The members of the OCA Ventures team have a passion for building
early-stage companies into market leaders, have long histories working
with one another, and share common core personal and professional
beliefs, while at the same time contributing different skills and
perspectives.
This cohesive group has close business and personal relationships
dating back more than 25 years. John Dugan, Peter Ianello and Marc
Berman were partners in the 1980s when they led O’Connor &
Associates. Jim Dugan is John Dugan’s third son and Eddie Lou and Jason
Heltzer both joined the team in 2001.
John S. Stafford Jr -
Mr. Stafford is the co-founder and Board Member of Ronin Capital, LLC,
a registered broker dealer with proprietary trading operations
encompassing equity, fixed income and derivative securities. Ronin
Capital is a member of The Chicago Board Options Exchange, The Chicago
Mercantile Exchange and other U.S. principal exchanges. From 1975 to
1995, Mr. Stafford was a trader on the floor of the CBOE as an options
trader. From 1996 to 2001, he was a Managing Director of Stafford
Trading, Inc., a family business primarily involved in proprietary
trading operations and options market making. Stafford Trading,
headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, operated a market making business
and conducted proprietary trading in equities, futures and fixed income
products. At the end of 2001, portions of Stafford Trading were
purchased by TD Options, LLC. Mr. Stafford has invested in numerous
early-stage technology and biotechnology companies. Mr. Stafford
graduated from Davidson College with a BA in Economics and earned his
MBA from the University of North Carolina.