Steven L.Thornton
President
steve@thorntonandassociates.com

Steven L. Thornton is the President and founder of Thornton & Associates, LLC. Mr. Thornton has over 20 years of securities compliance, auditing and accounting experience specializing in all areas of regulatory compliance. As a former NASD/FINRA examiner, General Securities Principal and a Financial and Operations Principal for over 50 broker dealers, he has extensive experience with SEC, NASD/FINRA and MSRB rules and regulations. Mr. Thornton also maintains the Series 7 (general securities representative), Series 24 (general securities principal), Series 55 (equity trader), Series 79 (investment banking), Series 99 (operations professional) and Series 28 (financial and operations principal) licenses.

Mr. Thornton sits on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Broker Dealers. He has also served on the FINRA District 2 Committee and was part of the FINRA pilot program for the development of Form NMA and the current New Member Application system.

Prior to forming Thornton & Associates, LLC, Mr. Thornton held a position as a securities examiner with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD Regulation, Inc.) where he conducted complex trading and market making examinations and initiated investigations of NASD member firms and registered representatives for compliance with SEC, NASD, MSRB and other regulatory guidelines. While with the Association, he was a member of the NASD Regulation Examination Committee where he assisted in the development of trading and market making audit procedures and the restructuring of the new-hire regulatory training program. He received national recognition as the recipient of the prestigious NASD President's Award that recognizes outstanding service as a securities examiner. In 2008 he was requested by FINRA to participate in the pilot program for the development of the new FINRA New Member Application Program.

Mr. Thornton received his Bachelor of Science Degree from California State University, Northridge with a major in Finance. He speaks at compliance seminars for securities compliance professionals, and has been a guest speaker on the KNX 1070 Business Hour radio show. Mr. Thornton has also testified in Orange County Superior Court as an expert witness regarding issues relating to sales practice violations, investment advisor and broker dealer registration, suitability, and the implementation of supervisory systems.

Ellen S. Rubin
Vice President
ellen@thorntonandassociates.com

Ellen S. Rubin is our FinOp Specialist responsible for the preparation, review and submission of Broker/Dealer financial statements, Net Capital computations and FOCUS filings. Ms. Rubin has over 25 years of experience as an accounting and operations professional in the securities industry and has been responsible for the submission of thousands of FOCUS filings and Net Capital computations. She holds the Series 7 (general securities representative) and Series 27 (financial and operations principal) securities licenses.

Ms. Rubin spent eight years as Controller for Drake Capital Securities, followed by five years as Chief Financial Officer and FinOp for Equibond, Inc. In addition to her primary talent as an accountant with heavy Regulatory and FOCUS filing experience, Ms. Rubin has a strong background in administration, payroll, cash management and broker/dealer operations. Ms. Rubin has also coordinated the startup of several broker/dealers.

Born and raised in northern Los Angeles, Ms. Rubin is a graduate of California State University, Northridge.

Michelle Phillips
Licensing and Registration Consultant
michelle@thorntonandassociates.com

Michelle Phillips serves as the Licensing and Registration Manager for Thornton & Associates, LLC. She utilizes her 18 years of securities industry experience to provide Thornton & Associates' clients with accurate and timely CRD and IARD filings and registration. She has a tremendous amount of hands on experience and has received extensive training on the use of the WebCRD/IARD registration system, and the FINRA Electronic Filing System.

In addition to her licensing and registration skills, she has coordinated the approval of hundreds of state registration applications for individuals as well as broker dealers.

Michelle's expertise also includes licensing both firms and individuals in various insurance capacities with the 52 different state/territory insurance divisions.

Michelle has worked directly with numerous FINRA member firms, serving as a liaison between the broker/dealer and their registered individual, implementing and monitoring the Firm's Continuing Education. Additionally, she has gained experience in the securities industry in various areas of compliance and operations.

Kamala Connors
Executive Assistant
kamala@thorntonandassociates.com

Kamala serves as an Executive Assistant for Thornton & Associates, LLC. Prior to joining Thornton & Associates, Ms. Connors worked as the Research Coordinator at a boutique investment banking broker dealer. She was responsible for reviewing and publishing all of the broker dealer's proprietary equity research. Additionally, she was responsible for preparing FINRA mandated research report disclosures for the firm's research universe.

Ms. Connors graduated in 2008 from California State University of Fullerton with a B.A. in Speech Communications with an emphasis in Organizational Communication. She also and maintains a series 7 license and is in the process of obtaining the Series 24 license as well.

Joe Donlan
Senior Technology Consultant
joe@thorntonandassociates.com

Joe Donlan has over 28 years of experience as an IT specialist and Chief Technology Officer for several broker dealers including J.P. Morgan and Imperial Capital, LLC. Mr. Donlan is responsible for the development and implementation of complex broker dealer trading and order management systems. Mr. Donlan also specializes in the deployment of electronic storage and email archiving platforms.