COMPANY

Leadership

At DriveWealth, we have assembled a team of innovative, experienced, and passionate senior leaders. Their work at DriveWealth is informed by success as entrepreneurs, senior executives from major financial institutions, FINRA regulators, PhDs, tech innovators, and former military officers.

Meet our leadership team

A strong organization is built based on the vision and strength of its leadership team.

Bob founded DriveWealth based on the belief that investing in the US stock market should be accessible globally and could be achieved by combining the right technology, creativity, and financial market wisdom. Over his 30-year career, Bob served as a partner in Tachyon Capital Management, LLC, was a Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of TAB Networks, Inc., Co-Founded and was Co-Chief Executive Officer of FX Solutions, LLC, and was also Co-Founder of Financial Labs LLC, which was purchased by Bank of America. Bob earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and an MBA in International Finance from Lehigh University. Bob was also named co-winner of the 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in New Jersey and holds FINRA Series 3, 7, 24, 34, and 63 licenses.

Robert Cortright

Founder and Executive Chair

Michael is the Chief Executive Officer. Michael has served as the Chief Operating Officer for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), overseeing strategy and operations for the NYSE Group’s five equity exchanges and two options exchanges. Prior to the NYSE, he was the Director of Business Development at Tower Research Capital, where he was responsible for expanding the firm’s global market access and developing strategic assets. He also previously led US equity product strategy at NASDAQ and held product management roles at Thomson Reuters. He previously served on the boards of SIAC, the Options Clearing Corporation, and tZERO and currently serves as a director of NYSE National, Inc. Michael holds an AB in Government from Harvard University and is also a CFA charterholder.

Michael Blaugrund

Chief Executive Officer

Jason Pizzorusso is the President. Jason most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at DriveWealth before being promoted to President. He has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and has held several roles at Morgan Stanley including Head of Wealth Management Platforms and Reengineering, Treasurer for Wealth and Investment Management, Chief Operating Officer of Wealth Management Operations, and Head of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney platform conversion. Jason holds a BA in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Geneseo, an MBA from Cornell University, and an MS in Information Systems from George Mason University.

Jason Pizzorusso

President

Marcus is the Chief Financial Officer. Marcus most recently served as DriveWealth’s Chief Operating Officer before being promoted to Chief Financial Officer. Marcus joined DriveWealth from GCA Advisors after advising the company on its Series D capital raise in 2021. As an investment banker at GCA Advisors, he executed mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and other strategic transactions for both public and private companies in the fintech and broader technology sectors. He was also an investment banker on the global mergers and acquisitions team at Barclays Capital where he advised corporations and private sponsors on complex mergers and acquisitions, carve-out, and other transactions. Marcus is a former naval aviator and served as an officer in the United States Navy. Marcus holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Economics from the United States Naval Academy.

Marcus Anthony

Chief Financial Officer

Rob is DriveWealth’s Chief Information Officer. Rob previously served as the Head of Technology Strategy, Delivery, and Compliance for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In that capacity, he managed the NYSE’s technology transformation, which included the migration of the NYSE’s five equities markets, two options markets, and two industry market data processors (CTA & OPRA) to NYSE’s Pillar technology platform. He also managed the firm’s technology compliance and governance function, which included the NYSE’s compliance program for SEC Regulation SCI. Prior to joining the NYSE, Rob held consulting roles at Arthur Andersen, LLP where he advised large companies and major brands on technology and information security projects. Rob holds an AB in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross and an MBA from Columbia University.

Robert Corti

Chief Information Officer

Donato is Head of Trading & Brokerage Donato joined DriveWealth through the acquisition of his firm, Cuttone & Company, which provided agency and proprietary institutional execution services and direct market access across all US trading venues. Under Donato's leadership, Cuttone & Company expanded its business lines to include wholesale execution, algorithmic sales and trading, prime brokerage and investment banking. Donato served on the NYSE National, Inc. Board of Directors from 2017-2023 and the National Stock Exchange from 2015-2017. He holds Series 24, 7, 7a, 19, 63, and 99 securities licenses.

Donato Cuttone

Head of Trading & Brokerage

Emily Ellis is the Chief People Officer. Most recently Emily was Head of People and Talent at DriveWealth before being promoted to Chief People Officer. Emily previously worked at Lyft where she led Mid-Atlantic Operations and served as the GM for Washington, DC. Prior to Lyft, she led Business Operations teams at SocialCode, now Code3 and ran the Enrollment Services department at 2U. Emily has 15+ years of experience scaling pre- and post-IPO technology companies. Emily has a Bachelors of Science in Political Science from Elon University and is SHRM certified.

