Joseph Safina began his career as an investment banker in 1987. By 1989 he co-founded Barclay & Co. Inc., a New York based investment banking firm. Joseph served as Vice President of Barclay and was the top retail/institutional producer. Joseph also served on the approval board for underwritings and was a key part of researching, structuring, and syndicating both private and public offerings. He later sold his interest in Barclay & Co. and joined Gruntal & Co., as Senior Vice President. While at Gruntal he was involved in multi million-dollar stock and bond offerings and was one of the top producers nationwide. Joseph then founded Safina Investments Inc., which became Nichols, Safina, Lerner & Co. Inc. (NSL). As C.E.O. of NSL, Joseph navigated the firm from a start up firm to a company with over two hundred employees in three different offices. NSL participated in over a billion dollars in financings with syndicate partners such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Solomon Brothers and several other well-known Investment Banking firms. Joseph and his team of experts where regulars on CNBC’s Buy, Sell and Hold, Tech Talk, Power Lunch, Bloomberg television and radio. During his tenure at NSL he was honored in the Who’s Who Registry for outstanding performance as a C.E.O, “The Winners Circle II” by R.J. Shook as one of the top ten Investment Bankers in the country, CNBC’s Power Lunch and in the “Robb Report”. Joseph negotiated the sale of NSL to a Malaysian conglomerate in 1996. Since then, Joseph has been sort after by all types of publicly and privately held companies as well as securities underwriters to consult on special situations requiring his extensive investment banking experience and relationships in the investment banking community. Joseph is also a professional race car driver and has driven for Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, Lola and Ford. Joseph has several wins and podiums to his name including the prestigious 24 Hours at Daytona and the 12 Hours at Sebring. His passion for flying aircraft sparked the formation of Northstar Aviation a jet leasing company which he still has an equity stake in. In 2003 Joseph formed “The Sound Villa” and “Pure Entertainment”. Music has always been a passion for Joseph, so it was a natural transition. Within twelve months Joseph made Pure Entertainment a true force in the record business, forging relationships with the major labels as well as radio and production teams throughout the US and abroad.
