Meet the Team

Sherina Hosein combines conventional and forward-thinking approaches and utilizes world-class technology to enhance investor engagement to lead novel ways of fundraising and investor relations at CGI. With extensive cross-sectional experience, she knows how to articulate and execute on differing strategies customized to a wide-ranging investor base.

Before joining CGI, Ms. Hosein has held leadership roles in private placements of bonds and securitized notes as well as bank syndicates up to $1 billion. She has worked with RBC (former RBTT Merchant Bank) and was a vice president with the financial group owned by billionaire Michael Lee-Chin.

Ms. Hosein was a business consultant to an international project development group. There, she advised on new investments, business and financial models, and strategic planning for diversifying the real estate portfolio into other indigenous branded businesses such as a five-star hotel, mixed use commercial and retail investment, and vehicle leasing. She had also executed some of these business plans by holding executive positions for various companies established by the group in the United Arab Emirates.

Ms. Hosein has an MBA in finance from Lincoln University (UK) and a BSc in analytical chemistry with a minor in math from the University of Toronto. Her past board positions include the State National Board (Regulatory Industries Commission) of Trinidad & Tobago, Trinidad and the Tobago Manufacturers’ Association. She is currently an advisor to KCL Capital Market Brokers.

Ileana Rabassa is the financial controller, responsible for day-to-day accounting, record keeping, and treasury management activities for the Firm and oversees the Firm’s Liquidity Committee.

During her career, Ms. Rabassa held a senior position in the real estate division for a global corporation, with $5.5 billion in annual revenue and over 20,000 employees. Thereafter, she worked for a firm focused on acquisitions and development, specifically within their hospitality department. Ms. Rabassa also oversaw the accounting for the development of a casino and a $300 million hotel for a resort-focused firm with over 700 acres of property. Prior to joining CGI, she was a corporate controller for a large development firm that specialized in multifamily and commercial projects.

Suzanne Wilder is the general counsel and DPMO with a demonstrated history of working in the investment management industry. Prior to joining CGI, Ms. Wilder was corporate counsel and executive board member of Lloyd Jones LLC, where she advised on legal and strategic matters involving the investment, management, and development of multifamily and senior properties. She led in-house endeavors, working in conjunction with outside attorneys on real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and refinances. Her work also included negotiation, review and drafting of letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, joint venture agreements, corporate governance, loan documents, and title and closing documents.

Ms. Wilder was also an associate attorney at Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne, P.A., where she represented clients in commercial and residential real estate matters, including multimillion-dollar commercial loan transactions. She drafted notes, mortgage and loan agreements, assignments of leases and rents, guaranties, borrower resolutions, and closing statements representing national lenders.

Ms. Wilder earned her Juris Doctor from St. Thomas University School of Law, where she was on the Dean’s List and was awarded a CALI Book Award in Remedies. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Nova Southeastern University, with a major in business and professional management.

Michael B. Koval was formerly chief operating officer (COO) for ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. Mr. Koval was a multi-industry management consultant working within the real estate vertical and with external medium to large organizations. In his role as a management consultant, he worked on projects for large brands such as RE/MAX, LLC. and Keller Williams Realty International, among many others.

Mr. Koval also served the role of senior vice president and chief information officer of the Long & Foster Companies. There, he was responsible for overseeing all technology services for Long & Foster and its more than 250 branch offices which span throughout the company’s seven state region and the District of Columbia. Prior to joining Long & Foster, he was a senior manager and practice leader at KPMG Consulting (currently known as BearingPoint, LLC), an international consulting company with offices in more than 125 countries.

Mr. Koval has a BSc in finance from the University of Maryland and a MSc in information technology from Johns Hopkins University.  He serves on numerous advisory boards and has attended Harvard Business School for executive level continued education.

As senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Rodolfo Slaibi is responsible for all of the company’s financial functions including accounting, audit, treasury, and corporate finance. His career is rooted with more than 25 years of varied experience in financial management, business leadership, and corporate strategy.

Before joining CGI Merchant Group, Mr. Slaibi served as vice president of finance for a large private equity fund leading the real estate division in South Florida. His work included the development of a $1 billion plus project that consists of luxury hotels, condominium towers, and retail and parking operations.

Prior to CGI Merchant Group, Mr. Slaibi also developed several years of experience in public accounting with Ernst & Young and BDO USA, dealing with both public and private companies. There, he was responsible for coordinating global consolidation of financial statements under U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards for foreign subsidiaries throughout the Americas and Europe, while involved with financial statements, disclosures, and SEC filings.

Mr. Slaibi’s professional affiliations include American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA).

