BLUE SAND SECURITIES, LLC
ASHTON, MD

Blue Sand's principals have 50+ years of collective experience in alternative assets fundraising, and as successful private entrepreneurs. This puts us in a position to counsel fund managers for maximum effectiveness. Advice on prospective seed investment deals, business planning, compensation issues, partnership relationships, and potential hires are all ancillary benefits of working with Blue Sand. Blue Sand offers a platform for like-minded entrepreneurial Registered Representatives, who don’t have the infrastructure or capital to create their own brokerage firm—but require a platform to license and support them in the market. Our firm provides an infrastructure of due diligence, compliance, and business development, as well as other optional consulting services. We carefully screen all prospects and they receive the same compliance onboarding, training, and ongoing supervision as our internal team. This arrangement allows external affiliates to leverage our experience and resources so they can focus on raising capital for their mandates. With 18 years of hedge fund industry experience, Michael began his career as an institutional hedge fund investor. Identifying an opportunity, he built a marketing firm that could source and represent leading hedge fund talent, and align them with the strategic priorities of institutional investors. Raising over $6 billion from investors for Blue Sand’s hand-picked hedge fund clients, he’s primarily responsible for sourcing and diligencing new managers. Prior to forming Blue Sand Securities, Michael was President of Visitalk.com, a private Internet Infrastructure company that raised $45 million and was banked by Goldman Sachs and Wit Capital. During his previous tenure as Senior Research Analyst for Citigroup's Alternative Investment Strategies, Fund of Fund assets under management grew from $100 Million to over $2.5 Billion. Michael holds an MBA Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Reed College. Michael also holds the Series 7, 24, 66, 79, and 99 Securities Licenses. Patrick is focused primarily on raising assets from US & European institutional investors, including Foundations, Fund of Funds, Family Offices and University Endowments. His responsibilities also include screening potential new managers and designing the marketing strategy around their unique strengths. Patrick is also the COO and Founder of Merion Investment Management LP, an event driven hedge fund that currently manages $800 Million in AUM. He is also a Founder of Integrated Ag LP, an agriculture private equity fund specializing in the redevelopment of farm land and the production of agricultural commodities. Patrick is also a Partner and Board Member of Context Summits LLC which manages a series of hedge fund conferences focused on one-on-one investor/manager meetings. Patrick graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Finance, Accounting and Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona's Eller School of Business. Patrick is a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts, the CFA Institute, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Series 7, 24, 66, 79, and 99 Securities Licenses. Responsible for managing the marketing efforts of the firm, Nelson sources quality hedge fund managers and has raised several billion dollars from institutional investors in the US and Europe. Prior to Blue Sand, Nelson founded and ran VentureGov Group, a strategic business development firm that supported leading venture-backed technology companies in selling products to the federal government. Prior to VentureGov, Nelson was co-founder and Managing Partner of Milestone Equity Partners, a national network of technology incubators that successfully exited several companies including Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) a leading content delivery network, and Plaxo, an online address book that was founded by Sean Parker and sold to Comcast in 2008. Nelson began his career in politics, first working as a presidential appointee for George H.W. Bush. He worked under Bill Bennett at the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), then as a staff member of the President's Drug Advisory Council. He left politics to serve as the President of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), a large national nonprofit group that supported community based efforts to reduce teen drug use. Nelson departed CADCA to co-found the Fidelis Group, a consulting firm that provided strategy and leadership development services to Fortune 500 companies, tech start-ups and national nonprofit groups. Nelson holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University after being selected for the prestigious Bryce Harlow scholarship, and B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Carolina (USC), where he was a scholarship athlete playing four years of varsity soccer He holds the Series 7, 24, 63, and 79 Securities Licenses. Early on at the firm Katherine raised assets for Hedge Fund clients from Institutional Investors such as Family Offices and Fund of Funds, managed the office, and maintained the firm’s CRM database. Today Katherine works closely with the firm’s Partners and CCO on business management, operations, and compliance and helps to prioritize client, company, and organizational requirements. On the operations side Katherine provides support to the firm’s existing Hedge Fund clientele, screens new potential Hedge Funds and Registered Representatives, and manages the Broker Dealer’s service providers and IT needs. On the compliance side Katherine supervises east-coast based Registered Representatives, and firm-wide, she works with the CCO to implement Blue Sand’s compliance policies and procedures. In addition to her role at Blue Sand Katherine has been Chief Compliance Officer at Merion Investment Management LP, an $800 Million Event Driven Hedge Fund, since January of 2013. At Merion Katherine implements and manages investment advisor compliance processes, testing, and controls. Prior to joining Blue Sand Katherine worked in Investor Relations and Operations for Pharo Management LLC, a $2 Billion Macro Hedge Fund. Katherine graduated from Dalhousie University with a B.A. in Finance in 2005. She is a member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds and holds the Series 24, 7, 79, and 63 Securities Licenses.