David Shapiro

CEO & Founder at EquiFi

Speaker

DAVID SHAPIRO, FOUNDER & CEODavid is responsible for EquiFi’s strategic vision and, along with his Executive Management team, helps run the firm’s day-to-day activities. He is a serial entrepreneur and turnaround expert, having built four businesses, two of which have been sold to Fortune 500 companies (Safeco, Wachovia Bank). In 2003, David uncovered a need for consumers to access home equity while doing research for his third book, Retirement Countdown. The book focuses entirely on needs-based problem solving for retirement and led to his creating the first shared equity co-investment product. In 2004, he founded the EARN Group to offer consumers an opportunity to access equity in their homes and an alternative to reverse mortgages, and to offer investors access to one of the largest asset classes in the world – residential real estate. David’s goal at The EARN Group, and a key component of EquiFi’s strategy, is to securitize fractional interests in homes and create a liquid secondary market akin to the MBS market.Following the Credit Crisis of 2008, and prior to founding EquiFi, David was asked to step in as CEO of The Brix Group, Inc., one of the top 15 privately held companies in the Silicon Valley. David led the turnaround of this 40+ year old holding company with two subsidiaries: American Wireless and Pana Pacific. Brix is a communications technology company that operates in the wireless, satellite, and commercial vehicle industries and under David's leadership revenues nearly doubled from $100MM to $190MM and the company generated record profits. David’s subject matter expertise spans the insurance industry, with noteworthy achievements throughout his career in the annuities and financial planning businesses. His work has reached the highest offices of this country, including being honored when Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg quoted passages from his book “Annuities” in a landmark majority opinion issued by the Supreme Court in 1995. Additionally, as a member of the Executive Board of NAVA, David created National Retirement Planning Week and stewarded a difficult approval process to secure the support of the Board and the membership, an effort that subsequently received formal recognition from President Bush