About San Blas Securities
Headquartered in Atlanta, San Blas Securities is a full-service Broker-Dealer. Our platform includes Capital Markets and an Independent Advisor Network. We are comprised of a core team of individuals with a proven track record in both fields.
Mission and Focus
Our mission is to inspire advisors and clients to dream bigger, see more opportunities, and achieve their financial goals. We achieve our mission by listening well, focusing on long-term relationships, and by working harder on behalf of clients and advisors than other firms.
Our focus on providing the right level of personalized service, resources and unique investment insights delivers a competitive advantage for the advisors and institutional clients who choose to work with San Blas Securities.
Presence and Distribution
San Blas Securities combines proprietary retail, institutional and regional sales forces to achieve balanced distribution of our clients’ debt and equity securities. We have strong relationships with retail aggregators, professional asset managers including individual and common trust funds, separately managed accounts (SMAs) and investment advisors who place orders for hundreds of subaccounts at a time.
Clients can have full confidence in our ability to distribute their securities to a broad array of investors and provide ongoing secondary market support of new issues.
Leadership
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Alex McKenzie
Alex McKenzie has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the securities industry with extensive knowledge of retail, wholesale advisory, and global capital markets. He maintains Series 7, 24, 79, 63, and 99 licenses through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
In 2018 he founded San Blas Securities, a full-service investment bank and independent advisor network and serves as Executive Chairman. Previously he served as CEO of IFS Securities which he built from 2007 to 2019 to be one of the largest national minority-owned investment banks in the U.S., based on total headcount with a network of over 200 financial service professionals and included an Advisory with over $2.5 billion in client assets.
McKenzie began his career in 1993 working with a New York boutique brokerage firm specializing in equity and soon became the largest producer. Later, he helped start a broker-dealer firm with responsibility for training and supervising brokers; funding; and producing as a broker with his personal production accounting for 30 to 40 percent of the firm’s business. He also owned and operated a million dollar plus branch of Vanguard Capital – the Rockville Centre, New York branch.
A member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and OPM 55, he also has a passion for his community. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ProstAware, a prostate cancer non-profit, and has served as treasurer of the Atlanta Workforce Development Authority (AWDA). He participates with the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP) in teaching financial literacy to adolescents. Through NASP’s Maynard Jackson-Fast Track program, high school students are taught about finance-related careers, entrepreneurship and personal financial responsibility. Additionally, he advocates social responsibility at his company, encouraging employees and advisors to demonstrate their volunteer spirit in their local communities. The company presents an annual award to an employee or advisor within the firm who exemplifies the volunteer spirit.
Chief executive officer
Daniel Padilla
Daniel Padilla serves as the CEO and Head of Institutional Equity Trading. He assumed the position of CEO in October 2019 and is responsible for enterprise transformation and growth. In this role he oversees equity sales and trading services to middle market and large institutional investors throughout North America and internationally.
Padilla's extensive market knowledge and expertise make him a valuable resource for leading hedge funds, institutions and pension fund managers who rely on him for trade implementation insight and his perspective on global trading market activity.
Before joining San Blas Securities, Padilla served as the Managing Director and Head of Institutional Equity Trading for IFS Securities. He started his career in 1996 on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at Legg Mason. He has held several senior roles at Divine Capital and Magna Securities, both of which are Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified firms. Padilla holds Series 7, 24, 55 and 63 licenses.
In addition to his work in the securities industry, Padilla is an active member of his community. He has coached youth baseball for 15 years and is a member of the North Tampa Athletic Association.
Chief Investment Officer
Stephen Colavito, Jr.
As Chief Investment Officer, Stephen Colavito, Jr., is responsible for developing global investment insights and working with San Blas’ advisors to create actionable advice. He also represents San Blas’ market views across all channels as a speaker and through the company’s research.
His career in wealth management and investing spans 25 years of broad-based experience. He worked in investment banking and headed corporate cash at Bear Stearns, Co., Deutsche Bank, and Barclays. After his time at the wire houses, Colavito was a short-duration portfolio manager prior to joining San Blas Securities.
He holds FINRA Series 7, 63, and 65 licenses and is an investment advisor representative. He writes industry articles, speaks at industry and business meetings, and provides commentary on business and investment shows such as Bloomberg News, Fox Business and AriseXchange.
Colavito is a member of the American Economic Association (AEA) and one of a handful of advisors selected by the Financial Times as part of their Leadership Council. He graduated from Florida International University (FIU) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. Colavito played collegiate tennis at FIU. He is an active church member and the father of three daughters.
EVP, CHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Brad Fay
With over 25 years of executive, senior management and business development experience in the securities industry, Brad Fay brings the management skills and expertise to meet San Blas Securities’ growth objectives.
