Equator has assembled a team with a unique combination of investment and operational experience and expertise.
Michael Cantor
Managing Director
Michael Cantor brings extensive principal investment, financial advisory and operational expertise. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Cantor has successfully managed a broad range of international technology, marine transportation, energy, and real estate investment activities on behalf of the Washington, D.C.-based Equator Capital Group. He has had direct responsibility for capital formation, the generation of investment opportunities, due diligence, transaction structure, negotiation and portfolio company management. His broad operational experience includes managing a fleet of oil tankers as well as a Government contractor. Prior to co-founding Equator, Mr. Cantor was active in the area of mergers and acquisitions and leveraged transactions, both as a banker in Citicorp's Leveraged Capital Group and as a consultant to corporate clients and private-equity partnerships. M.B.A. - University of Chicago Graduate School of Business; Graduate Fellowship - El Colégio de México; Graduate coursework, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS);B.A. - University of Pennsylvania.
Peter N. Wainman
Managing Director
Peter Wainman brings extensive principal investing and financial advisory expertise in the domestic and international markets. Mr. Wainman previously started and ran the New York office of Gores Technology Group (“GTG”), a private investment firm focused primarily on control-oriented buyout investments in the technology and telecommunications sectors. Prior to joining GTG, Mr. Wainman was a Managing Director of Bay Harbour Management, LC (“Bay Harbour”), a US$500 million hedge fund focused on distressed and special situations. At Bay Harbour Mr. Wainman executed private equity / control investments including the restructuring of and capital raising by NextWave Telecom; lead equity financing of NextG Networks, Inc.; buyout of Barneys New York; lead equity financing of Optical Dynamics; investment in Mobile Satellite Ventures, L.P.; and the restructuring of NSM, a steel mill based in Thailand. Prior to joining Bay Harbour Mr. Wainman was an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation ("DLJ") where he was involved in a broad range of domestic and international high yield and equity offerings, merchant banking transactions, restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Wainman worked on various equity offerings for Indonesian, Malaysian and Hong Kong companies and was one of three professionals who initiated DLJ's Russian investment banking operations. He was integrally involved in the lead-managed US$127 million initial public offering of Vimpel-Communications, the first Russian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Wainman’s work in the areas of electromagnetic wave theory and inductively coupled plasma reactor for semiconductor processing has been published in various technical journals.
Mr. Wainman is a Lieutenant in the US Naval Reserves, a member of the Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu research and honor societies and the recipient of numerous academic, military and achievement awards. He is proficient in the Russian language. Mr. Wainman holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Arie Bernardo, CFA
Principal
Anna Marie Bernardo has over eighteen years of experience as a finance practitioner, including eight years as an investment specialist at venture capital (VC) fund management firms. Ms. Bernardo brings seasoned business and financial analytical skills as well as corporate and entrepreneurial finance and treasury experience gained in a broad range of industries. She has worked closely with several US-based firms specializing among others in mergers and acquisitions, strategic advisory services, renewable energy supply and distribution, and business process outsourcing. Before joining Equator, Ms. Bernardo was a Principal for WTP Capital, a Washington, DC based private equity firm, and a Senior Associate at ICCP Venture Partners, a Philippines-based VC firm. Ms. Bernardo, experience also includes leading the finance and accounting operations of several private companies, including a petroleum goods retailing and distribution company, a music publishing and entertainment management firm, and an independent software development company. She has also served as a treasury officer for Universal Robina Corporation, a publicly traded branded food product company based in the Philippines. B.S. (cum laude) Business Administration, University of the Philippines; M.S.- Finance University of the Philippines.