Leadership Team

Tom Callahan is the Chief Executive Officer and Manager of the board of managers of Nasdaq Private Market. Tom has 30 years of leadership experience within the financial services industry. Prior to Nasdaq Private Market, he served as the Head of Global Cash Management and a member of the Global Operating Committee at BlackRock, where he spent nearly nine years. In his role with BlackRock, Tom led the transformation of the firm’s global cash management platform, a $700 billion business focused on delivering liquidity and balance sheet solutions to many of the world’s largest public and private corporations. During his tenure, assets under management in his division grew by over $500 billion.

Previously, Tom served as the Chief Executive Officer of NYSE Liffe U.S., the U.S. futures exchange of NYSE Euronext, where he spent five years. Earlier in his career, he spent nearly 15 years at Merrill Lynch, where he held various leadership positions in both New York and London. Tom earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University.

Eric Folkemer is the President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). He has 20 years of industry experience. In 2013, Eric led the creation of NPM as a direct response to the JOBS Act, recognizing private markets were on the cusp of radical transformation. In 2021, Eric led NPM’s corporate spinout from Nasdaq, Inc., transitioning the company into an independent entity. Under his leadership, NPM has become one of the most trusted brands in private markets.

Prior to NPM, he spent more than 18 years at Nasdaq, Inc., where he held several roles including Head of Strategy within the Global Listing Services division and Vice President within Corporate Strategy. While at Nasdaq, Eric focused on new business ventures, acquisitions, and partnerships. He also led the acquisitions of eight core assets that formed Nasdaq Corporate Solutions.

Eric earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics from Bates College.

Rotem David is the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). Rotem leads NPM’s product and technology divisions worldwide. He is responsible for the company’s product strategy and implementation, overseeing technology infrastructure, engineering, information security and development teams. He has spent more than 10 years building out NPM’s portfolio of products which offer liquidity across various transaction types. Prior to NPM, Rotem held lead engineering roles at SecondMarket and Nasdaq, Inc.

Earlier in his career, Rotem served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a Commander in a Search and Rescue unit. He earned his BS in computer science from Columbia University.  

Parul Dubey is Head of SecondMarket® at Nasdaq Private Market, responsible for leading NPM’s electronic trading business and private client solutions. Parul helps deploy a diversified portfolio of secondary products including marketplace, SPVs, and company-organized secondary offerings for millions of private company employees and accredited investors. Since joining NPM in 2019, she has held several key roles within the Capital Markets team, where she helped build the business from inception and served an instrumental role in launching SecondMarket. Parul also established and led the Private Client Group, which caters to high-net-worth individuals, family offices and wealth advisors.

Prior to NPM, she worked at Wellington Management, where she partnered with global relationship teams and bank distributors to support distribution for a diversified private equity fund and a healthcare private fund. Parul also held investment roles at a buyout firm and served on the Board of Steven Feller P.E. (a portfolio company). She started her career at PIMCO, servicing managed separate accounts for Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, central banks, endowments and family offices. Parul earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Msc in Management from London Business School. She completed her undergraduate studies in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.

Amanda Gold is Chief of Staff and Chief People Officer at Nasdaq Private Market. She is responsible for partnering with the leadership team to drive cross-functional alignment and operational efficiency to keep the company moving decisively toward its ambitious strategic goals. Amanda also leads the people strategy to attract, develop, and retain top talent, while ensuring the culture remains vibrant, inclusive, and aligned with NPM’s core mission. She joined NPM as Chief Marketing Officer in 2022, where she raised the corporate profile of the NPM brand, led marketing and communications initiatives across all products, partnerships, and funding rounds, and elevated the company’s digital platforms worldwide. Amanda has more than 20 years of industry experience. Prior to NPM, she was a Director and the Head of Corporate Communications at BTIG, where she spent seven years leading the marketing and corporate communications function for the firm globally, overseeing all public relations, branding, marketing strategy and communications. Amanda was also a member of the firm’s Global Operating Committee. Prior to BTIG, she was a Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Convergex, an affiliate of Bank of New York Mellon, where she spent nearly a decade. Amanda began her career in the Advertising and Account Services division of LEADERS magazine. She earned a BA in government from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Kevin Gsell is a Managing Director and the Head of Company Solutions at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). Kevin leads the business development efforts around creating comprehensive liquidity and workstation solutions for private companies including tenders, auctions, Transfer and Settlement, and capital introduction from Series A through exit. He is a seasoned sales professional with 20+ years of experience.

Prior to NPM, Kevin was the Head of Legal Solutions and Partnerships at Nasdaq, Inc., where he spent nearly seven years. Previously, he was a Sales Director at SecondMarket, Inc. Earlier in his career, Kevin held several sales roles at CSC, MetLife, AETEA Information Technology, and Enterprise. He earned his undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College.

Sharif Khaleel is the Head of Execution at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). Sharif is responsible for managing the broker-dealer and client relationships, as well as the company’s SecondMarket trading marketplace for banks, private companies, investors, and employee shareholders. He has nearly 25 years of financial services experience. Prior to NPM, Sharif was a Managing Director at Zanbato, where he was a senior trader focused on executing institutionally-sized blocks of private securities. Previously, he was a Senior Portfolio Trader at BNY Mellon. Earlier in his career, Sharif held several roles on the buy side including Derivatives and Risk Analyst at Stillwater Investment Management, as well as Senior Equities, Derivatives, and FX Trader at Farallon Capital Management. He also spent more than four years at Barclays Global Investors/BlackRock, where he was an International Portfolio and Macro Trader.  Sharif earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Andrew Kroculick is Chief Operating Officer at Nasdaq Private Market, responsible for driving operational excellence, ensuring strategic alignment, and helping turn strategy into action across the organization. Andrew has been with NPM since 2017, has led several high-profile, cross-functional business initiatives, and was instrumental in helping to lead the company’s spinout to an independent private company from Nasdaq in 2021. Since 2022, he has led the Business Operations and Account Management teams as Head of Business Operations and Client Experience, where he also played a central role in building and scaling the NPM Transfer and Settlement and Wealth Connect products, which he continues to oversee. Prior to Nasdaq Private Market, he was a Senior Director in corporate strategy at Nasdaq, Inc. Previously, Andrew was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He earned his undergraduate degree from George Washington University and his MBA from Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. 

