FTAA

Failed

FTAC Athena Acquisition Corp.

Underwriter: Cantor Fitzgerald
Raised
$220M
CIK
1832696
SPAC Ticker
FTAAU
Focus
Technology, Financial Services, FinTech, Real Estate, Insurance, Ecommerce
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Betsy Z. Cohen has served as Chairman of our board of directors since November 2020 and currently serves as the Chairman of the board of directors of FinTech V, a position she has held since June 2019, Chairman of the board of directors of FinTech IV, a position she has held since May 2019, and Chairman of the board of directors of FTAC Olympus, a position she has held since June 2020. Ms. Cohen served as Chairman of FinTech III’s board of directors from March 2017 until October 2020, and as Chairman of FinTech II’s board of directors from August 2016 until July 2018. She served as a director of FinTech I and its successor, Card Connect Corp., a provider of payment processing solutions to merchants, from November 2013 until May 2017, and previously served as Chairman of the board of directors of FinTech I from July 2014 through July 2016 and as FinTech I’s Chief Executive Officer from July 2014 through August 2014. She served as Chief Executive Officer of Bancorp and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bancorp Bank, from September 2000 and Chairman of Bancorp Bank from November 2003, and resigned from these positions upon her retirement in December 2014. She served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and as a trustee of RAIT Financial Trust, a real estate investment trust, from its founding in August 1997, through her resignation as of December 31, 2010 and served as RAIT’s Chief Executive Officer from 1997 to 2006. Ms. Cohen served as a director of Hudson United Bancorp (a bank holding company), the successor to JeffBanks, Inc., from December 1999 until July 2000 and as the Chairman of the Jefferson Bank Division of Hudson United Bank (Hudson United Bancorp’s banking subsidiary) from December 1999 through March 2000. Before the merger of JeffBanks, Inc. with Hudson United Bancorp in December 1999, Ms. Cohen was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JeffBanks, Inc. from its inception in 1981 and also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of each of its subsidiaries, Jefferson Bank, which she founded in 1974, and Jefferson Bank New Jersey, which she founded in 1987. From 1985 until 1993, Ms. Cohen was a director of First Union Corp. of Virginia (a bank holding company) and its predecessor, Dominion Bancshares, Inc. In 1969, Ms. Cohen co-founded a commercial law firm and served as a senior partner until 1984. Ms. Cohen also served as a director of Aetna, Inc. (NYSE: AET), an insurance company, from 1994 until May 2018. Our board has determined that Ms. Cohen’s extensive experience in the financial services industry generally, and the financial technology industry in particular, as well as extensive experience in operating financial services companies in a public company environment, qualifies her to serve as a member of our board of directors.

Amanda J. Abrams has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since January 2021. Since January 2021 she has also served as the Chief Executive Officer of FinTech Masala, LLC, the parent company of the sponsor of FinTech II, FInTech III, FinTech IV and FinTech V, and has served as its Chief Operating Officer since January 2018. Ms. Abrams also serves as a Managing Director at Cohen & Company, Inc. (NYSE: COHN), a financial services company with approximately $2.65 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2020. Previously she served as the General Counsel of CardConnect Corp., a, a provider of integrated payment processing solutions to merchants, from April 2017 following the company’s merger with FinTech I through November 2017 following the company’s acquisition by First Data Corp. Prior to that Ms. Abrams was at Ledgewood, P.C., as a partner from 2016 to 2017 and from 2013 to 2016 as a senior attorney. Prior to that, Ms. Abrams was an attorney in the Business and Finance group at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, where she advised public and private companies in capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. Ms. Abrams also was previously an associate in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Dispute Investigations and Analysis forensic accounting group. Ms. Abrams has since October 2020 served as a board observer for Shift Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFT) following the company’s merger with INSU I.

Douglas Listman has been our Chief Financial Officer since January 2021, the Chief Financial Officer of FinTech V since October 2020, the Chief Financial Officer of FinTech IV since August 2020, and the Chief Financial Officer of FTAC Olympus since August 2020. He has served as the Chief Accounting Officer of Cohen & Company, Inc. since December 2009 and Chief Accounting Officer of Cohen & Company, LLC since 2006. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Listman served as an associate for Resources Global Professionals (a worldwide accounting services consulting firm). From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Listman served in various accounting and finance positions including: senior accountant with KPMG; Assistant Corporate Controller of Integrated Health Services (a publicly traded provider of skilled nursing services; NYSE: IHS); Controller of Integrated Living Communities (a publicly traded provider of assisted living services; NASDAQ: ILCC); Chief Financial Officer of Senior Lifestyles Corporation (a private owned provider of assisted living services); and Chief Financial Officer of Monarch Properties (a privately owned health care facility real estate investment company). Mr. Listman is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in accounting.

