David A. Schwedel

David A. Schwedel (born July 21, 1965) is an American entrepreneur. He is the Founder and General Partner of DAS Family Holdings, L.P. He is the previous Senior Vice President and Investment Committee member of OLMC Group, a Miami Florida venture capital firm. He is also the founder of Marex, Inc., a $550 million company formerly traded on the NASDAQ (MRXX) that he started with $2 million of his personal money.
Professional career
Schwedel is the founder or principle investor in numerous companies during his career. He also serves on the board of directors for several companies including First Southern Group, LLC, Med-Tek, LLC, a graphic design studio that he led into a full-service advertising agency with national accounts. The company provided both print and electronic media solutions. In 1986, Schwedel began working for the Miami Florida venture capital firm OLMC Group where he assisted with expanding the company's assets from $30 million to $300 million in approximately five years. During his time at OLMC, he was promoted to Senior Vice President and also served as a member of their investment committee.
Marex Inc.
In 1992, Schwedel founded Marex Inc. (formerly Florida Marine Management, Inc. and Marex.com, Inc.), a business to business marine company that provided e-commerce solutions for the marine industry. He founded the company with approximately $2 million of his own money. The main products of the company were MarExpress! which was an e-procurement solution that allowed boat builders to purchase supplies and parts through a web-based transaction system, and MarexPro! which was an e-commerce product that allowed distributor and suppliers to sell their products through a web-based transaction system. In 1997, Marex, Inc. began trading on NASDAQ under symbol (MARX) (later changed to MRXX) and had a $550 million Nasdaq market capitalization. Marex received numerous awards and recognitions including being listed as the "Best of the Web" for B2B companies by Forbes Magazine.
Schwedel served in numerous positions with Marex including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, and President. In 2001, he turned over day to day operations of the company to new executives and the more than 100 employees who worked for Marex at that time. Later that year, he was asked by the company to take back day to day operations of the company to begin restructuring and instituting a shareholder value plan. The restructuring of Marex included splitting the company into three separate companies (one public and two private). The lead institutional investor for the restructuring, Brown Simpson Asset Management, retained the Trippoak Group to assist with the closing of the transaction. Trippoak Group changed the terms of the deal which was unfavorable for shareholders and Schwedel, the largest shareholder, subsequently resigned from the company.
DAS Family Holdings
In 2005, Schwedel founded DAS Family Holdings, L.P., a holding and investment limited partnership which is diversified in industries such as energy, healthcare, real estate, and corporate finance. During his time at the company, he was the lead investor for Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMX), an energy and technology company that focuses their business in the coal industry. He was also the lead investor for Coalview Ltd., LLC, another company that is focused in the coal industry. He also served as the lead investor in Med-Tek, LLC, a medical technology company.
Union Charter
Schwedel is the Director of Union Charter, Ltd. which is a company that provides corporate finance and advisory services in different business sectors. In 2008, he was named as a defendant in a lawsuit due to his affiliation with Union Charter. The lawsuit was filed in a California federal court and named numerous defendants including Schwedel, Union Charter, UBS AG, Synthesis Energy Systems, and Synthesis CEO Timothy Vail. Schwedel was named in the lawsuit due to Bradley Birkenfeld's appointment at Union Charter after his departure from UBS. Birkenfeld, a former UBS Banker in Geneva, Switzerland, is the internationally recognized Whistleblower in the multi-billion dollar tax fraud and money laundering case brought before the United States Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Federal court system which upturned the confines of Swiss Private Banking. The lawsuit was filed by billionaire Igor Olenicoff who was connected to Birkenfeld through UBS and was himself convicted of a felony for lying on his federal tax returns and ordered to pay $52 million in back taxes. The case was later dismissed due to lacking merit.
Philanthropy
Schwedel is a Trustee of the Miami Science Museum

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