Our People
Carrie Schneidman
Co-CCO (Chief Compliance Officer)
Dennis Azary
Co-CCO (Chief Compliance Officer) and FinOp
Juan Pablo Novoa
Director of Digital Engagement
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Thomas Carroll
Founder & CEO
Tom has been an active private asset investor for well over a decade. After a successful career on Wall Street, he founded Ballast Rock in 2018 as a vertically integrated real estate investment firm.
By building an exceptional team and leveraging their collective experience in risk mitigation, operational excellence, regulatory compliance and with a relentless focus on our investors, Tom and the team have grown Ballast Rock into a diversified financial services company. Ballast Rock currently comprises:
- Ballast Rock Asset Management: both real estate and venture capital asset management, empowering individual investors with democratized access to private investments;
- Ballast Rock Capital: a FINRA regulated broker/dealer;
- Ballast Rock Private Wealth: an SEC registered investment advisor providing bespoke wealth management advice; and
- The Ballast Rock Foundation: a charitable foundation focused on alleviating housing insecurity in our community.
Prior to founding Ballast Rock, Tom spent fourteen years working in finance. Most recently, he concluded nine years at Goldman Sachs & Co. as a trading desk head on the New York Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities trading floor. His international career at both Goldman Sachs and HSBC, led him to live and work in New York, London, Dubai, and Sao Paulo. He has headed multiple desks primarily focused on structured finance, complex derivative transaction execution, and institutional investor marketing.
Tom lives in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife and two young children. He received an MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Licenses: Series 24, 7 & 63
Simon O'Shea
Co-Founder and CIO
Based in Charleston, Simon O’Shea directs investment and strategy for Ballast Rock, leveraging his almost two decades in a variety of leadership roles at Morgan Stanley, Lloyds and BNP Paribas.
Simon has spent his career covering some of the largest Global Institutional Investment Managers and has a deep understanding of raising and deploying capital.
Before moving into banking Simon qualified as an actuary with KPMG, where he worked in their non-life Actuarial practice. He also spent time in KPMG's management consultancy practice, advising organizations on optimizing systems, processes, change management and project management.
Licenses: Series 7 & 63
Mike Schmansky
Chief Financial Officer, Ballast Rock
Mike Schmansky responsibilities as CFO of Ballast Rock include maintaining accounting records, producing financial reports and helping analyze potential acquisitions for all Ballast Rock funds. Mike is also responsible for supporting the CEO of our in-house property management division Sunbelt Properties. Mike has been the CFO for Watermark Partners Real Estate since 2016 and brings this experience to Ballast Rock.
Mike is a Certified Public Accountant and has held multiple roles as finance director at leading digital technology companies before entering the real estate sector. Prior to that, he spent nearly ten years working in Ernst & Young's Advisory Services practice, both in Detroit and in Frankfurt, Germany, focusing on building best in class finance organizations. Mike is an active real estate investor personally and professionally. Mike holds a BA in Accounting from Michigan State University. He also holds his MS in Accounting from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University.
Nate Lewis
Co-Founder and General Counsel
Nate has more than 20 years’ experience in real estate and corporate legal matters. Before joining Ballast Rock, Nate has been the General Counsel for Watermark Partners Real Estate since 2018 and brings this experience to Ballast Rock. Prior to this he served as Vice President and General Counsel for a privately-held real estate owner/operator where he closed hundreds of acquisitions, dispositions and financing events, oversaw litigation and advised the company on general corporate and structuring matters. Nate is a graduate of Hillsdale College and the Ave Maria School of Law.