Board Members

Jennifer Caruso has worked 23+ years in Equity Capital Markets with experience in both Syndicate and Execution. Jen has worked with companies in the healthcare, industrial, technology, financial, real estate, consumer, shipping and energy sectors as well as the closed end fund sector.  Jen has been actively involved with the Women’s Syndicate Association for north of 20 years.  She is very passionate about her family, friends and giving to others.  Pay it forward is first and foremost to her which is why being a part of the Women’s Syndicate Association has always been part of her career.

Gina Kashinsky is a Managing Director at S&P Global, leading the Equity Capital Markets (ECM) program within their Global Markets Group.  In this role, she is globally responsible for developing and executing the strategic vision for a comprehensive suite of solutions employed by global investment banks for capital formation. Prior to joining S&P Global, she spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs' ECM desk specializing in syndicate execution, encompassing over 1,000 deals across all sectors. Beyond her professional duties, Gina enjoys advocating for diversity and inclusion, and has served on the WSA board for nearly two decades to help with women empowerment across the financial services industry.  She holds a BBA and MBA from Hofstra University. Gina resides in Long Island, NY with her husband, and their 5 children.

CYNTHIA DIBARTOLO, ESQ. is the Founder/CEO of Tigress Financial Partners, the nation’s only disabled and woman-owned financial services firm. Tigress is a mission-driven investment bank, broker-dealer and research provider. The firm is also a NYSE Member and floor broker, offering highly ranked proprietary equity research, capital markets debt/equity underwriting, international and domestic trade execution and global distribution to more than 400 Institutional Counterparties and 20,000+ high net worth retail accounts.

She has nearly 4 decades of accomplishment-laden practice in finance, driving revenue growth and brand expansion. Her ability to set the overall strategy propelled her career at Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Citigroup. Cynthia is a 9/11 survivor who subsequently battled head and neck cancer that left her with permanent disabilities. Forbes CEO Series profiled Cynthia in the article entitled “A Tigress in a Shark Tank”, describing her as "one tenacious Tigress…her father’s words inspired her to pick herself up from tragedy and start a business. Both the woman and her story are unique, amazing and forcefully inspiring."

Cynthia outside business affiliations include:

* Chairperson - Rainbow PUSH Coalition Steering Committee for Financial Services

* Chairperson - Diversity Broker-Dealer Coalition

* Board of Consultors - Villanova Law School

* Board of Advisors - NASP

* Council Member - BNY Mellon Bank/Pershing Minority Business Enterprise Council

* Vice President - Women’s Syndicate Association

* Former Business Leader - White House Business Council

* Business Leader - New York State Governor’s Ten Points-Women’s Initiative

* Member - Small Business Majority Summit at the White House

* Chairperson - Greater NY Chamber of Commerce

Kathy is currently a Director in the Capital Markets Department of B. Riley Securities. She joined FBR when it started in 1989 and has been there since. Kathy has been a member of The Women’s Syndicate Association since 1998. In addition to WSA, Kathy has been on the Board of The Syndicate Association of America since 2016. She has also served as a board member and chair of SIFMA’s Mid Atlantic District and the University of Mary Washington’s College of Business’s Advisory Board. Kathy received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mary Washington. She’s a native of the Washington D.C. area and currently resides in Alexandria Virginia with her husband and four daughters. She enjoys her Peloton and spending time with family, friends, and pets.

Lynn Orenstein is Director, Cash Management/Capital Markets at Drexel Hamilton where she is responsible for Institutional Sales.  Within the Cash Management role, she services a diverse and growing client base that supports Drexel Hamilton’s mission to hire and train transitioning Veterans.  Orenstein joined Drexel Hamilton in 2015 as Head of Corporate Access and was named Director, Equity Syndicate in 2018.

Prior to joining Drexel Hamilton, Orenstein was an accomplished financial services professional and held various capital markets and corporate access roles at firms such as Alex. Brown, NatWest Markets, and Salomon Brothers.  Orenstein is graduate of Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York.  She serves as the Treasurer and Board Member of The Women’s Syndicate Association and is a Committee Member of 100 Women in Finance – South Florida, Miami.

Dawn M. Farrell serves as Chief Administrative Officer with B. Riley Securities, responsible for providing broad oversight and coordination between its various business units.

In addition to her role as CAO, she is focused on ensuring best-in-class execution for the firm’s Capital Markets division. A 17-year veteran of the Capital Markets, Dawn specializes in syndication, distribution, and marketing of new issue offerings with a focus on private placements for institutional clients. Her expertise includes IPOs, follow-on equity offerings, convertible offerings, PIPEs, block trades, bought deals, and cross-border transactions. In total, she has facilitated over 300 transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $86 billion for issuers across the Real Estate, Financial, Energy, Industrial, Consumer, Technology, and Healthcare sectors.

B. Riley Securities is a leading, full-service investment bank formed through the merger of B. Riley & Co. and FBR & Co. in 2017 and a wholly-owned subsidiary of B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY). Prior to joining B. Riley, Dawn worked in various institutional sales roles with Stifel Nicolas and Howe Barnes. She currently serves on the board of the Women’s Syndicate Association, which is focused on developing leadership among women in the financial services industry.

Julie Harbey is a Managing Director and Head of Syndicate at Needham & Company, where she has been responsible for the execution and distribution of hundreds of equity offerings since joining in 2015.  Prior to Needham, Julie spent over a decade at CIBC World Markets where she was a director of U.S. ECM and the U.S. Syndicate Manager.  She has nearly 2 decades of experience primarily focused on syndicate execution across a wide variety of sectors and geographies. Julie joined the WSA in 2004 and has served on the board in various roles over the last 15+ years.  She holds a B.A. in Economics from New York University.