Valérie Trouillot is a Managing Director at CGI Merchant Group’s Miami office.  She oversees all of CGI’s marketing and public relations initiatives. Ms. Trouillot brings more than 20 years of combined leadership experience in marketing, communications, consulting and operations across multiple international markets and diverse industry verticals, including TMT and consumer markets. Her specialties include advertising, brand management and strategic business development. 

Prior to joining CGI, Ms. Trouillot was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Boom Financial, a mobile money transfer service in the US, providing customers with prepaid Visa cards and the ability to use their mobile phones to transfer funds in the US and abroad. In that role, she was responsible for day-to-day operations as well as management of the firm. Ms. Trouillot also served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diaspora Operations the international airtime service arm of Digicel Group, a leading global communications provider. During her time at Digicel her responsibilities included business strategy, international expansion and overseeing one of Digicel’s group’s fastest and most profitable subsidiaries.  Ms. Trouillot began her career at Accenture. 

Throughout her career, Ms. Trouillot has also been an entrepreneur, co-founding one of the largest advertising agencies in Haiti and owning the South Florida market for a national franchise specializing in commercial and residential cleaning services. 

Ms. Trouillot earned her MBA at the University of Miami and her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. 

Euclid Walker has over 26 years of investment and advisory experience with Institutional & family office clients for private equity, real estate and technology opportunities. Mr. Walker is Managing Partner of Parkway Investment Management, LLC, an Investment and Advisory firm focused on alternative investment management and restructuring and capital structure advisory services headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. He is also Senior Partner and head of Private Markets for Global Oak Capital Markets, LLC a registered broker dealer and investment banking firm and founder of Opportunity Zone Advisors, LLC. He is an author and lecturer on direct alternative investing for family offices and institutional investors. Prior to founding Parkway he was a founding member of an SBIC licensed middle market investment firm with AUM of $400 million, where his responsibilities included marketing new funds and sourcing, analyzing, structuring, executing and monitoring investments from 2010-2013. He also founded Renascent Capital group in 2004 to provide strategic and capital raising advice to corporate clients and family offices. Prior to forming Renascent, Mr. Walker was an Executive Director of Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions Departments. 

He was with Morgan Stanley for over 10 years in various capacities. From 1993 until 1996, Mr. Walker worked in Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity group in New York where he focused on evaluating acquisitions for a $1.8 billion Real Estate Private Equity Fund. During this time he also advised Real Estate and lodging and leisure companies on capital raisings and Mergers and Acquisitions. He became one of two professionals in Johannesburg South Africa in 1996, where he focused on business development and the execution of complicated cross-border financings, mergers and acquisitions. While managing the Johannesburg office in 2001, Mr. Walker was asked to move to London to become the Operations Officer for Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and Banking Departments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He worked in London overseeing a major restructuring of Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance and M&A departments. He moved to Chicago in 2003 to focus on corporate finance business development and execution for important clients in the Midwest region.  

Mr. Walker is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia with a BA in Business Administration with dual concentrations in Banking Finance and Real Estate and a minor in Economics where he currently serves as chair of the  

Trusteeship committee of Morehouse’s Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Palm Beach County Investment Policy Committee, United Way of Palm Beach Finance Committee and has served on the boards of the Benjamin School, Francis W. Parker School, LEAP Africa and Africare.  

With over 25 years of investment and banking experience, Mr. Thomas knows the industry is about more than meets the eye. His approach to alternative investments is finding value where others can’t and putting capital back into the source of his success: the community.

Raoul Thomas has overseen the firm since its creation in 2006. He leads the firm in applying strategic and effective management and financing to increase the value of its commercial real estate and infrastructure investments and turn assets into Class-A, fully operational ones. With over 25 years of investment and banking experience, Mr. Thomas knows the industry is about more than meets the eye. His approach to alternative investments is finding value where others can’t and putting capital back into the source of his success: the community.

Mr. Thomas began his career as a banking regulator supervising international financial institutions licensed in the U.S., a position that enabled him to develop and nurture strong relationships worldwide. He was then recruited to undergo a “Management Development Program” at a global bulge bracket investment bank, where he worked structuring and executing large debt transactions in the global capital markets on behalf of sovereigns, public, and private corporations.

Mr. Thomas then went on to work overseas as an expatriate running the capital markets distribution platform for another global bulge bracket bank, where he spearheaded and executed successful high-profile regional transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two years later, he transitioned to the buy-side as an executive for one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, where he was involved in overseeing investments in both the private and public sectors in the Caribbean and Latin America. This experience was the catalyst behind the formation of CGI Merchant Group in 2006.

Mr. Thomas sits on the Advisor Board of a U.S. bank and is an active member of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, New America Alliance, and Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Thomas founded the Isabella Alycia Foundation (AI Foundation), an organization run by his daughter, Isabella Alycia Thomas. The AI Foundation makes a social impact in underprivileged neighborhoods and individuals through the provision of tools and capital resources.