Christopher J.A. Messina
CEO & Co-Founder
Mr. Messina has deep, international experience in the capital markets, private equity and financial technology. He was formerly Managing Partner of Mannahatta Partners, LLC, a New York-based specialist financial services advisory firm. Prior to co-founding Mannahatta Partners in October 2006, Mr. Messina was the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Futures and Managed Funds business at ICAP plc. Mr. Messina has advised NYSE Euronext and the Qatar Investment Authority on the development of the Qatar Securities Market, has performed private equity due diligence for global investment firms, has been a strategic consultant to McKinsey & Company and developed a corporate governance factor fund and data service in Australia with Corporate Governance International.
He has worked with Goldman Sachs in New York and Goldman Sachs JBWere in Australia in operational risk, proprietary investments and quantitative research. While at Goldman Sachs in 1999, he was part of the team that created BrokerTec Global, the fixed-income inter-dealer broker that was acquired by ICAP in 2003. He was also part of the team that created the BrokerTec Futures Exchange, later sold to Deutsche Borse as Eurex US.
Mr. Messina has worked extensively in the Islamic finance markets since 2000, has advised both corporate industrial clients and Islamic banks and asset managers on sukuk and various other Shariah-compliant financing techniques. In addition to serving clients in these markets, he has lectured extensively at leading international conferences and at law schools at the request of both private sector banks like EFG-Hermes (Egypt) as well as public sector entities such as the World Bank.
Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Messina spent three years in industrial sales in Africa. He has an AB in Anthropology with a concentration in Islamic History from the University of Chicago, where he was a National Merit Scholar, and an MBA in Finance from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Lynn A. Palmer, Jr., J.D.
Managing Director & Principal
Mr. Palmer has a very rich and diverse background in commodities, back office operations and trading. Prior to joining Resource Production Advisors, he was Head Trader and Chief Operations Officer for Stonebrook Capital Management, LLC, an alternative asset management firm, for the past ten years. While at Stonebrook he was responsible for trade execution, model implementation and all outside vendor relationships. Prior to Stonebrook, Mr. Palmer was a risk manager and allocation specialists at Derivatives Portfolio Management (DPM). He supervised a team responsible for trade allocation and portfolio rebalancing. Additionally he helped to manage risk on a large physical commodities client who traded soft commodities and hedge portfolios.
Mr. Palmer began his financial career as a registered floor broker and clerk for Copia Trading Company on the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa exchange (now the NYBOT) in 1993. While on the floor Mr. Palmer directed client order flow, provided market advice and supervised a trading desk specifically in Cocoa and Sugar. Later he started a Sugar trading operation and was directly responsible for all customer orders as a full broker in the trading ring. After completing law school, he left the exchange floor in 1998 to join DPM.
Mr. Palmer holds a Juris Doctorate from Pace University, a Master of Arts in Criminology and Public Administration for the State University of New York at Albany and a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in Political Science
William (Bill) J. Cassidy
Managing Director & Principal
Bill has spent his career in the banking and energy industries, mostly focusing on the independent exploration and production sectors.
He most recently worked as a co-founder and investor in U.S. Drilling Capital Management LLC (USDCM), a Greenwich Connecticut-based energy private equity fund focused on the Exploration and Production sector. Shortly before founding USDCM he spent two years as Head of Oil & Gas Investment Banking at Barclays Capital Inc. At Barclays he led the introduction of the US Exploration sector to the European High Yield capital markets. Prior to Barclays he spent five years at Banc of America Securities Inc. as a senior member of the Oil and Gas team building the firm's Investment Banking franchise.
Bill started his investment banking career at JPMorgan Securities Inc. He worked at JPMorgan for more than eight years in the Energy Group where he spent significant time focusing on advisory and M&A. During his time at JPMorgan he worked from 1996 to 1998 in London in all aspects of the energy industry, concentrating on the E&P sector and on the emerging deregulation of the European natural gas sector.
He also has significant energy industry operations experience having worked as a Geophysicist for Conoco in the UK & Norwegian sectors of the North Sea and in the emerging Gulf of Mexico deepwater. He has a BS in Math and Geology from the National University of Ireland, an MS in Geophysics from The Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London and an MBA from the Wharton School.
He currently sits on the boards of Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) and GasValpo, a privately-held Chilean gas distribution company.
CEO & Co-Founder
Mr. Messina has deep, international experience in the capital markets, private equity and financial technology. He was formerly Managing Partner of Mannahatta Partners, LLC, a New York-based specialist financial services advisory firm. Prior to co-founding Mannahatta Partners in October 2006, Mr. Messina was the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Futures and Managed Funds business at ICAP plc. Mr. Messina has advised NYSE Euronext and the Qatar Investment Authority on the development of the Qatar Securities Market, has performed private equity due diligence for global investment firms, has been a strategic consultant to McKinsey & Company and developed a corporate governance factor fund and data service in Australia with Corporate Governance International.
