Executive Team
Barry Kiront
Chief Executive Officer / Co-Founder
Barry Kiront has been the Chief Executive Officer of Craft Capital Management LLC since 2015. He has been active in the capital markets and has been working with institutional and retail investors for close to 34 years. His focus is twofold; He handles most of the private investment banking at Craft Capital Management. The investment banking division’s core focus is raising capital through an established network of home offices and venture capitalists. The other area of concentration is within the wealth management division. This business includes financial, estate, and retirement planning, along with equities and fixed income positioning. During the summer months, Barry lives in the country of Hungary for the past twenty years. He is always interested in exploring new opportunities throughout US, Europe and Asia. Barry received his BS from NY Institute of Technology and his MS from Hofstra University.
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Stephen Kiront
Chief Operating Officer / Co-Founder
Stephen Kiront is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Craft Capital Management. Stephen has over 28 years in the financial industry. His focus as COO is driving performance measures for the operation, often in the form of supporting the retail, institutional, and investment banking clients. Being the COO, he has the ability to have input throughout all areas of the organization, including strategic planning and execution, corporate management, client development, and customer and network operations.​
Mackey McFarlane
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Partner - Head of Investment Banking
Mr. McFarlane joined the Craft Capital team as Head of Investment Banking in December 2024. He wears many hats and takes a hands-on approach to managing his team and the investment banking department as a whole, working with M&A, turnarounds, and structured debt and equity transactions. Mr. McFarlane spent the first 20 years of his career as an institutional stock and bond trader, working in a transfer agent and clearing firm early on. At his prior firm, J.H. Darbie & Co., he worked in institutional deposits and sales for three years before starting the banking desk. He then served as Head of Investment Banking there for five years, building and leading a thriving team of bankers and brokers.
Ron Furst
Chief Compliance Officer
Mr. Furst is a seasoned Compliance Officer with extensive experience supporting organizations across the financial services industry through complex regulatory environments. Throughout his career, he has consistently delivered value by aligning compliance strategy with business objectives, strengthening governance frameworks, and fostering a culture of integrity and accountability.
Mr. Furst holds multiple industry licenses and brings deep expertise across the compliance and financial regulatory landscape. His background includes CRD and CMA submissions, daily equity blotter and options reviews, AML oversight, and audit preparation, with a strong command of FINRA regulations and enterprise risk mitigation. He is recognized for his ability to navigate high-pressure, fast-paced environments while providing clear leadership and sound judgment on complex compliance matters.
In addition to regulatory leadership, he brings a strong understanding of emerging technologies and industry platforms that support modern compliance functions. He has successfully leveraged these tools to streamline reporting, enhance workflow efficiency, and strengthen internal controls-positioning compliance as a proactive, strategic partner to the organization.
Licenses include: 4,7,14,24,55,57,63,99,SIE, FINRA Arbitrator & Notary.
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Richard Rizzuto
Relationship Manager
Richard is the relationship manager serving as the principal liaison between the firm and its valued clients. Richard builds loyalty through outreach, interaction, and continuous improvement of services. Richard works with leadership to promote the firm’s products and services by spearheading engagement and marketing initiatives. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Richard is a graduate of Princeton University and played 4 years for the Princeton Tigers Basketball team.
Dr. Yenyou (Jeff) Zheng
Director of Business Development
Dr. Zheng currently serves as the Director of Business Development, and as a broker with Craft Capital Management LLC. Jeff has 22 years of experience in financial industry, with a particular focus on Chinese companies listed overseas.
Alex P. Hamilton
Managing Director of Investment Banking
Mr. Hamilton’s over 25-year Wall Street career started in equity research at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, where he served on multi-year Institutional Investor-ranked teams. The teams were ranked #1 by Institutional Investor every eligible year and named to the All-America team every year eligible. Mr. Hamilton participated in more than 30 aerospace & defense debt and equity offerings as well as IPOs, raising over $11 billion. He later held leadership roles as Senior Managing Director and Director of Research at Jesup & Lamont and EarlyBirdCapital (a pioneer in SPACs). Most recently, he served as Co-Founder, President, and Head of Investment Banking at Donald Capital, LLC. During his time in equity research, Mr. Hamilton was ranked a top stock picker in The Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street Survey (2008 – 2010). He has also served as a guest blogger for CNBC.com and made regular guest appearances on Bloomberg, Canada’s Business News Network (BNN), CNBC, and Fox Business. Mr. Hamilton is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. He holds the Series 7, 63, 24 and 79 FINRA licenses.
Andrew McGough
Director, Capital Markets
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Mr. McGough joined Craft Capital in 2024. His career in investments and trading with institutional clients extends over 20 years. Before joining Craft Capital, he worked for Crestmont Investments raising debt and equity capital for private and public companies. Prior to Crestmont, he worked at Exotix USA/Tellimer Markets placing emerging market debt and private placements. He has a B.S. in Management from St. Francis College.
