Steve Dervenis
Co-Manager, Buttonwood Capital Management; Managing Principal of Carillon Capital; Executive Chairman, Blue Bridge Financial
Mr. Dervenis has led the mortgage and asset-backed structuring, trading, and investment banking businesses of Wall Street firms such as Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan and Barclays Capital. He also brings extensive experience with early-stage companies, developing business strategy and capital markets.
Mr. Dervenis’ executive management experience spans many high-growth businesses, products and disciplines. He has held responsibility for:
- Trading and structuring billions of dollars in residential mortgage and consumer-related securities and whole loans
- Identifying investment and securitization opportunities in Asia and Europe
- Overseeing a fixed-income portfolio
- Acquiring and integrating new business lines, new products and technology-oriented firms, both financial and non-financial
Mr. Dervenis also co-founded Carillon Capital, Buttonwood’s strategic advisory and asset/loan trading business. This boutique investment advisory firm and merchant bank has completed over $2.2 billion in transactions across various asset classes.
In late 1997, Mr. Dervenis assumed the role of President and CEO of Telebanc Capital Markets, where he was responsible for the growth and management of the bank balance sheet – then totaling $600 million in assets. By the time he left the firm in 2003, he had grown the balance sheet to over $25 billion and achieved record levels of earnings and profitability. During his tenure, the company was purchased by E*TRADE Financial, where Mr. Dervenis served as CEO of E*TRADE Global Asset Management. He had direct responsibility for building some of the most profitable endeavors within the firm, including the acquisition of a direct mortgage lender and the diversity of the balance sheet in alternative asset classes.
In 2004, Mr. Dervenis joined Stampede Holdings, a private bank holding company. With $30 million in private equity investments, Stampede Holdings’ objective was to acquire a rare distressed Industrial Loan Chartered bank, which was designed to acquire loans and syndications from lenders and depository institutions (vs. direct lending). Under Mr. Dervenis’ guidance, Stampede grew from $40 million in assets to over $250 million by the end of 2007.
Mr. Dervenis holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park.