment bank.

Scott is a lifelong entrepreneur and venture catalyst. His first startup, TheBigHouse, recently amalgamated several of Scott’s ventures under one roof, including strategy/media/capital firm Phabriq Development, and COventures, providing key technology and practical guidance for aspiring entrepreneurs and innovation communities.

Scott is a recognized pioneer in Education Technology since his role as a founding executive of REAL Education in 1994, the startup that built the first online education platform, launching worldwide as eCollege at IPO in 1999. eCollege is now a cornerstone of Education market leader Pearson, having acquired eCollege for $477 million in 2007. As a Director at The University of Toledo, Scott was responsible for designing and building the school’s first Office of Student Entrepreneurship and Engagement. Scott previously managed the State of Ohio’s Edison Technology Business Incubator and continues to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs.

Scott is active in impact investor communities both local and abroad, notably as an advisor to the 360 One Firm. Scott was invited by President Obama to The White House as a Champion of Change related to CfPA’s landmark work in Crowdfinance. He was also selected by the U.S. State Department to address the Finance Ministers of the European Union on the subject of Alternative Finance at a 2018 meeting in Vienna. Scott has consulted governments and addressed crowds in excess of 20,000 in China, Russia, India and Australia, and he maintains an active network of leading foreign alternative finance bodies with colleagues in over 20 countries.

Details of Mr. McIntyre’s work history, achievements and recommendations can be viewed on his LinkedIn profile.SaveSave

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Alon is the Managing Partner of Stacked Capital, an early-stage industry agnostic venture capital fund. Previously Alon was the co-founder, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Technical Officer of crowdfunding platform RocketHub, acquired in 2015. Alon is a founding member of the Forbes Technology Council, and a Strategic Advisor to Zombie Soup (Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and games); he has twice testified in front of U.S. Congress on equity crowdfunding, co-authored three acclaimed whitepapers on the JOBS Act, and was selected to lead FINRA’s Capital Markets Series on crowdfunding. Alon oversaw RocketHub’s partnerships with the White House, U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, Chrysler, and others. Alon has led large speaking engagements for organizations including American Express, TEDx, Campaign Summit, Re.Comm, and Make Innovation. Alon earned his M.Sc from Columbia University and was a fellow at the Earth Institute’s Advanced Consortium of Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity; he specialized in genocide prevention and social network theory.