Logistics and Trade Financing Team

Peter Stern

President & CEO

Peter is a dynamic entrepreneur that has spent his career building and successfully leading a diversified group of companies involved in numerous industries, including commercial finance, banking, real estate, equity investments, and supply chain management. Peter started his career at an international freight forwarding and customs brokerage firm after immigrating to America from Ukraine in the early 1980s. Peter then went on to establish our company, which achieved its first major success by becoming the exclusive freight agent for multiple international air and ocean shipping lines in the 1990s. After many years of sustained growth and success in the freight industry, Peter built a talented management team and leveraged his strong banking and global business relationships to transition Express Trade into the fully integrated asset based lending, international trade finance, and supply chain management firm it is today.

Mark Bienstock

Managing Director

Mark is a finance executive with decades of progressive leadership experience in the factoring, asset based lending, and trade finance industries. Mark specializes in providing customized financing solutions to rapidly growing companies across a wide range of industries. Mark is recognized as a leader in his industry and is frequently asked to speak on finance related topics, with a specific emphasis on the apparel, consumer goods, and food and beverage industries.

Helen Ku

Senior Vice President, Client Portfolio Manager

Helen joined Express Trade Capital in 2015 as an account executive. She began her factoring career in 2004 at Finance One Inc. There she learned the operations side of the business and worked as a liaison officer from a branch office to the headquarters by supporting all areas of factoring services. She is passionate about the factoring industry and loves to help and encourage business owners. She finds immense satisfaction in problem solving and watching her clients’ businesses grow with her meticulous guidance.

Ben Ellis

Executive Vice President

Ben joined Express Trade Capital in 2009 and is the company’s general counsel and a member of the executive management team. He has extensive experience providing legal, financial and strategic advice across a wide range of industries. In addition to his work in asset based lending, international trade finance, and supply chain management for Express Trade Capital, Ben represents our affiliated companies in real estate transactions and equity investments. Before joining Express, Ben worked for an international law firm and a pro bono legal services firm that served poor, elderly, and disabled residents of NYC.

Ben is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, where he was an Articles Editor for the Cardozo Law Review and a Teaching Assistant for the Legal Writing Program. In addition to his law degree, Ben has bachelor degrees in Chemistry and German.

Ashley Orlando

Vice President, Head of Eco-Financing Division

Ashley Orlando started at Express Trade as an intern in 2011. Soon after, she graduated from Sacred Heart University with an accounting degree and a concentration in fashion. Ashley began working for ETC full-time after graduation, developing organized procedures for our PO financing department in addition to managing client accounts. Ashley has since built our specialized eco-financing department, bringing together her two passions: financing fashion and helping the planet. In her free time, you can find Ashley managing her vegan & eco-conscious blog content, offering tips and advice to becoming a more conscious consumer.

Jenny Guevara

Vice President, Accounts

Jenny joined the Express Trade team in 2010 and quickly became a valued core member of the factoring team, where she manages daily operations and provides client support in our PO funding, factoring, and letter of credit departments. Prior to her employment at ETC, Jenny worked in apparel production and operations. There she coordinated with factories to ensure quality control and compliance. Thanks to her specialized background, Jenny has unique insight into the needs and difficulties that designers, wholesalers and producers encounter day to day. With her unique background and commitment to strong and lasting client relationships, Jenny makes sure that the factoring process is always as fast and easy as possible.

David Estrakh

Executive Vice President

David joined our team in 2009, while he was still in law school. With a background in international commerce and trade, he found a perfect home at Express where his passion for developing businesses and his knack for handling complex transactions has fostered a growing and thriving clientele.  David routinely advises on and manages large commercial and international trade transactions on behalf of clients from a wide-range of industries including commodities, textiles, furniture, consumer goods and foodstuffs.  In his role at Express, David is involved in operations and legal matters, as well as sales, consulting, and client management.

David earned a BA in International Relations from John Hopkins University in 2004.  Six years later he received a JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where he was a Dean’s Merit Scholar and member of the Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal.  In 2011, David was admitted to the New York State Bar.

Drew F. Cohen

Director of Strategy

Drew joined Express in 2014 where he focuses on business and legal operations.  He is a former law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa as well as to a federal judge at the United States Court of International Trade.  Drew has written a variety of commentaries focusing on international trade, socio-legal, regulatory and economic issues for national publications including USA Today, Politico Magazine, Huffington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, among others and was a columnist for US News & World Report.  His professional publications have appeared in Northwestern Law Journal of International Human Rights, Emory International Law Review, Michigan State International Law Review, The George Washington Journal of Energy & Environmental Law, among others.

Drew is a graduate of The George Washington Law School and School of Business where he earned his JD and MBA as an EURC Scholar.  He graduated with a BA in Economics and Political Science summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the same institution where he was a George Gamow Fellow.

Gary Vantsyan

Senior Vice President, Logistics and Letters of Credit

Gary joined Express in 2005 as a Cargo Agent.  By 2009, he became the head of logistics and supply chain management with responsibilities including directing foreign sales, negotiating contracts and partnerships with foreign sales and distribution centers, and arranging shipping and logistics to manage our clients’ supply chains.  Gary’s role as the head of logistics extends to services such as obtaining export licenses, customs declarations, and overseeing the packing, shipping, and routing of products by ocean and air.

In addition to shipping and logistics, Gary reviews applications for credit financing, negotiates credit terms, and manages documents and payments for goods delivered under letters of credit.

Gary was born in Georgia and is fluent in Georgian, Armenian, Russian and English.

Education: University of Civil Aviation, B.S. in Marketing and Air Transportation (2005); Queens College, Finance and Financial Management (2012)

Chris Jaray

CTO

Chris joined Express Trade Capital in 2009 and became the company’s Chief Technology Officer in 2020. Chris manages the company’s information technology resources, designs and implements cyber security policies and procedures, and oversees the company’s technology vendors.

In his 25-year career in information technology, Chris has consistently demonstrated creative problem solving and interpersonal skills through his work as a technology officer and specialist in a wide range of industries including fashion, consumer goods and medicine. He prides himself on his expertise across diverse IT categories and ability to manage complex and everchanging technological resources. Chris attended the New York Institute of Technology and has been awarded numerous programming, SAAS and office suite certifications.

Among other specialties, Chris is highly proficient in Azure and other cloud technologies, Active Directory, TCP/IP, DNS, WNS, DHCP, and Windows Server.