The Team
Board of Directors
Edwin Ball
Chairman & CEO
Edwin Ball is the Chairman & CEO of Socrates Capital. Mr. Ball has been active in financial services and banking since 1988 and has worked in many roles from front through back office at major banking institutions, holding various senior positions such as: Chairman of a Bank Holding Company, CEO (of a Bank, Asset Management Company and Leasing Company), COO, Managing Director - Head of Financial Institutions Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, Head of Management Information, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Director of Strategy and others at institutions including Deutsche Bank (Central Management), ABN AMRO, RBC Financial Group, Gulf Finance House, Hypo Real Estate, and Deloitte.
Mr. Ball has held numerous board and committee memberships including: Member of the Management Board of a German bank,(CEO); CEO and Member of the Management Boards of subsidiaries- Leasing Asset Management, Member of the European Management Committee, Operating Committee and European Banking Risk Committee at RBC, Member of Executive Management Committee, Board Executive Investment Committee, Board Audit and Risk Committee, Board Remuneration and Nomination Committee, ALCO, and Operating Committees of Gulf Finance House as well as Chairman of GFH UK and GFH Sukuk Limited.
Mr.Ball has been involved in the origination of transactions in excess of $25 billion USD and has listed financial institutions on European and Asian Stock Exchanges, both in an advisory capacity and as management of banks being listed. He has managed P&L in excess of €5 billion per annum. Mr. Ball holds an MBA, International Finance and Management from the European University and a BA from the University of Toronto.
James Lockhart III
Non-Executive Board Member
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James B. Lockhart III is a retired American business executive and U.S. Navy officer. He recently worked as Vice Chairman of WL Ross & Co. LLC (subsidiary of Invesco) which managed $9 billion of private equity investments, a hedge fund and a Mortgage Recovery Fund. He also coordinated all WL Ross's investments in financial services firms and mortgage businesses.
Prior to WL Ross & Co. LLC, Mr. Lockhart served in the US Government in a series of Presidential-appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. He was the Director (CEO) and Chairman of the Oversight Board of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. He assumed that position with the signing of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act on July 30, 2008. He was also the Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which is now part of FHFA and was nominated to that position by President George W. Bush.
Mr. Lockhart also served on the Financial Stability Oversight Board from its inception in 2008, which was set up to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program which was chaired by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and had as its other members the Secretaries of the Treasury and HUD, and the Chair of the SEC. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Lockhart served as The Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the Social Security Administration and as Secretary to the Social Security Board of Trustees. From 1989-1993, he was a member of President Bush's Management Council and its Executive Committee and served in President George H.W. Bush's Administration as Executive Director (CEO) of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). In 1997, Mr. Lockhart co-founded and served as managing director of NetRisk Inc., a risk management software and consulting firm since acquired by Fitch Risk Management.
In 1996, Mr. Lockhart served as Senior Vice President, Finance, at National Reinsurance (acquired by General Reinsurance), Managing Director, Smith Barney Investment Banking, Financial Institutions Group and Co-Head of its Private Equity Group (1993–1995), Vice President and Treasurer of Alexander & Alexander (1981–1989) and Assistant Treasurer of Gulf Oil in Europe and the U.S. (1974–1981). Mr. Lockhart served as a member of the American Benefits Council's Board of Directors and on the Advisory Board to the Task Force for the Critical Review of the U.S. Actuarial Profession.
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He served as a director of VG (Virgin Group) Acquisition Corp. from October 2020 until June 2021 when it merged with 23 and Me.
He also served on the boards of Virgin Money (UK) from 2010 to 2015, Cascades Bancorp from 2011 to 2017, and Sun Bancorp from 2017 to 2018 as well as five private mortgage companies during that period.
Mr. Lockhart joined the Navy in 1969 where he served as the Supply Officer on the Nuclear Ballistic Submarine USS George Washington Carver. He graduated from Yale University in 1968 and he received a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1974.
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Nick Thadaney
Non-Executive Board Member
Nicholas Thadaney is the Founder of Partners Capital Corp and currently serves as a director on the boards of Grayhawk Investment Strategies, INX Ltd, DVX Capital Markets, Canadian Council of the Americas and JA (Junior Achievement) Canada.
Until February 2018, Mr. Thadaney was President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Equity Capital Markets and a member of the senior management team of TMX Group, the ninth-biggest stock exchange in the world by market cap. In his roles with TMX Group, Mr. Thadaney was responsible for all equity listing and trading activity across the company’s equities markets and alternative trading systems, including the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, Alpha, TMX Select, and TSX Private Markets. He also oversaw TSX Trust - TMX Group's transfer agency and corporate trust services provider.
