Baytree Capital Associates, LLC : Our Partners

Friday, July 3, 2009

Michael Gardner » Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Michael Gardner has been Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Baytree Capital since its inception in 1990. Mr. Gardner brings with him a lifetime of experience as an investment banker and asset manager. Known for his aggressive equity trading and structured financing, Mr. Gardner has helped Baytree Capital raise over one billion dollars on behalf of small to mid-sized public companies.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Gardner received his B.A. from Brooklyn College. A former U.S. Naval Officer, Mr. Gardner balances his time between the investment community and a number of cultural and charitable causes. Mr. Gardner is a Trustee of the New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center and a Board member of its subsidiary the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases which honored him in 2007/08 with its Humanitarian Award. In that same year, the Mental Health Association of New York honored Mr. Gardner for his work with the mentally ill at their annual Giving Hope, Saving Lives gala. He serves as a Trustee of Oklahoma City University and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts where he is Vice-chairman of the board.

Mr. Gardner's other avocation is producing theater in New York, London and Las Vegas. Most recently "Sinatra at the Palladium," and "And Then There Were None," in London, On Broadway, "Dance of the Vampires," with Michael Crawford, "Sly Fox," with Richard Dreyfuss, and "A Year with Frog and Toad," for which Mr. Gardner was Tony nominated in 2003.

Mr. Gardner is a Tony Voter and a Member of the League of American Theaters and Producers, the Downtown Association of New York City, Tournament Players Club of Summerlin, and the Stirling Club and Foundation Room in Las Vegas.

Mr. Gardner divides his time between homes in Manhattan, Quogue, and Las Vegas.

Gianluca Cicogna

Prior to Baytree Capital Mr. Cicogna was a partner at the Zanett Group in New York where he co-founded the successful Zanett Lombardier hedge fund that invested in early stage public companies. The Fund invested in over 60 transactions and generated IRR's in excess of 35%. Prior to Zanett he co-founded Casco Track Limited, a boutique investment bank based in Hong Kong that represented clients in over $600m of cross border M&A transactions. Whilst at Casco Track Mr. Cicogna and his partners invested in telecoms transactions across Asia, including launching Cavite Cable Corporation, the first fiber optic cable TV business in the Philippines. Mr. Cicogna was a founding partner in Orion Telecom Corporation, the largest independent telecommunications service provider in South Africa with annual revenues over $100m and Southern Farms, South Africa's premier table grape production and export company.

Mr. Cicogna graduated from Buckingham University in Economics (with Honors).

William Geiman

Mr. Geiman has been with Baytree since 2008 focusing on financial analysis and deal structuring across all industries and geographies. Prior to Baytree, he worked at Milbank Roy, a middle market investing banking firm located in New York. From 1997 until entering business school in 2004, he worked in the corporate development group of Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL), a real estate firm that provides both asset management ($50 billion under management) and real estate services. His primary responsibility was to grow the real estate service businesses through acquisition. During his tenure, the group closed over $750MM of M&A transactions. He was also responsible for identifying and presenting real estate acquisition ideas to JLL's co-investors including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Geiman received his BA from Northwestern University and his MBA from NYU Stern. While at Stern, he completed an investment banking summer internship at Bank of America and a school year internship at Protostar Partner, a private equity firm with $300MM of assets under management.

Our Partners