BUSINESS & LEGAL

NIA STEFANY, Attorney, Investment Banker

Ms. Stefany is a Managing Partner and a founder of Xnergy. She brings to Xnergy a distinguished career of over 12 years of accomplished experience in mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, finance, business management, and law. Her experience extends from startups to New York Stock Exchange-listed companies and over a diverse range of industries including advertising and marketing, communications, computer hardware and software, consumer products, e-commerce, entertainment, financial services, Internet, manufacturing, multimedia, restaurants, technology, and venture capital. She has extensive experience in acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, roll-ups, private placements, and venture capital financings.
Ms. Stefany has successfully formed, acquired, managed, developed and sold several companies in the consumer products, technology, and specialty services industries and a national franchise business. As chief executive officer of these companies, she has been responsible for management of all aspects of businesses, including strategic planning, structuring, finance, operations, product development, marketing, and sales.
Ms. Stefany has held several senior management positions and has especially strong experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, operational improvement, and business development. She was a senior executive in the mergers and acquisitions department of a New York Stock Exchange listed company.
Ms. Stefany was a mergers and acquisitions, securities, and corporate attorney with a major Beverly Hills, California law firm, where she was responsible for negotiating, structuring, documenting, and closing mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, dispositions, public and private equity and debt financings, and franchising. Her clients ranged in size from large, international corporations to small startups. She worked with financial institutions, venture capitalists, investment bankers, and securities firms throughout Southern California.
She is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, the Los Angeles Venture Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the California State Bar, and the Beverly Hills, San Diego, and Los Angeles County Bar Associations. She is also active in other professional, charitable and civic organizations.

POLLIE GAUSCH, Trademark & Licensing Attorney

Pollie Gautsch created G&&A Legal, a firm with a specialty niche of trademarks because of the importance of the protection of intellectual property. Trademarks are significant assets for the companies that own and use them. G&&A Legal has the infrastructure necessary to cope with the critically important deadlines involved in a trademark registration practice. Pollie Gautsch offers much more than the typical lawyer, she delivers sound legal counsel and in-depth expertise in intellectual property law.
Ms. Gautsch is a California licensed attorney with extensive experience in corporate legal work. She began her career as a trademark specialist at an international intellectual property law firm and transitioned into Akkadix Corporation, a La Jolla based agricultural biotech company as a Corporate Counsel specializing in intellectual property, employment and corporate governance. Ms Gautsch continued her career advancements by becoming a Senior Corporate Counsel for The Upper Deck Company, LLC, a large sports and entertainment publishing company.
As Senior Corporate Counsel, she headed the company’s fraud investigation team protecting valuable brands; managed the intellectual property group, handling the company’s over 2,500 trademarks and its large patent and copyright portfolio. Additional she also negotiated and drafted license agreements with licensors including Disney, Nickelodeon, Marvel and DC Comics, and advised all departments of the company with their legal needs including human resources, executive, operations, facilities, manufacturing, purchasing, finance, travel, and sports and entertainment licensing.
She is a member of the California and San Diego Bar Associations, International Trademark Association, The Lawyers Club, and the American Corporate Counsel Association.

RICHARD ROSENTHAL, Production Attorney

Richard Rosenthal has been practicing law for over 22 years and currently maintains an entertainment transactional and litigation practice in Los Angeles. He represents independent producers, writers, actors, directors and managers, both in film and television and also handles publishing, theater, and animation clients. He has served as production counsel for many films and has negotiated acquisition agreements and distribution deals with major studios and distributors and P&A deals for independent films.