Prior to joining TMX Group in 2015, Mr. Thadaney was Chief Executive Officer of ITG Canada Corp. He was responsible for managing all aspects of the business, as well as being a Member of ITG’s Global Executive Committee. He joined ITG Canada as Director of Sales and Trading in 2000. Before his tenure at ITG, Mr. Thadaney was Vice-President, Business Development Equities at C.T. Securities Inc., which was acquired by TD Securities Inc. in 1999.
Mr. Thadaney has been a member of several other industry associations, boards and registered charities, including: Bermuda Stock Exchange, CanDeal, Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Investment Industry Association of Canada, Mount Sinai Hospital Asset Management Industry Hold’em for Life Charity (Co-Chair), Toronto Financial Service Alliance, Young Presidents Association (Ontario Chapter) and the World Federation of Exchanges SME Advisory Board. Mr. Thadaney earned a BA in Economics from York University in Toronto, Canada.
Major General John F. Wharton
(US Army Ret)
Non-Executive Board Member,
Chairman of Fund Investment Committee
General Wharton has served the Nation for more than three decades and has extensive experience in leadership, technology, acquisition, and logistics. He is currently a public and private sector advisor to numerous industries, universities, and governments. His focus is on technology acceleration in support of national priorities and homeland security. John also serves as Senior Advisor at The Chertoff Group and advises many U.S. Government Departments and Agencies.
In his last military assignment, General Wharton served as Commanding General of the United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. There he led 13,800 scientists, engineers, and support personnel at more than 100 global locations controlling 75% of the Army’s R&D budget. While there, he won and led 5 of the 7 President of the United States (POTUS) National Manufacturing Innovative Institutes, a program to stimulate the nation’s economy by rapid technology development and transfer. He also ran the Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics (STEM), the Army’s Educational Outreach Programs (AEOP), HBCU, Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for the Army and had over 1,500 cooperative research and development agreements with universities and over 1,000 with industry.
Before RDECOM, he served as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Sustainment Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois responsible for global sustainment and industrial base of Army, Joint and Coalition forces and logistics for the Army’s 82 bases and installations. Prior to that he was the Chief of Staff at the U.S. Army Materiel Command in Huntsville, Alabama where he coordinated across the staff and major subordinate commands with an operating budget over $49 billion, contracts more than $96 billion, and foreign military sales more than $133 billion. He also oversaw industrial base operations of the Army’s Contracting Commands, Security Assistance, Communications and Electronics, Aviation and Missile, and Tank and Automotive Commands, among others. He also served as Commanding General, AMC-Southwest Asia/U.S. Army Central G-4/Combined Forces Land Component Command C-4 for OPERATIONS IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM.
He remains highly active in national programs, nation building and technologies across all sectors to include infrastructure, energy, transportation, agriculture, healthcare, and telecommunications. Internationally, he advises and develops strategies for countries to position them and assure their economic stability and future. He is widely known in the U.S. Department of State, USAID, and the United Nations for his work in support of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development goals, nation building, peacekeeping, and peacemaking operations. General Wharton has a degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY and a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United States Naval War College at Newport, RI.
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Executive Team
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Our executive team comprises over 300 years of senior banking, asset management, investment, Fintech and private equity experience. Members of our team are industry leaders and have performed the following functions:
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CEO, Bank
CEO, Asset Management
CEO, Leasing
CEO, Real Estate
CFO, Fund management
CFO, Bank (Group and division)
COO, Bank
Chief Risk Officer, Bank
CEO, Private Equity
MD, Sovereign Wealth Fund
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Operating responsibilities included all aspects of managing banks and investments/holdings. Experience in the following skills:
M&A, Corporate Finance, Investment Management, Valuations, Operations, IT, HR, Finance, Fund management, Sales, Relationship management, Capital Markets (Debt and Equities), IPOs, Debt and Equity issuance, Advisory, Private Banking, Payments, Credit lending, as well as other aspects of banking, real estate and investments.
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To contact one of our team members, please email contact@socratescapital.com
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Managing, Director, Banks
Managing Director, Insurance
Managing Director, Risk Management
Senior Director, Finance and Asset Management
Senior Director, Business Development
Director, Investor Relations
Director, HR,
Director, Operations
Director, IT
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