He has worked with Goldman Sachs in New York and Goldman Sachs JBWere in Australia in operational risk, proprietary investments and quantitative research. While at Goldman Sachs in 1999, he was part of the team that created BrokerTec Global, the fixed-income inter-dealer broker that was acquired by ICAP in 2003. He was also part of the team that created the BrokerTec Futures Exchange, later sold to Deutsche Borse as Eurex US.
Mr. Messina has worked extensively in the Islamic finance markets since 2000, has advised both corporate industrial clients and Islamic banks and asset managers on sukuk and various other Shariah-compliant financing techniques. In addition to serving clients in these markets, he has lectured extensively at leading international conferences and at law schools at the request of both private sector banks like EFG-Hermes (Egypt) as well as public sector entities such as the World Bank.
Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Messina spent three years in industrial sales in Africa. He has an AB in Anthropology with a concentration in Islamic History from the University of Chicago, where he was a National Merit Scholar, and an MBA in Finance from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Lynn A. Palmer, Jr., J.D.
Managing Director & Principal
Mr. Palmer has a very rich and diverse background in commodities, back office operations and trading. Prior to joining Resource Production Advisors, he was Head Trader and Chief Operations Officer for Stonebrook Capital Management, LLC, an alternative asset management firm, for the past ten years. While at Stonebrook he was responsible for trade execution, model implementation and all outside vendor relationships. Prior to Stonebrook, Mr. Palmer was a risk manager and allocation specialists at Derivatives Portfolio Management (DPM). He supervised a team responsible for trade allocation and portfolio rebalancing. Additionally he helped to manage risk on a large physical commodities client who traded soft commodities and hedge portfolios.
Mr. Palmer began his financial career as a registered floor broker and clerk for Copia Trading Company on the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa exchange (now the NYBOT) in 1993. While on the floor Mr. Palmer directed client order flow, provided market advice and supervised a trading desk specifically in Cocoa and Sugar. Later he started a Sugar trading operation and was directly responsible for all customer orders as a full broker in the trading ring. After completing law school, he left the exchange floor in 1998 to join DPM.
Mr. Palmer holds a Juris Doctorate from Pace University, a Master of Arts in Criminology and Public Administration for the State University of New York at Albany and a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in Political Science
William (Bill) J. Cassidy
Managing Director & Principal
Bill has spent his career in the banking and energy industries, mostly focusing on the independent exploration and production sectors.
He most recently worked as a co-founder and investor in U.S. Drilling Capital Management LLC (USDCM), a Greenwich Connecticut-based energy private equity fund focused on the Exploration and Production sector. Shortly before founding USDCM he spent two years as Head of Oil & Gas Investment Banking at Barclays Capital Inc. At Barclays he led the introduction of the US Exploration sector to the European High Yield capital markets. Prior to Barclays he spent five years at Banc of America Securities Inc. as a senior member of the Oil and Gas team building the firm's Investment Banking franchise.
Bill started his investment banking career at JPMorgan Securities Inc. He worked at JPMorgan for more than eight years in the Energy Group where he spent significant time focusing on advisory and M&A. During his time at JPMorgan he worked from 1996 to 1998 in London in all aspects of the energy industry, concentrating on the E&P sector and on the emerging deregulation of the European natural gas sector.
He also has significant energy industry operations experience having worked as a Geophysicist for Conoco in the UK & Norwegian sectors of the North Sea and in the emerging Gulf of Mexico deepwater. He has a BS in Math and Geology from the National University of Ireland, an MS in Geophysics from The Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London and an MBA from the Wharton School.
He currently sits on the boards of Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS) and GasValpo, a privately-held Chilean gas distribution company.
Les Halpin Joins RPA Holdings, LLC as Board Member and Investor Les Halpin Joins RPA Holdings, LLC as Board Member and Investor read more
Oasis Petroleum Announces the Addition of William J. Cassidy to Its Board of Directors. Oasis Petroleum Announces the Addition of William J. Cassidy to Its Board of Directors. read more
Decades of experience. RPA's founding CEO has assembled a specialized team to provide optimized, mutually-beneficial financ... read more
Oasis Petroleum Announces the Addition of William J. Cassidy to Its Board of Directors. Oasis Petroleum Announces the Addition of William J. Cassidy to Its Board of Directors. read more
Decades of experience. RPA's founding CEO has assembled a specialized team to provide optimized, mutually-beneficial financ... read more
