Backbone Funder’s team development plans include:
Remote and hybrid employees, fractional employees, contract partners and client services teams.
Workspace nodes or hubs, distribution and storage facilities, i.e., asset management, project management centers, when and where required.
Christianne Carin, inventor, Co-Founder and CEO of Backbone Funder, has designed proprietary financial technologies, a funding ecosystem that utilizes a SEC registered securities exchange specifically designed to economically invigorate the bottom 60% of economies.
Backbone Funder’s ecosystem provides impact investors with liquidity, online retail investors with a registered trading platform, and creatives, startups, innovators, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and communities with a viable source of funding.
Our passion is to build the Backbone Funder team and lead “The Funding Transformation” by channeling impact investments to fund innovators’ works and projects.
Christianne, an award-winning serial entrepreneur and inventor, has experience in all the Backbone Funder’s sectors. She is experienced founder, builder, CFO, and CEO of several companies, and as board member including Chair and Vice Chair of private, public entities, and nonprofits.
Christianne founded Stellars in 2011 and spent the last 11-years in asset management in renewables, agri-food and production, project development, art dealership and curation, software, technology development and innovation. Christianne began designing several new software systems in 2016 that together form the basis of Backbone Funder’s intellectual property.
In 2019 Christianne advanced her design of the radical, proprietary end-to-end software platform. Since then she has made significant advancements and leads the implementation of the disruptive Backbone Funder ecosystem in today’s marketplace environment.
Christianne is a successful originator-inventor of 28 global patents, many commercialized, and currently has numerous inventions held by Stellars, including the Backbone Funder technologies.
Richard Rivera is Backbone Funder’s Co-Founder and Creative Director, and Co-Owner of Stellars LLC.
Richard is a native New Yorker and graduate from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has worked as an artist, photographer, graphic designer and writer in New York's publishing, advertising, film, and illustration industries for over 30 years.
A talented painter illustrator, and self-taught photographer, his eclectic interests in the creative economy range from visual arts to graphic novels and comic books to photography and film. He is the author and photographer of the unpublished biography of the American sculptor Jacob Lipkin (1909 to 1996) “Creative Obsession,” and his fine art photography book, “Fluent In Color.”
Richard is a prolific fine artist and photographer with a legacy of over 5,000 works, including photographs in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
Richard’s inspired and spirited writing of 70+ book reviews for the “New York Journal of Books” was highly praised by their editor. His reviews exhibit critical thinking in the fields of nonfiction writing, photography, art and graphics.
Richard also co-produced and co-wrote the award-winning cable television series, “Talk Fiction,” and was the stills-photographer on the set on several independent films.
Richard works with creatives to preserve their long term legacies as digital and physical assets. He has invented a proprietary technology for a digital preservation system that will be integrated into Backbone Funder’s asset management Platform.
Sam Hillier is the Director of Asset Management at Backbone Funder. Sam is responsible for oversight and planning the implementation of Backbone Funder’s proprietary asset management framework on behalf of clients through automation with a strategic focus on asset preservation, valuation, promotion, digitization, securitization through to monetization via multiple IPOs.
Sam is a seasoned financial professional with more than 20 years of experience across asset classes and geographies. He began his career at Cambridge Associates, an institutional investment consulting firm.
Sam then worked as an equity analyst for Cohen & Company before transitioning to an investment banking role, raising capital for banks and insurance companies.
After Cohen & Company, he became the Head of Credit for SEI Investments’ fixed income portfolio management team, evaluating investment grade bonds and leading a team of credit analysts.
During Sam’s tenure at SEI Investments, Sam embraced the concepts of ESG and sustainable investing and incorporated ESG factors into fundamental credit analysis. He also worked to create model portfolios for fixed income impact investments.
As SEI established a formal sustainable investing practice, Sam became the firm's first dedicated ESG investing professional, leading the evaluation of sub-advisors’ approach to ESG integration and impact investing.
Using Sam’s background in structured credit and passion for ESG investing, Sam joined dv01, Inc., a fintech firm focused on the securitization market, to spearhead the development and commercialization of an ESG data and analytics tool for loan securitization.
After Fitch Solutions acquired dv01, Inc., Sam joined Blue Dot Capital, an ESG and impacting investing consulting firm, to lead the firm's credit business.
The Backbone Funder team will comprise hybrid and remote employees, and contract partners. We have sourced and continue to source initial contract partner services.
Backbone Funder’s current contract partners include:
A sustainability executive search and recruitment service in the finance, private equity, asset management firms, and private funds.
IP counsel including policies and framework of services for our innovator and creative clients.
Designing and planning of an IT and cybersecurity overarching framework that will encompass the proprietary end-to-end Backbone Funder Platforms and other operations.
Back office expertise in technical accounting from startup to high growth, including SOX and Internal Audit services, direct hire, interim support, multiple IPO services, and risk advisory.
Legal services on behalf of our investment clients for the creation of special purpose entities as required for monetization of their works or projects via IPOs on our securities exchange, and ongoing work with the SEC on our behalf as required.
And other contract partners in the pipeline to be added soon.
Gloria Mirrione is the Executive Director & Head of Sustainable Finance & Impact Investing at Acre Recruitment Inc., a global benefit corporation, New York. As Board Advisor to Backbone Funder, Gloria is assisting us with the development of our Impact Asset Fund.
Acre is the global market leader for sustainability executive search and recruitment services, exclusively focused on integrating sustainability and catalyzing positive change across business, finance, and energy.
