Executive Advisory Council

Chris Ricciardi is Chief Executive Officer of Cohen & Company. Previously, he was a Managing Director and Global Head of Secured Credit Products (“SCP”) for Merrill Lynch, responsible for the origination, structuring, and marketing of all CDOs, Structured Funds and Exotic Credit Derivatives. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in April of 2003, Mr. Ricciardi was a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Secured Credit Products at CSFB. During the three years he was at CSFB, the firm was the top-ranked underwriter of CDOs. CSFB was also consistently the top underwriter of CDOs backed by structured products often with market share in excess of 25%. Merrill Lynch was the top global underwriter of CDOs in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Mr. Ricciardi began his career at Prudential Securities as a trader of mortgage and asset backed securities.

He earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a CFA charter holder.

450 Park Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Telephone: (212) 735-5062
Fax: (866) 655-2420
Email: cricciardi@cohenandcompany.com