Frank E. Barnes III

Mr. Barnes has extensive experience and financial expertise in defense and military; media/information; real estate; maritime transportation, energy, etc. He most recently served as the interim chief executive officer for the workout of a troubled public company, Function(x) Inc., which has been involved in aggregating and providing Internet content.  Simultaneously, he continues his merchant banking activities for Carolina Barnes Corporation in representing and investing in domestic and international entities. In a rather unusual role, he also currently is a member in Local 804 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.  

Prior to dedicating full time to Carolina Barnes, he was with Mabon Nugent & Co., a privately held 100-year-old investment banking firm, as the executive vice president responsible for the expansion of its investment and merchant banking groups.  He previously had served as executive vice president for the institutional finance unit of Public Storage Inc., and as a corporate vice president of the parent company, an owner of over $3.0 billion of real estate properties.

Mr. Barnes had been associated with Prudential-Bache Securities, Inc. and its predecessor firm where he was appointed associate managing director and head of the Media and Entertainment Group within the Investment Banking Division, and president of Prudential-Bache Broadcasting Inc., a wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary of Prudential Insurance Company.  Previously, he had been a vice president and principal in the media investment banking group at Warburg Paribas Becker/A.G. Becker as well as focused on venture capital through its Becker Communications Associates partnership. He passed the required FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 exams.

His private investment and principal activities include initial seed and later stage investments in approximately three dozen companies.  Among those are Interconnect Acquisition Corporation (WilTel) and Movietime Channel (E!), which each appreciated in value to over $1.0 billion, and more recently, in American Robotics Inc. which returned 3-X investment within 10 months.

Mr. Barnes began his career as a corporate banker with Bankers Trust Company where he was promoted to vice president in the Far West Division in Los Angeles after serving in the Southern Division of the U.S. Banking Department in New York and as a director of the Commercial Banking Training Program.

In addition to his responsibilities within Carolina Barnes, Mr. Barnes has served as the chairman of the special committee of directors for B+H Bulk Carriers and its sister corporations in the consolidation of three ocean shipping companies; founder and chief financial officer of Ocean State Windpower Inc.; chief revenue officer and director of StorageBlue Equities LLC; member of the board of directors and special committee for the reorganization of the bankrupt SFX Entertainment Inc.; and acting president of WorldVoice Communications Corporation.  He has lectured at the graduate business schools at Columbia University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He graduated with a BA degree from North Carolina, where he was elected captain of the rugby team, and completed the MBA program at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. His son serves in artillery within the U.S. Marine Corps.

Diana L. B. Benincasa

Diana Benincasa has unique background experiences in corporate due diligence and real estate valuation and development, as well as in high technology computer systems and operations.  A career mother of four grown children, she has been able to blend her domestic home front duties with stringent professional requirements and successful management practices. 

At the present time she is engaged as a licensed real estate realtor in New York and Connecticut with Coldwell Banker Realty, servicing both commercial and retail clients, and is operations director for Zeus Realty Services, a real estate development company with over 50 projects completed, stretching from the Northeast to the Southeast and across to the West Coast.  In this position, Ms. Benincasa analyzes and evaluates potential future development projects, coordinates and schedules professional parties needed for such endeavors, monitors progress, and if needed, hires full-time building managers to act with her as co-manager.  Recent part-time roles have included medical and business office manager, consulting engagement supervisor, social media coordinator, and community organizations volunteer. 

The technology expertise of Ms. Benincasa is extensive and impressive.  She earned a BBA, magna cum laude in computer systems from Baruch College of the City University of New York prior to embarking on a career with IBM, where she advanced rapidly.  As an advisory systems engineer, she was project manager/liaison for some of the largest international company clients, including Andersen Consulting, Chase-Manhattan Bank, etc., and handled diverse activities such as disaster recover, out-sourcing, relocation, maintenance, and managed data storage. 

Because of her successes, IBM paid for her education at New York University, Stern School of Business, where she earned an MBA, magna cum laude, in management information systems.  This was followed by advancement within IBM to marketing manager overseeing a staff of eight professionals after being a senior marketing representative responsible for large client corporate hardware, software and affiliated mainframe computer services and installations. 

Ms. Benincasa’s pre-college education certainly was not the usual high technology path, having graduated from the High School of Performing Arts in NYC and acting in television, movies and theatrical plays.  She also achieved great monetary success as a child model in magazines and catalogues. Her son is in U.S. Navy special operations in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD).

William A. Merritt Jr.

Mr. Merritt has been associated with the firm for over 35 years both as a business partner in the buyout of Centel Communications Systems Inc. and as a legal adviser.  Mr. Merritt is responsible for all legal matters including negotiations and review of all documentation for the firm along with business development within Carolina Barnes’ targeted industries. 

He has been involved in over 60 acquisitions during his career.  He currently serves as president of Integrated Communications System, Inc., as a principal in Seaboard Properties Inc., and chief financial officer of McAllister Towing and Transportation Company Inc.  Mr. Merritt was a member of the Boards of Directors of Gabelli-O’Connor Managers Fund and Accuhealth Inc., a publicly traded company.

Following the acquisition of Centel and its subsequent consolidation as WilTel Communications Systems Inc., Mr. Merritt became president and chief operating officer of the combined Centel/WilTel Company; during his tenure through early 1993, WilTel’s sales grew from $211 million in 1990 to over $490 million two years later.  Prior to joining Carolina Barnes in this buyout, Mr. Merritt served as executive vice president, director and chief operating officer of American Stock Exchange-listed TIE/communications, Inc., a manufacturer, designer and servicer of telephone equipment.

Previously, he was general counsel, controller and vice president of operations for a large privately held commodities trading group, Bunge Corporation.  He began his career and was a partner at the New York law firm of Olwine Connelly Chase O’Donnell & Weyher.  Mr. Merritt graduated from the Harvard Law School with an LL.B degree and, prior to serving as an officer in the Navy, graduated from The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.