Brett Mock is the Chairman of NPM International at Nasdaq Private Market, leading the company’s expansion efforts for its secondary liquidity solutions worldwide. He is responsible for creating new distribution partnerships with financial institutions in key strategic growth markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, Brett was a Senior Vice President and the Head of Global Capital Markets at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), managing the broker-dealer, Capital Markets team, marketplace technology, and SPV product. He has 30 years of industry experience. Prior to NPM, Brett was a Senior Vice President and Head of Sales at Capital Markets Gateway (CMG), between 2017 and 2020. CMG completed a Series B funding round in 2020. Previously, he was a Partner and Managing Director at JonesTrading, where he covered large mutual funds and hedge funds. Earlier in his career, Brett was a Managing Director and Senior Institutional Equity Sales Trader for seven years at BTIG, where he helped build out the firm’s institutional business.

He was also a Director and Senior Institutional Sales Trader at Wachovia Securities, and a Principal Nasdaq Market Maker and Sales Trader at Banc of America Securities/Montgomery Securities. Brett began his career with Spear, Leeds and Kellogg (acquired by Goldman Sachs). He was the National Chairman of the Security Traders Association in 2010 and board member between 2005 and 2011. In 2005, Brett was President of the San Francisco Security Traders Association and a board member from 2002 to 2006. He earned his undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington.

René Paula is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer at Nasdaq Private Market, responsible for all legal affairs and guidance on corporate, commercial, and securities matters, as well as financial strategy, planning, and operations. As a seasoned attorney, entrepreneur, and CPA, René has over two decades of experience across global M&A, IPOs, and venture investments including exits to Accenture and a Nasdaq IPO. He has led multidisciplinary teams at Audible, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Vaxxinity, where he managed complex global transactions, international growth, and innovation across 25+ countries. Earlier in his career, René was a corporate attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore and a consultant at Deloitte & Touche. Throughout his career, he has executed dozens of venture capital investments, over two dozen capital raising transactions in the public markets, and more than two dozen M&A transactions in private markets. René earned his undergraduate degree from New York University and his JD from Columbia Law School.

Marc Perkins, CFA, is Senior Vice President of Product at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). Marc leads the development and customer acquisition strategy for the company’s private market products globally. Prior to NPM, he was the Vice President of Commercial Products at Caplight, where he was part of the Founding Team and helped create, develop, and commercialize the Caplight Data product. Previously, Marc was a Founder at Sesame Analytics. Earlier in his career, he was a Director within Client Development at T-REX and the Head of Business Development at Finalis. Marc was also a Senior M&A Associate at IBM, where he spent four years developing AI models and data utilities within financial services. He began his career as a Sales and Analytics Representative at Bloomberg, where he covered fixed income broker-dealers. Marc earned his undergraduate degree from The Johns Hopkins University and is a CFA charterholder.

Chris Setaro is the Chief Compliance and Regulatory Officer of Nasdaq Private Market (NPM). Prior to joining NPM, he was a Senior Vice President and the Head of Global Risk at Forge Global Inc. Previously, Chris was the Global Chief Compliance Officer of SharesPost, Inc. and Chief Compliance Officer for its broker-dealer subsidiary SharesPost Financial Corporation. Earlier in his career, he was a Vice President at Nasdaq, Inc. serving as the Chief Compliance Officer at Nasdaq Execution Services, Nasdaq Capital Markets Advisory, Execution Access, and NPM Securities, all of which were Nasdaq’s U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries, at the time, and focused on equities and options routing, U.S. Treasury securities trading, private company liquidity programs and issuer advisory services. He also oversaw the compliance staff for Nasdaq’s registered investment advisor.

Additionally, Chris held a variety of compliance roles at Instinet Incorporated including Chief Compliance Officer for Instinet, LLC, where he spent nearly 15 years. He earned his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University.

Bill Spoor, CFA, is Head of Capital Solutions at Nasdaq Private Market. Prior to NPM, Bill spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs as a Managing Director in Leveraged Finance, where he led the High-Yield Bond Sales effort for asset managers. Previously, he was a Managing Director within Fixed Income Sales and Trading at Merrill Lynch, where he held several roles in the Global Markets and Investment Banking divisions for 12 years. Bill is also the Founder of Underground Farms, LLC, which was acquired in December 2023, and Happy Valley Uganda, Inc. He earned an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Northwestern University. Bill is also a CFA charterholder.

Samantha Tortora is the Chief Growth and Chief Marketing Officer at Nasdaq Private Market, responsible for guiding strategy, overseeing growth across the business, and evolving and amplifying the brand across channels. Samantha has 15 years of experience in strategic positioning, value creation, and stakeholder engagement. Prior to Nasdaq Private  Market, she advised founders and CEOs across industries on strategy, brand, and investor messaging, while helping professionalize startups in their transitions to later-stage companies. Ms. Tortora spent 13 years at BlackRock, where she built and led the Investor Relations and Corporate Sustainability functions, supporting a $100+ billion market cap increase, and later served as Global Head of Aladdin Climate. She holds her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University.