About San Blas Securities
Headquartered in Chicago, 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
Chief EXECUTIVE officer
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 Chief Executive Officer. 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 compliance officer
John Cadena
John Cadena assumed the position of CCO at San Blas Securities in December 2025. He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry.
His background includes establishing and managing broker-dealers with business lines encompassing retail securities, institutional execution services, and boutique investment banking. Since 2006, he has also provided compliance and registration consulting services, including branch examinations and independent anti-money laundering tests for broker dealers and Rule 206 (4)-7 reviews for investment advisors.
Cadena holds Series 4, 24, 7, 9 and 10 FINRA 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, Hanavan 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.
Hanavan 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, head of mergers & acquisitions
Christian Wolford
Christian Wolford heads San Blas Capital Markets’ mergers and acquisitions practice. Over his career he has managed, originated, and/or executed M&A and debt and equity financing transactions totaling more than $1 billion in value. He has wide-ranging industry sector experience including Business and Residential Services, Industrial/Manufacturing, Distribution, Consumer/Retail, Software, Technology, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Media, Financial Services/Insurance, Aerospace, Automotive, and Sports and Entertainment.
For more than 25 years Wolford has served as a trusted advisor to companies and individuals including roles in M&A, Corporate Finance, Strategic Advisory & Consulting, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Broker-Dealer Compliance, Real Estate, Wealth Management and Insurance.
Before joining San Blas Securities, Wolford spent 12 years at Allegiance Capital, serving as Managing Director and leading a variety of M&A and corporate finance transactions. He also spent more than six years with The Miller Group of affiliated companies, leading the investment banking broker-dealer as President & CEO, while also serving as Senior VP of the strategic consulting and private equity firm. Earlier in his career, he held roles with Morgan Stanley, John Hancock Financial Services and Marcus & Millichap.
Wolford achieved an MBA in Finance from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and a BS in Business Administration from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He is FINRA Series 7, 79, 63, and 24 licensed.
A native of Pennsylvania, he currently resides in Dallas with his wife, son and rescue pets. In his free time, he enjoys sports including coaching his son’s baseball team and rooting passionately for Philadelphia professional teams and ASU college athletics, as well as spending time with his family enjoying music, movies and travel.
managing director, principal
Michael Squitieri
Michael Squitieri focuses efforts within San Blas Capital Markets' private placement and advisory practices. His clientele primarily consists of companies operating in the healthcare, technology, manufacturing and real estate sectors. Medical device, diagnostics and biotech are particular verticals of interest within healthcare.
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 where he resides in Nashville.