Our Team
James B. Rybakoff, President and CEO – Mr. Rybakoff is a Co-Founder of Akin Bay. He has led Akin Bay’s transaction teams since 1993, spearheading the firm’s client development, origination and execution efforts for over 60 transactions. From 1999-2001, Mr. Rybakoff was a co-founder, equity sponsor and CFO of Ceres Capital LLC. Ceres Capital LLC managed over $1 billion in capital before it was sold in 2002. From 1990-1992, Mr. Rybakoff was associated with a merchant bank focused on mergers and acquisitions, for several of Australia’s largest conglomerates. During this period, he worked on merger & acquisition and financial advisory assignments for: Pacific Dunlop, Western Mining Ltd., GNB Batteries, Office Depot and Eastman Office Products. In 1990, Mr. Rybakoff was associated with R.D. Capital, Inc. / ADCO Group, Inc, New York City, a private equity hedge fund focused on acquiring distressed real estate. At R.D. Capital he advised on several large commercial real estate acquisitions. Mr. Rybakoff is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania /The Wharton School of Business. Mr. Rybakoff has served as a director of several private companies and a director for over 10 years of a public company.
Vaud E. Massarsky, Managing Director of Business Development – Mr. Massarsky is responsible for establishing all new relationships associated with Akin Bay’s Growth Partners alliance program with specialty consulting firms. He has over 30 years experience in management consulting and advising major US and foreign corporations. He has an extensive background in the following industries: defense, office/business products, consumer products, heavy and light manufacturing, electric power generation and distribution, healthcare delivery systems, high-tech R&D, newsprint & media publishing, applied artificial intelligence, hospitality, gaming and entertainment. Some of Mr. Massarsky’s clients have included: IBM, 3M, North American Phillips, Bunge Corp., Boeing, Stroh's Brewery, International Harvester, Caterpillar, DuPont, Marubeni IIDA, Ricoh, Olivetti, State of Georgia, Citibank, conEdison, Houston Light & Power, Pacific Gas & Electric, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Xerox and Coopers & Lybrand. He is the author/editor of over 100 white papers and research studies on strategic business issues commissioned by CEOs/boards of numerous Fortune 500 companies. From 1995 to the present, he has also served as President of New Product Development Consortium (“NPDC”), New York, a membership organization vehicle for a group of 112 “angel” members/investors focused on start-up, high growth businesses. In the mid-1990’s he was engaged by The Futures Group, a Connecticut based scenario-strategic consulting firm, as Managing Director in charge of developing alliances with other sector-specific consulting firms to develop new business. His work resulted in 27 such new alliances; The Futures Group was subsequently acquired by Deloitte Touche in 1998. Mr. Massarsky holds a BA degree from Columbia College of Columbia University and attended the University of Virginia School of Law. He was senior law clerk to the Presiding Judge of the California Supreme Court, San Francisco.
Peter T. Bepler, II, Senior Vice President – Mr. Bepler is Akin Bay's in house council. He is primarily responsible for all agreements, structuring documentation, interaction with all law firms and compliance with all regulatory agencies. Mr. Bepler joined Akin Bay in 1993. From 1979 to 1989, Mr. Bepler was Vice President and General Counsel of Corporate Property Investors, New York, a privately-held equity real estate investment trust with aggregate real estate assets in excess of $3.0 billion, where he participated, among other transactions, in the acquisition of The General Motors Building in 1981 and of a number of major shopping center portfolios. Prior to 1979, Mr. Bepler was associated with the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell where he worked on, among other transactions, the first public offering in the United States by Imperial Chemical Industries Limited and the project financing of the Itaipú project in Brazil, the world's largest hydroelectric facility to date. He is a graduate of Fordham College, the University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar and an Arthur Garfield Hayes Civil Liberties Fellow.
Ambrose A. Carr, Jr., Director of Research - Mr. Carr was employed by IBM for 33 years. His experience with IBM included programming, systems design and corporate sales. As Director of Industry Relations he was the IBM key representative to ADAPSO, the Computer Dealers & Lessors Association and the American Society of Computer Dealers. He also served as a board member of ADAPSO. Mr. Carr has been associated with Akin Bay Company since 1995.
Parag M. Kulkarni, Associate – Mr. Kulkarni joined Akin Bay in January 2008 as an Associate in Mergers & Acquisitions and investments by Akin Bay’ private equity fund, CPVEF I. Prior to joining Akin Bay, Mr. Kulkarni was associated with Altria Group in its Corporate Technology group. For over 13 years, Mr. Kulkarni developed internal corporate systems at Altria in the areas of executive compensation, self-service portals and ERP systems. In his latest role, he was a managing member of the governance board to oversee outsourced operations. Mr. Kulkarni is an electronics engineer with a Management Graduate degree in Finance from NYU Stern School of Business. In addition, he has passed the CFA Level I exam in June 2007.