Marianne Camille Spraggins
President Buy Hold America

Marianne Camille Spraggins is President of Buy Hold America, a consulting company devoted to introducing AIC, Ltd., a minority owned money management firm, into the U.S. institutional money management market. Founded 17 years ago by Jamaican-born entrepreneur Michael Lee-Chin, AIC is Canada’s largest privately held mutual fund money management company with over $9 billion assets under management and 1 million mutual fund shareowners. Prior to this she was Chief Executive Officer of ALICIA (Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Investment Advisors), the asset management subsidiary of the Atlanta Life Financial Group that, at 97, is the oldest African American stock owned insurance company in America.

Ms. Spraggins, a veteran of Wall Street for the past twenty years, began her career in mortgage finance at Salomon Brothers by assisting commercial banks, thrift institutions savings and loan associations and governmental agencies, such as G.N.M.A. and F.H.L.M.C., in securitizing over $2 billion of mortgage assets for institutional and pension fund investors. In 1990, while in the Municipal Division of Smith Barney Shearson, she became the first African American female managing director on Wall Street. Her vast experience includes municipal finance at Prudential Securities where she managed the Public Finance Division’s Metropolitan New Group, W.R. Lazard, where she was Co-Chair and CEO of a minority-owned underwriting and asset management business and Smith Whiley & Co., a private equity and mezzanine debt investment firm where she was a Senior Managing Director.

An attorney admitted to practice in New York, she began her career at New York Law School as an Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School and the Director of its Urban Legal Studies Fellowship Program.

Ms. Spraggins received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a J.D. from the New York Law School and a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University. Ms. Spraggins was
admitted to the Bar of the State of New York in 1977

A native New Yorker, she serves on a variety of Boards including FuturePac, a political action committee devoted to electing African American women to statewide and federal
offices, Ft. Valley State College in Ft. Valley, Ga., Count-Me-In, the only online microlending organization for women and the Historic District Development Corp. in Atlanta, Ga. Ms. Spraggins also has served on several governmental commissions including the DeWind Commission on Banking, Insurance and Financial Services, and Governor Cuomo's Task Force on Consumer and Mortgage Banking. Ms. Spraggins is a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee. She was formerly a member of the Board of Directors of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York Law School and the Apollo Theater Foundation where she chaired the Restoration Committee. She was confirmed by the United States Senate and appointed by President Clinton as a Director of S.I.P.C., The Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which insures brokerage accounts against broker dealer failure.

She is a frequent speaker on the topics of minority entrepreneurship, domestic emerging markets, small business and capital accessibility.