Operating from offices in London, New York, Amsterdam, and Singapore, Acre became a certified B-Corp in 2022. This recognition was achieved through a high level of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
Acre's dedicated sustainable finance team has completed over 450 searches in the last two years across private equity and debt funds, asset owners, banks, insurers, investment managers, real estate, and infrastructure investors, foundations, and NGOs.
Our unparalleled understanding of these markets helps us deliver strategic hires and build teams to develop our clients’ investment and operational capabilities – many of whom are at the forefront of developing new financial products and investment strategies in areas such as infrastructure, decarbonization, natural capital solutions, impact investing and gender equality.
Acre is partnering with Backbone Funder to attract market-leading talent to help bring its purpose to life; to create an impact funding ecosystem that supports diversity and inclusion and transforms communities to maximize impact.
Joe Talley is a partner with the Technical Accounting group at SOAProjects, California. Joe is a retired Audit partner Audit Partner and Technology Industry - Professional Practice Director, with Deloitte's Silicon Valley Technology Industry practice, serving venture-backed and publicly-held technology companies and has more than 40 years of private sector, audit, and consulting experience in several industries including technology and manufacturing.
Joe is a retired Audit Partner and Technology Industry - Professional Practice Director, with Deloitte's Silicon Valley Technology Industry practice, serving venture-backed and publicly-held technology companies and has more than 40 years of private sector, audit, and consulting experience in several industries including technology and manufacturing.
SOAProjects, Inc. provides business planning, bookkeeping and technical accounting services to Backbone Funder under the lead of their partner Joe Talley.
SOAProjects provides a comprehensive range of services to help businesses thrive in today’s ever-evolving landscape, with expertise in technical accounting, SOX and Internal Audit services, cybersecurity, NetSuite, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and data analytics, direct hire, interim support, IPO services, and risk advisory.
Sara Hanks is the Co-founder and CEO of CrowdCheck Law, Alexander, Virginia, an experienced corporate and securities attorneys with a deep background in all types of securities offerings.
Sara Hank’s prior positions include service at the Securities and Exchange Commission and some of the world’s most prestigious law firms.
Sara is an attorney with over 40 years of experience in the corporate and securities field. Sara brings a wealth of legal expertise in securities law and start-ups to the emerging marketplace for online capital formation. She holds a Series 65 securities license as a registered investment adviser.
Under the lead of Sara Hanks, CrowdCheck provides legal services to Backbone Funder that include its fundraising via Regulation D Rule 506(c), representation to the SEC, due diligence, disclosure and compliance.
CrowdCheck provides Backbone Funder supervision and guidance through the process of asset monetization and securitization of Backbone Funder portfolio to IPOs on Backbone Funder's securities exchange.
Prior to founding CrowdCheck, Sara was General Counsel of the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Sara began her legal career in the London office of Norton Rose Fulbright. She later joined the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Chief of the Office of International Corporate Finance led the team drafting the regulations that put into place a new generation of rules governing the capital-raising process and the way in which non-U.S. companies accessed the U.S. capital markets.
While at the law firm Clifford Chance, Sara advised on capital markets transactions and corporate matters for companies throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Sara received her law degree from Oxford University and is a member of the New York and DC bars and a retired Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
Sara served several terms on the Steering Committee of the Corporation, Finance and Securities Section of the DC Bar. She was previously the Vice-Chair of the International Securities Sub Committee of the ABA Business Law Section and Co-Chair of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.
Dave is the principal of the Law Office of David H. Faux, P.C. (“DHF-Law”) based in midtown Manhattan, N.Y. for almost two decades.
Dave serves as IP Counsel at Backbone Funder. Dave is designing and planning the development of a legal framework focused on client services, including policies on copyright protection, royalties, licensing, benefits, Internet and AI infringement, contractual agreements, and other legal matters designed to preserve the value of innovators’ and creatives’ works and projects.
Dave serves as Of Counsel to the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, and DG Copyright Management. He represents nationally acclaimed novelists, and iconic photographers, as well as performance artists, multimedia artists, musicians, and fashion designers of international renown.
He’s spoken throughout the United States, including a copyright presentation given to 500 lawyers attending a day of panels at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
He edited and contributed to “The American Bar Association’s Legal Guide to Fashion Design,” published by the American Bar Association. He also wrote the chapter on “Fashion Law” for “Seigel on Entertainment Law,” a legal treatise published by the New York State Bar Association.
Wes Stillman is the founder of WesTech LLC, Kansas, an IT and Cybersecurity with a focus on the finance industry.
Under the lead of Wes Stillman, WesTech LLC provides services to Backbone Funder that include the custom design and plans for BFC’s proprietary overarching framework. These services requires creating methodologies that support software and AI development and integration, cybersecurity, online securities trading systems, and client interface and services.
WesTech is assisting to optimize Backbone Funder’s technical vision for efficiency and productivity with a special focus on client services and remote and hybrid team collaboration for both clients and staff.
Prior to WesTech, Wes was the Chief Executive Officer of RightSize Solutions, which he founded in 2002 and which was acquired by Visory’s predecessor, Swizznet, in 2020.
Wes recognizes that RIAs need a relatable technology partner that understands how to address their unique need for security and operational flexibility with how they run their businesses.
Previously, Wes worked with broker dealers, trust companies, community banks and other financial institutions, holding senior positions at National Advisors Trust Company, FSB, Comdisco, Midwest Consulting Group and Yellow Technology Services.
Wes Stillman is deeply committed to helping investment advisors and other organizations use technology as a differentiator to compete and grow.