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Errol Antzis
Senior Managing Director
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Errol has a very broad-ranging background, and has spent over 40 years in finance, including a decade as an entrepreneur, and his entire life as a musician. His finance background includes raising and co-managing the first Mezzanine fund at private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, establishing and managing the Media, Entertainment and Technology Merchant Banking Group at Banque Paribas (now BNP Paribas), Managing the Media and Entertainment Finance Group at GE Capital, and spending his early years as a Technology industry analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank.
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Errol’s entrepreneurial pursuits include starting businesses in online music distribution, guitar manufacturing, magazine publishing and health care data and services. He also served as the CFO of Metropolitan Talent, an entertainment company in NYC that conducts concert promotion, artist management and record label operations.
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Errol is deeply involved in volunteer work, as a Board member of the national Wolf Conservation Center, Special Financial Advisor to Born Free USA and President of the Waccabuc Landowners Council in his home town of Lewisboro, New York. Errol graduated from M.I.T. with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and from NYU with a Master’s degree in Business Administration. He holds FINRA Series 82, 79, 63 and SIE licenses, and is also a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson.
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Steve Gerst, MD, MBA, MPH, GMP, CHE
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Dr. Steve Gerst is a graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (M.D.), Columbia College (B.A.), Columbia School of Public Health – Health Administration (M.P.H.) and the Graduate Management Program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where he is an Aresty Scholar. He is Board Certified in Medical Management and is Diplomat in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Dr. Gerst is formerly Senior Consultant/Regional Medical Director for what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. He was President of Columbia/HCA's PPO division nationally under Florida's former Governor and current Senator, Rick Scott, and Vice President of the corporation. He helped create what is now the Aetna Health Plan, one of the largest HMO’s in south Florida. Prior to that, Dr. Gerst was Assistant Vice President of Crawford & Company, the world's largest independent claims management company with 700 offices in 70 countries (NYSE:CRD-A/B) and began his career with what is now Premier, the largest hospital Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) serving over 4,000 member hospitals. Dr. Gerst holds certificates of completion in additional course work from Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Wharton School, and helped found the Clinical Healthcare Informatics program at the University of Miami School of Health Sciences and Miller School of Medicine. Throughout his career, he has been involved in over $2 billion in mergers & acquisitions, capital raises and company turnarounds. At Craft Capital, he focuses on biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceuticals. Dr. Gerst holds his Series 7, and has previously held Series 66 and 65 FINRA licenses as well.
Director of Healthcare
Neil Grossman
Neil Grossman has more than 30 years’ experience in all facets of Investment Banking. He has been registered with Craft Capital for the past seven years. Having built relationships with many of the top Private Equity and Venture Capital firms. Neil focuses on all areas of private funding.
He has financed everything from a car wash chain to food and beverage companies. A true affinity and focus are the healthcare and biotech sectors. One of Neil’s proudest accomplishments was raising more than $100 million for Celgene, which was later acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for $74 billion. Neil is FINRA licensed with a 7, 63, and 79.
Senior Managing Director
Max Georgatos
Max brings more than eighteen years of investment banking and financial services experience advising middle‑market public and private emerging growth companies on capital raising and strategic transactions. He offers deep expertise across the capital structure, including equity, senior term debt, junior and mezzanine debt, convertible securities, and acquisition financings. Throughout his career, Max has led complex capital markets transactions spanning initial public offerings, registered direct offerings, and private placements, as well as mergers and acquisitions and alternative financing solutions. He has held investment banking roles at Wellington Shields, Loop Capital, and Network 1 Financial Securities, advising small‑cap and middle‑market companies across a wide range of industries and market capitalizations.
He holds Series 7, 66, and 79 licenses and maintains a broad network of relationships across senior lenders, cash‑flow and asset‑based lenders, mezzanine investors, family offices, hedge funds, and private equity firms.
Managing Director of Investment Banking
CJ Hiller
Managing Director, Capital Markets
CJ Hiller is a Managing Director in Capital Markets at Craft Capital, bringing seven years of experience in investment banking and capital markets. Over the course of his career, CJ has raised over $100 million in capital for clients and companies across a range of transactions. Prior to joining Craft Capital, CJ served at Scottsdale Capital, where he founded and built the firm's investment banking division from the ground up and managed an in-house investment fund. He holds a degree in finance with a minor in investments from Northern Arizona University.
Henry (Haozhe) Zhao
Senior Associate, Investment Banking
Henry Zhao is a Senior Associate in the Investment Banking Division at Craft Capital Management LLC. Henry primarily covers Asia-related and cross-border mandates, working with growth-oriented and publicly listed companies on capital markets transactions and strategic financing matters involving the United States and Asia. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.
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Henry holds a Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, major in Finance from The Ohio State University. He holds the FINRA Series 79 and 63 registrations.