Daniela A. Mielke will serve as an independent director immediately upon the effective date of this prospectus. Ms. Mielke is Managing Partner of Commerce Technology Advisors, LLC, a privately held firm which she founded in 2016, and which provides consulting services to technology, financial services and private equity companies on organic and inorganic growth strategies including building payment businesses and using artificial intelligence. From 2018 to 2020, Ms. Mielke served as the North American CEO of RS2 Inc., a leading provider of payment processing services in Europe and Asia Pacific. She had responsibility for sales and marketing as well as product development and customer relationship management for the company’s operations in North America. From 2013 to 2016 Ms. Mielke was a Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Vantiv, Inc., which was at the time the largest merchant acquirer in the US. From 2010 to 2013 Ms. Mielke was the VP, Head of Global Strategy and Market Intelligence for PayPal Inc. Ms. Mielke co-founded A-Connect in 2001, a consulting firm which provides financial services and other consulting and rejoined in 2007 to establish and direct new operations for the West Coast and lead its global marketing function. From 2002 to 2007 Ms. Mielke successively served as VP of Product and SVP of Strategy and Market Intelligence at Visa International. From 1998 to 2002, Ms. Mielke was an Engagement Manager for McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm. Ms. Mielke has been a director of both The Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: TBBK), a bank holding company, and its subsidiary bank, The Bancorp Bank, since 2019. She also currently serves as a member of the board of FINCA International, a global NGO dedicated to alleviating poverty, and Nuvei (TSX: NVEI and NVEI.U), a global payment technology provider. Ms. Mielke is also a strategic advisor to Machinify, an artificial intelligence platform company, and Linquineq, a blockchain company focused banking solutions. Ms. Mielke was selected to serve on our board because of her decades of experience as an executive, founder, board member and advisor to fintech, commerce and finance companies.

Jewelle W. Bickford will serve as an independent director immediately upon the effective date of this prospectus. Ms. Bickford has had a long and storied career in investment banking. From 2013 until the end of 2020, she was a partner and wealth advisor at Evercore Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Evercore (NYSE: EVR), a global independent investment banking advisory firm, where Ms. Bickford created the firm’s Private Wealth Education programs for families. From 2009 to 2013 she developed GenSpring MultiFamily Office’s Women and Wealth program. In 1994 she merged her boutique securitization investment banking firm, Bickford & Partners, Inc., into Rothschild Inc., a multinational investment bank and financial services company. From 1994 to 2009, she was head of Debt Capital Markets at Rothschild, where she specialized in the securitization and private placement of non-mortgage assets such as leases, credit cards, auto loans and other receivables. She was also a member of NM Rothschild’s Global Banking and Treasury Committee in London. She also worked, from 1978 to 1980, for New York City Mayor Edward Koch as the Director of the Mayor’s Community Board Assistance Office. Ms. Bickford is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the founder of its Women and Foreign Policy Program, the task force that analyzes how elevating the status of women and girls advances U.S. foreign policy objectives and seeks to inform policymakers and the public on issues relevant to gender equality and U.S. foreign policy. She also currently serves on the board of EL Education, Inc., a non-profit corporation that resulted from a collaboration between The Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound USA to create new and exciting classrooms and teaching methods. Ms. Bickford is also founding member and Co-Chair of Paradigm for Parity, a group of CEOs, senior executives, corporate board members and business academics committed to achieving gender and racial parity at senior levels for women by 2030. She is also a member of the Business Committee of the Metropolitan Museum and a member of the Committee of 200. Ms. Bickford was selected to serve on our board because her extensive experience in the financial services industry, which we believe makes her a valuable addition to the board of directors.

Leah Popowich will serve as an independent director immediately upon the effective date of this prospectus. Ms. Popowich currently serves as Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the President at the University of Pennsylvania, the most recent of several positions she has held since having first joined the Office of the President in September 2000. Ms. Popowich’s primary responsibilities include serving as the President’s liaison to graduate and undergraduate students and organizations across the university, as well as managing several of the President’s international, campus, and external initiatives. Most recently, Ms. Popowich has supported the President in connection with her service on the United States Semiquincentennial Commission, the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leaders Forum, the Berggruen Institute, and the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy. She is active in several civic and philanthropic activities including support for the Philadelphia chapter of UNICEF USA and the Germantown Friends School.

Mei-Mei Tuan will serve as an independent director immediately upon the effective date of this prospectus. Ms. Tuan has been a member of the boards of directors of FTAC Olympus since August 2020, and of FinTech III from 2018 until its business combination in October 2020. Ms. Tuan is the co-founder and co-owner, managing partner and Chairman of Notch Partners LLC, a firm providing leadership capital and managed-led buyout strategies exclusively for institutional private equity funds. Ms. Tuan is also a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Phoenyx Partners LLC, a boutique search firm. As an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, BankAmerica and BankAustria, Ms. Tuan led domestic and international transactions in project finance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, syndications and sale leasebacks. Ms. Tuan’s operating experience includes serving as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at the Sierra Foundation, from 1996 through 1997, and the San Francisco Food Bank, from 1997 through 1998. Ms. Tuan is an active board member of the Gorilla Commerce, Inc., the Clara Maass Medical Center and its Foundation, The Harvard Business School Asian-American Alumnae Association and Montclair Kimberley Academy. She has been a director of both Bancorp and its wholly-owned subsidiary Bancorp Bank since 2013. In the recent past, she has served on the Boards of Friends of Thirteen (WNET), the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City (Co-Chair), the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, the New Jersey Women’s Forum, the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation and the New Jersey Network (NJN). Ms. Tuan is a member of the Committee of 100, an organization that addresses issues concerning Sino-U.S. relations. Ms. Tuan was selected to serve on our board due to her extensive investment banking experience as well as her prior experience as a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.