Emily Ellis

Chief People Officer

Kyla Murphy is the Chief Product Officer. Kyla has served as a Managing Director and Head of Basel Implementation at Morgan Stanley where she was responsible for leading the global Basel standards implementation and Risk Weighted Assets (RWA) infrastructure transformation. She also served as Chief Operating Officer of Wealth Management Platforms and Reengineering and held senior roles across a number of businesses including Wealth Management, Technology, Bank, and Finance. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she worked in various product management roles at UBS. Kyla holds a BA in History from Yale University and is Series 7, 63 and 99 registered.

Kyla Murphy

Chief Product Officer

Shelly Murphy is Vice President of Partner Services. Shelly previously led the Client Relationship Services team at the NYSE, where she was responsible for effectively solving client challenges across all US-based exchanges and product offerings. She was Vice President of Customer Success for Ascent, a market-leading regulation AI cloud-based platform that automated and managed customer compliance programs, and was Chief of Staff for Uptake, an AI software company where she oversaw daily operations and corporate initiatives. She holds a BA in Management Information Systems from Ohio University.

Shelly Murphy

Vice President, Partner Services

Stephen Nash is Senior Vice President of Sales. Stephen leads the global sales and sales operations teams and is responsible for successfully leading the origination of many of our highest-profile partnerships, including Toss Securities, South Korea's largest digital wallet; Cash App, a leading financial app in the US; and BTG Pactual, Latin America's preeminent investment bank. Prior to DriveWealth, Stephen was an investment banker at TD Cowen, formerly Cowen & Company; Piper Sandler, formerly Piper Jaffray; and Citigroup. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Davidson College and actively pursues language learning, most recently acquiring proficiency in Portuguese.

Stephen Nash

Senior Vice President, Sales

Venu is the Chief Operating Officer. Before joining DriveWealth, he served as Managing Director at Patomak Global Partners, where he advised clients on business and regulatory strategy, risk management, and compliance solutions in the securities, commodities, fintech, and cryptocurrency spaces. He has also held various other leadership roles within the industry, including as the CCO and co-COO of Dash Technologies, a Managing Director at Tagomi, the CEO of broker-dealers at Virtu Financial, and CEO of Nasdaq’s equities, options, and treasuries broker-dealers. Venu earned dual degrees in Economics and Computer Science from BITS Pilani and an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. Venu holds FINRA Series 7, 14, 24, 27 (FINOP), and 63 licenses.

Venu Palaparthi

Chief Operating Officer

John is our Chief Growth Officer responsible for evolving existing Partner relationships by driving deeper client penetration and asset class expansion. John is one of DriveWealth’s original employees and has led the initial creation of our API platform by combining his background in design and technology. He has also worked with our Partners to help them build successful technology solutions for their clients. Prior to DriveWealth, John worked with early-stage startups and VC firms across the US and Europe where he consulted on brand direction, product design, and software architecture. John holds a Series 7 license.

John Shammas

Chief Growth Officer

Aaron Sokasian is the Chief Technology Officer. Aaron co-founded and served as CEO of Financial Labs, which was later acquired by Bank of America. At Bank of America, he led the Quantitative Strategies division. Aaron later co-founded Crypto-Systems, a proprietary trading firm in the digital asset sector, which was acquired by DriveWealth in 2022. Aaron earned a BA in Astrophysics from Cornell University and a PhD in Computational Astrophysics from Harvard University.

Aaron Sokasian

Chief Technology Officer

Harry Temkin is the Chief Digital Officer responsible for engaging with a broad range of DriveWealth’s stakeholders, including prospects, partners, and investors, to transform traditional brokerage capabilities into modern API-first workflows. Harry previously served as Vice President of Seller Experience at eBay, Chief Executive Officer of KnowVera, LLC, a financial software company specializing in proprietary trading, and held numerous executive roles at Thomson Reuters and Bridge Information Systems. Harry served as a Director and Chairman of the Regulatory Oversight Committee of the BATS Stock Exchange from its inception in 2008 through 2015. Harry graduated Cum Laude from Hobart College with a BA in Economics and Mathematics.

Harry Temkin

Chief Digital Officer

Lauren is Head of Operations. Lauren has served as Head of Business Architecture and Change for the Global Finance Division of Morgan Stanley where she played a pivotal role in the execution of the regulatory change agenda for the organization. Over the course of her 24 years at Morgan Stanley, Lauren has held various leadership roles within the Operations, Technology, and Finance Divisions, including leading the historical conversion for the Smith Barney integration where she played an integral role in the creation of the Wealth Management Data Governance Office and the Digital Transformation and Technology Innovation rollout. She also led multiple transformation initiatives. Lauren holds a BS in Accounting and Finance with a minor in Economics from Molloy University.

Lauren Veisz

Head of Operations

Christopher Yamaguchi is General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Chris also serves as a board member for DriveWealth Lithuania UAB and DriveWealth Singapore Pte Ltd. Chris came to DriveWealth from FINRA where he led examinations of various member firms, large multinational, high-risk member firms, and industry sweep initiatives. Chris earned his JD from Seton Hall University School of Law and his BA in Economics and Classics from Bucknell University.