Along with his good friend and business school classmate, Gefei Li, Joe Carroll co-founded Cynergy-Global, LLC in 1998 to explore the extraordinary opportunities made possible by China's historic transformation from a closed centrally-controlled economy to a driving force in the global capital markets.
Joe spent the next ten years advising and investing in Mainland Chinese companies, which provided him with him with unique frontline experience and valuable insights into the complex balance required for successful “free-market investing” in China’s “Socialist Market Economy”.
To expand his “green investing” platform into the United States, Joe co-founded Environmental Banc & Exchange, LLC, (“EBX”) to provide capital, experience and expertise for market based environmental solutions. (www.ebxusa.com)
Prior to founding Cynergy-Global and Environmental Banc & Exchange, Joe gained a decade’s worth of invaluable U.S. Capital Markets experience while working for Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Capital Markets, and Wachovia Capital Markets, where his responsibilities variously included Institutional Sales & Trading, Corporate finance, and Origination & Distribution.GeFei was born and raised in the Peoples Republic of China and maintains strong family ties throughout the coastal and central mainland. At age 17 he became the youngest graduate in the history of China's prestigious Xian Petroleum Institute where he earned his Electrical Engineering degree while simultaneously developing and applying proprietary cutting-edge oil field exploration software.
Post graduation, GeFei was asked to remain at the Petroleum Institute as an Assistant Professor, making him the youngest instructor in the history of the University. After a year of teaching, Gefei decided to continue his education by accepting a scholarship to the University of Wyoming as a PhD candidate in Computer Science. He then went on to Wake Forest University, where he earned his MBA in 1991.
GeFei returned to his homeland in 1995 to lead one of the earliest and most successful U.S./Sino joint-venture privatizations of a Chinese State-Owned-Enterprise. Given his business prowess and fluency in both English and multiple Chinese dialects, GeFei soon became a frequent Key-Note speaker at the Economist Group's Asian Economic forums where he began to build his vast network of business relationships, which continues to grow to this day.
Xian Petroleum Institute, B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1987
University of Wyoming, Ph.D Course Work, 1989