Scott Rostan: Founder, CEO and Principal
Professional Experience: Merrill Lynch – Investment Banking
Teaching Credentials: Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC (Chapel Hill) – Adjunct Professor of Finance; The Field School (Washington, D.C.) – Teacher
Education: Princeton University – B.A., Economics (with honors)
Scott founded Training The Street in 1999 with the desire to combine his passion for finance and his love of teaching. In addition to his responsibilities as CEO and principal, Scott is an instructor, oversees content innovation for TTS, and is a lead relationship manager for the firm. Scott began his professional career as an analyst with Merrill Lynch´s M&A group in New York. After gaining transactional experience in a broad range of industries and with a wide spectrum of clients, Scott decided to draw more directly on his teaching gifts. He began working with Merrill´s Analyst and Associate Investment Banking Training Programs, ultimately becoming the lead instructor, content administrator, and manager. After Merrill, Scott felt a calling to contribute more directly to society and taught at The Field School in Washington, D.C., where he also coached several sports teams. Recognizing a need for analysts to gain a better grasp of financial modeling and corporate valuation, Scott decided to build on his classroom teaching experience and founded TTS to meet a rising demand for high-quality, hands-on instruction in the application of finance theory through real-world simulation.
scott.rostan@trainingthestreet.com
Joseph Zirpolo: Principal
Professional Experience: J.P. Morgan – Investment Banking
Teaching Credentials: Fordham University – Adjunct Professor of Finance
Education: Fordham University – M.B.A.; Ursinus College – B.A., Economics & Business Administration
Joe joined Training The Street in 2001 and has over 20 years of investment banking and teaching experience. As a principal and instructor at TTS, Joe leverages his subject matter expertise and experience in classroom instruction, in addition to overseeing content innovation and spearheading market data integration for modeling best practices and methodologies. Joe’s ongoing research interests are the effective design and functionality of leveraged buyout models, and he routinely advises many Wall Street firms regarding their LBO models. At Fordham University, he was recently presented with the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Joe launched his career at J.P. Morgan in the Global Trade Finance group and later joined the Credit Risk Management group to manage the firm’s primary forecasting and valuation model and to assist in analyzing global credit exposure. In 1995, Joe became a full-time instructor in the firm’s Analyst and Associate Investment Banking Training Programs. In addition to teaching credit risk analysis and the firm’s proprietary modeling throughout the world, Joe managed and taught the valuation segment of the training programs.
joe.zirpolo@trainingthestreet.com
Billy Chu: Principal
Professional Experience: Morgan Stanley – Investment Banking; Bank of America Securities – Investment Banking
Education: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania – B.S., Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Information Systems
Based out of San Francisco, Billy heads all West Coast operations and has been with Training The Street since 2002. In addition to teaching, Billy is particularly interested in working with Excel macros and programming in Visual Basic to maximize modeling efficiencies for bankers. Billy also spearheads the development of the self-study materials and oversees technology initiatives, in addition to his role as principal and lead instructor. Billy began his investment banking career with Morgan Stanley´s Insurance group in New York, where he worked on M&A and equity transactions for large insurance companies. He then joined the Technology group at Bank of America Securities in Palo Alto and San Francisco, focusing on M&A, debt, and equity transactions in the semiconductor industry.
billy.chu@trainingthestreet.com
Chirag Saraiya: Principal
Professional Experience: Bank of America Securities – Investment Banking; Merrill Lynch –Investment Banking
Teaching Credentials: Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University – Adjunct Professor of Finance
Education: Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University – M.B.A.; Emory University – B.A., Chemistry (Phi Beta Kappa)
Chirag joined Training The Street in 2003, after years of global experience in investment banking. In his role as principal and lead instructor for TTS, Chirag brings to the classroom his gift for teaching as well as his broad professional experience. As an instructor, Chirag has led training seminars in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. He is the recipient of several academic teaching awards, including the Certificate of Impact at the Kellogg School of Management. In the classroom, Chirag utilizes his experience teaching a leveraged buyout course at the business school level as well as his research experience focusing on private equity and venture capital investments in emerging markets. Outside of his teaching responsibilities, Chirag heads the Chicago office and is responsible for managing some of the operations functions of TTS. Chirag spent a number of years in Bank of America Securities’ London and Paris offices, helping to expand their European presence. Prior to that, he was in the M&A Group, where he focused on sell-side advisory work in the Consumer & Retail sector. Chirag started his investment banking career as an analyst with Merrill Lynch’s Private Placement Group in New York.
chirag.saraiya@trainingthestreet.com
Robert Rostan: CFO and Principal
Professional Experience: Sonic Automotive – Financial Reporting; Deloitte & Touche – Assurance & Advisory Services
Education: Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC (Chapel Hill) – M.S., Accounting; Davidson College – B.A., Economics
A Certified Public Accountant, Robert joined Training The Street in 2006 after a diverse career in the public accounting sector. In addition to his role as CFO, Robert heads the Charlotte office and oversees content development and delivery of financial statement analysis and accounting topics for TTS, leveraging his professional and teaching experience to teach IFRS and U.S. GAAP standards to global clients. As the Director of Financial Reporting at Sonic Automotive, an $8 billion public specialty retailer, Robert gained extensive experience as a preparer of financial statements. He also worked for Deloitte & Touche from 1996 to 2003, specializing in assurance and advisory services to public companies. Before that, Robert was a credit analyst with First Citizens Bank, a regional commercial bank.
robert.rostan@trainingthestreet.com
Alex Lue: Principal
Professional Experience: Merrill Lynch – Investment Banking
Education: Stanford Law School – J.D. (with honors); Georgetown University – B. S. (summa cum laude), Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance and Accounting and minor in English
Alex joined TTS in 2005 after spending several years with Merrill Lynch’s M&A Group in New York. Alex brings to the TTS classroom a broad range of transactional experience, which allows him to comprehensively cover the full valuation of various companies in his function. Alex is also responsible for leading the research and development of company case study materials for the summer training season. During his time at Merrill, he worked on complex transactions drawn from a diverse range of different industries, including Industrials, Biotech, Retail, Real Estate, Gaming, and Internet. Prior to his investment banking career, Alex became familiar with the financial services arena in his capacity as a legal professional performing due diligence, drafting documents related to mergers and acquisitions of technology and energy companies, and gaining experience in the full public filing process.