User:GoCardinal123/Alan Gelband

Alan Gelband Alan Gelband (born November 15, 1944) is an American entrepreneur and investment banker, notable for his expertise in shell companies and reverse merger transactions and his leadership with the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), an association with over 12,000 members. He served as president of ACG from 1992-1993 and was awarded their lifetime achievement award in 2008.

Early life
Gelband was born in Queens, New York the son of Evelyn (Simon) and Harry Gelband, who ran a small brake-lining business. Gelband went to high Forest Hills High School, along with notable investor Jack Silver and shock television show host, Jerry Springer. He graduated in 1962 and then majored in Business at the University of Michigan where he graduated with a BBA degree in 1966, an MBA degree in 1968, and PHB in 1971. As undergraduate, he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, where he was fraternity brothers with legendary real estate investor, Sam Zell. As a graduate student he wrote a doctoral thesis entitled “Alternative Ways of Going Public.”

Early Entrepreneurial Ventures
Gelband pursued a number of entrepreneurial ventures both while at the University of Michigan and shortly after graduating. While a student at the University of Michigan, Gelband worked as a part time stockbroker, tried running a motorcycle rental business, invested several thousand dollars in a scheme to rid Los Angeles of its smog, and served briefly as the owner of an Ann Arbor gas station. Although these ventures achieved mixed success, Gelband finally hit it big in 1968 when he became president and 50% owner of Geotech Oil Corp, an Ann Arbor-based oil-drilling fund. Gelband achieved his stake in the fund in exchange for filing the company with the SEC and attempting to raise $10 million in a public offering. The capital raise ultimate failed due to a falling stock market, but Gelband and partner Leo Angelos turned the firm turned firm into a success, completing a series of acquisitions from 1968 to 1972 that culminated in the company achieving a $3.6 million public valuation in 1972. Geotech’s acquisitions included a simulated diamond company; Vairex, a company that owned the patent on a process for purifying air in homes; and Walton Carpets, a publicly owned, 28-year old company with annual sales of over $5.3 million in 1971; among others. Upon the acquisition of Walton Carpets, Gelband renamed the company Walton-Vairex and moved to Chicago to oversee its business and the divestiture of non-core operations. In April1972, when the company decided it no longer wanted to be in the artificial diamond business, Gelband famously paid a large one time dividend to shareholders in the form cubic zirconium diamonds, which were distributed to all 500 shareholders.

In the mid-1970s, Gelband re-focused his activities on investment banking and stock brokerage, launching Alan Gelband & Co., a brokerage and corporate financial consulting business in 1976. Gelband knew that competing with well-established brokerage firms for talent would be difficult, but he saw a unique opportunity as many large brokerage firms at the time had hiring practices that overlooked talented women. Gelband decided to exploit this opportunity by staffing his firm entirely with female stockbrokers. The unique hiring practices substantial attention at the time, drawing comparisons to the popular television show Charlie’s Angels and leading Cosmopolitan Magazine to name Gelband its Bachelor of the Month in November 1977. In addition to its staffing techniques, the firm was also known for its early call on Kenton Corp. The brokerage firm pounded the table for Kenton in early 1977, putting the majority of its clients in the stock at values around $4 and achieving returns of over 300% for those who held the stock through the end of 1978.

Entertainment Ventures
After a string of successes in the financial industry, Gelband diversified into film and entertainment. In 1978, he acted in and served as executive producer for the film “Towing” starring Sue Lyons, famous for her role in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film, Lolita..

Later that year, Gelband continued to expand into the entertainment industry, financing and managing, Levi and the Rockats, a British rockabilly group headed by Levi Dexter, whose two singles “Kool Kat” and “Room to Rock,” became hits in the U.S. in 1979. In April 1979, Levi and the Rockats became the first unsigned band to perform on the Merv Griffin Show. Later that year they were featured on the CBS news and in July 22nd 1979 the Los Angeles Times printed a full page story on Levi and the Rockats’ performance at the Louisiana Hayride. Gelband’s tenure as manager of the band ended on December 16th, 1979, when the group announced that they were breaking up.

Gelband followed up his engagement with Levi and Rockats with one final foray into entertainment, launching The International Greeting Company, a poetry and greeting card company, in 1980. The company achieved little financial success, but published the poetry book “Sleeping Dreams” in 1981.

Gelband & Co.
In the early 1980s, Gelband moved to New York and returned to the brokerage business. After a brief stint at Shearson Lehman where he met his wife, Denise DeShane, he decided to go out on his own, reviving the Alan Gelband & Co in 1983. Gelband has run Gelband & Co. continuously since 1983, serving as a financial advisor to numerous private equity deals in the 1980s and 1980s and re-focusing on taking companies public via SPACs and reverse mergers in the late 1990s and 2000s. Several notable deals have included:
 * Whitmire Distribution Corp. – Gelband & Co. served as the financial advisor for J.P. Morgan and Apollo’s $250 million acquisition of the Whitmire Distribution Corporation (later bought by Cardinal Distribution)
 * Five Guys – Gelband led the first equity offering for Five Guys, a Virginia-based fast casual restaurant with over 670 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
 * TheGlobe.com – Gelband received some media attention in 2003 for his investment in TheGlobe.com, a fallen internet bubble stock that made a come back in 2003, rally 6700% above its trough of $0.025 hit earlier in 2002. The Wall Street Journal noted Gelband’s prescience, reporting that Gelband was the sole shareholder to attend TheGlobe.com’s 2002 Annual shareholder’s meeting.

Association for Corporate Growth
Gelband has served as a director for the Association for Corporate Growth, a professional organization with over 12,000 members that is focused on corporate development and mergers and acquisitions, since 1989. Gelband has served a president of the ACG New York chapter and from 1992-1993 as president of ACG globally. During his term as President of the ACG, Gelband helped stabilize the financial structure of the ACG and grow the organization’s membership. In 2008, Gelband was the second recipient ever of the ACG’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Philanthropy
Gelband currently serves as a member of the Development Committee at University of Michigan Business School, where he has also funded the Alan Gelband Merit Scholarship since 1993.

Personal Life
Gelband is married to Denise DeShane, a retired teacher, and the couple has two sons in their twenties. Gelband primarily lives in New York City but owns homes in Manhattan; East Hampton, New York; and Hollywood, Florida.