Previously, Brad served as EVP and Chief Business Development Officer of IFS Securities. Prior to IFS, Fay was president of IBDSearch placement and recruiting company.
In the mid-1990s, he was a founding executive of a full-service firm that under his guidance grew from initially a producer group to over 1,100 advisors and $200 million in revenue. From inception and throughout his over 10-year history of business development and recruiting efforts with this company, Fay also served as CFO, COO, the firm’s liaison to clearing firms and regulators, and acting as the reporting FINP filing over 100 FOCUS reports.
He holds Series 7, 24, 27, 53 and 63 licenses.
EVP, Investment Banking and Head of Public Finance
Eric Small
With over 30 years of experience in capital markets, primarily in fixed income securities, Eric Small has served as senior banker on over 100 municipal bond financings totaling over $20 billion in principal amount. His experience includes municipal general obligation and revenue, corporate debt, equity, preferred, structured finance and asset securitization issues.
Previously, Small served for 15 years as president and CEO of SBK Brooks Investment Corporation, a leading regional investment banking firm. He also was senior investment director in the bond investment department of Aetna Life & Casualty where he managed fixed income private placements for 8 years.
Small holds a BS degree in Finance from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and an MS in Management from the Hult International Business School (Arthur D. Little School of Management). He holds Series, 7, 63, 24, 50 and 53 FINRA licenses.
Head of investment banking, principal
Jeffrey Morfit
Jeffrey Morfit heads San Blas Capital Markets’ Investment Banking division. A veteran of the investment banking industry, he has over 30 years of experience in managing funds for private clients, institutions, and raising capital for emerging corporations from initial stage financing to initial public offerings.
Morfit participates in each transaction run by the department and brings a high-touch, personal engagement to each client of the firm. As a principal of the New York City office, he leads compliance initiatives and brings the team’s emphasis on ethics and integrity to the highest levels.
Before joining the San Blas Capital Markets team, Morfit was head of the banking department for AGES Financial Services, Ltd. dba Trust Capital Markets where he grew the division over three years while achieving over 3x revenue growth per year. He has provided his expertise to clients while working at several firms, most notably, Oppenheimer, Ladenburg Thalmann & Company and Lighthouse Financial Group.
As CEO of Lighthouse Financial Group, he helped build the company from a start-up to approximately $50 million in revenue, increasing in size from a five-person organization to 150 employees, while managing a full-service broker dealer with several revenue generating departments.
Morfit is a member of the San Blas Capital Markets deal committee. He holds the FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, 79, and 99 licenses.
head of capital markets
Ryan Hanavan
Ryan Hanavan leads San Blas Capital Markets’ equity and debt capital markets initiatives with a focus on growth and middle-market transactions in the Consumer, Healthcare, Industrial and Technology sectors.
The Capital Markets team advises corporations and financial sponsors on the origination, structuring, marketing and execution of equity and equity-related products. Additionally, he is responsible for overseeing the distribution of investment banking products and transactions to San Blas Securities’ institutional, retail and syndicate clients.
Prior to San Blas Securities, Ryan was the Head of Capital Markets at a peer broker-dealer, AGES Financial Services, Ltd., where he was instrumental in building on the firm’s 40-year track record and elevating the investment banking department to new heights. He brings years of capital markets experience and hundreds of millions of dollars in transaction closings working with both publicly-traded and privately-held clients on private placements, M&A and public offering mandates.
Ryan is a member of the San Blas Capital Markets deal committee. He also advises Nod Hill Capital Partners, a single-family office. He is a graduate of the George Washington University where he competed on the Men’s Varsity Rowing team. He holds the Series 79 and Series 63 licenses.
managing director, principal
Michael Squitieri
Michael Squitieri focuses efforts within San Blas Capital Markets' private placement and advisory practices. He heads the healthcare banking team with medical devices, diagnostics, and biotech being areas of interest. Additionally, he works with clients in the real estate, technology and manufacturing sectors.
Squitieri is responsible for spearheading market research and strategy for the banking group. He also oversees client onboarding, due diligence and financial modeling aspects of transactions.
He began his career on Wall Street by gaining experience with KCG and CBOE prior to starting out as an equity research analyst covering healthcare and real estate at Source Capital Group. He transitioned to investment banking in 2017 when joining AGES Financial Services, Ltd., and has since been working with clients to accomplish their financial and strategy objectives.
Squitieri serves as a member of the San Blas deal committee. He holds the FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, 79, 86 & 87 licenses. He graduated from Georgetown University where he competed on the varsity rowing team. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his two daughters and playing guitar.