VHS Team

FINRA BrokerCheck website: https://brokercheck.finra.org/

Kevin J. Esval
Founder, Executive Managing Director, and CCO
esval@velocityhealth.com

Kevin J. Esval has served as Executive Managing Director and CCO of VelocityHealth Securities since founding the company in 2000. Mr. Esval has significant industry and investment banking experienced in most sectors of health care including specialty pharmaceuticals & generics, health care services, health care IT, diagnostics, biotechnology, and other sectors. With his extensive transactional and financing experience serving as a valuable resource, Mr. Esval takes an active role with all clients. Additionally, through his prior operating experience as an executive in growth oriented health care companies and active roles on boards of directors, Mr. Esval has developed a keen understanding of the challenges faced by middle market and growth companies. Mr. Esval has negotiated, structured, and executed various types of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and licensings; corporate and transactional financings, including equity, mezzanine and debt financings.

Previously, Mr. Esval served as a divisional SVP and COO for UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), one of the largest health care services companies in the world with annual revenues exceeding $240 billion. As one of the original startup executives of his division, Mr. Esval was instrumental in taking it from $0 to $400 million as of his departure. His career in health care began with a venture-backed startup Complete Health Services, Inc. This firm was one of Inc. Magazine’s “Fastest Growing Private Companies” in 1994. During this period, Mr. Esval was this company’s top sales executive, and managed the startup of two new divisions.

Additionally, Mr. Esval spent 5 years in sales, financial analysis, and trading roles at several financial derivatives companies, including Chicago based Rosenthal-Collins Group and R. J. O’Brien. During this period, his roles included working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Mr. Esval has served on the Board of Directors of multiple health care companies, and currently serves on the Board of Directors on several specialty pharmaceutical companies.

Mr. Esval received his BA degree from Furman University while on a football scholarship. Additionally, he studied internationally in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mr. Esval is a dual citizen of the USA and the Republic of Ireland.

Mr. Esval holds the Series 24, 79, 7, & 63 Licenses.

Kenneth R. George, CPA
Chief Financial Officer and FINOP

Mr. George serves as the CFO and FINOP of VelocityHealth Securities, and is founder and CEO of FINOP Services, LLC. Formerly, he worked as a Compliance Examiner in NASD (now FINRA) Regulation, Inc.'s Boston District office. While with NASD, he conducted routine examinations of NASD member firms, assisted in bringing new members into the Association.  He was also a Senior Assistant Examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Mr. George is a licensed CPA in the state of New Hampshire, and obtained his BS degree in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire.

Mr. George holds the Series 27 & 63 Licenses.

Dale Yakin
Managing Director

Mr. Yakin is a Managing Director for VelocityHealth Securities, and he is focused on the life sciences sectors, including the diagnostic and pharmaceutical sectors where he is very experienced with generic and branded products. He began working with VHS in 2013 from his base in Taiwan where he maintains close ties with a network of industry contacts throughout the Asia-Pacific region and concentrates on identifying opportunities for cross-border deals.

Previously, Mr. Yakin held several positions within Novartis, the last role being Head BPA for the Diagnostics division’s APAC commercial organization based in Hong Kong. He had initially joined Novartis Vaccines in 2006 with key responsibilities in the areas of M&A valuation, partnering, strategic and capital planning just as the vaccines division entered a period of intensive renovation of its manufacturing network, expansion to new geographies, and portfolio expansion. Mr. Yakin first arrived in Asia in 2010 as a member of the Novartis integration team following an acquisition of a Chinese vaccines manufacturer. For that 2-year assignment, he concentrated on site investment planning and drove portfolio selection to maximize the value of this new asset. Mr. Yakin has routinely spoke on this subject at various conferences throughout the region. Prior work history includes extensive performance analytics and valuation within high-tech industries, and several years as an engineer focused on biological and physico-chemical process design.

Mr. Yakin earned a BA degree from the Furman University in Greenville, SC, as well as a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Clemson University and an MBA from University of Arizona.

Mr. Yakin holds the Series 79 & 63 Licenses.

Mr. Yakin served on the BIO Asia Advisory Committee in 2019

Tony Meyers
Managing Director

Mr. Meyers is a Managing Director for VelocityHealth Securities, and he is focused on the capital markets in various health care sectors, including the pharmaceuticals. Mr. Meyers is a seasoned veteran of Wall Street, having worked in the financial securities industry for over 25 years. He most recently worked as the CFO of Legacy BioPharm, where he led the execution of their acquisition of WraSer Pharmaceuticals and Xspire Pharma. Additionally, he has worked in institutional equities at several bulge bracket Investment Banks including Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS, and Deutsche Bank. He was a partner and Managing Director at CRT Capital, a boutique investment banking firm, where he headed the equity trading desk overseeing proprietary and institutional facilitation trading, while coordinating with investment banking on IPO and follow on offerings.

Mr. Meyers has expertise in discovering, evaluating, negotiating and monetizing various types of financial assets. His capital markets experience provides comprehensive knowledge in modeling, capital raising, and structuring financial instruments.

Mr. Meyers received his BA degree from Providence College.

Mr. Meyers holds the Series 24, 55, 7 & 63 Licenses.

Chris McTammany
Managing Director

Mr. McTammany is a Managing Director for VelocityHealth Securities, and he is a generalist focused on financings of equity and debt. Also, Mr. McTammany is the Founder and CEO of McTammany Partner, a Florida based strategic advisory and recruiting firm that caters to the alternative investment community. He started the firm in 2009 and has over 15 years of experience placing long/short, fundamental and systematic, public equity and macro investing professionals within global hedge funds, asset managers and family offices.

Prior to launching McTammany Partners, Mr. McTammany was a founding member of CB Global Search in New York City, where he individually built and ran their Alternative Investments division. Before joining CB, Mr. McTammany worked at a single family office in Southern California that had over 5 million square feet of office, industrial and retail properties, at the time making it one of the largest single owner operators of private commercial real estate in the state of California. He was the apprentice to the CEO and General Counsel for 3 years, working on all aspects of acquisition and disposition diligence, portfolio management and operations.

Mr. McTammany graduated from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College with a BA, and played varsity golf his freshman year.

Mr. McTammany holds the Series 7 & 63 Licenses.