Sean Dobson, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, has been the head mortgage analyst and trader at Amherst Securities since he joined the firm in 2000. Mr. Dobson is widely recognized as one of the leading strategists in the industry and an expert in all facets of the mortgage business including loans, RMBS and related derivatives. He has led the development of Amherst's loan level diagnostic system (ALIAS) that is widely recognized for its predictive analytics. In 2006, he made a vocal announcement predicting the coming meltdown in the mortgage markets based on research produced using these tools; and he created Amherst Derivatives Trading to offer analytical and intermediation services related to derivative strategies designed to take advantage of the market disruption. In August 2008, he successfully completed a $235mm capital raise led by Stonepoint Capital to expand the broker dealer and finance new initiatives in CMBS, advisory and asset management.

 

Mr. Dobson has over 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry, including previous senior management positions with Spires Financial and the MMAR Group, Inc. He currently serves as a board member of the American Securitization Forum (ASF) and his advice on mortgage policy matters is regularly sought by congressional leaders, housing policy leaders at the Treasury and other government agencies and senior administration officials at the White House.

 

William Sanders, Jr., served as the Co-Head of Trading at Amherst Securities from July 2003 until August 2008. He traded REMICs and other mortgage products since 1987, and was responsible for new issue and secondary REMIC trading, structuring for all mortgage products, as well as general risk management for Amherst. Mr. Sanders was previously the head REMIC Trader at Freddie Mac’s Securities Sales & Trading Group, and has held senior trading positions at Bank of America and CS First Boston. Mr. Sanders graduated with honors from the University of Delaware with a BS in Business Administration.
 

Alan Gilbert, CPA, CFA, Vice Chairman, helps manage the Capital Markets activities at Amherst Securities. Prior to joining Amherst as a founding partner in 1993, Mr. Gilbert headed the Latin American sales effort at CS First Boston, and previously worked in the Capital Markets team at Kidder Peabody. Mr. Gilbert earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a BSBA in Accounting, with honors, from Georgetown University.

 

Steven Gorman, SVP-Information Technology, directs the development of all company proprietary analytical and systems technology, as well as the systems infrastructure for the company’s several offices. Mr. Gorman, a founding partner of Spires Financial and previously with Bear Stearns, has over 20 years of experience in information technology in the securities industry.

 

Roger Taylor, Vice Chairman, was President and COO of FSA Holdings from November 1997 to January 2002; President of FSA, Inc. from November 1997 to November 2000, and its Vice Chairman from January 2002 until his retirement in July 2004. He had been COO of both companies since May 1993 and a member of the FSA Holdings Board of Directors from February 1995 until July 2009. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of FSA’s Financial Guaranty Department, and was a founder and Executive Vice President of Financial Guaranty Insurance Company. Mr. Taylor is a graduate of Williams College and the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.