Sara Hanks, co-founder and CEO of CrowdCheck, is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the corporate and securities field. Sara brings a wealth of legal expertise in securities law and start-ups to the emerging marketplace for crowdfunding and online capital formation. CrowdCheck provides due diligence, disclosure and compliance services for online capital formation, helping investors get the information they need to avoid fraud and make informed investment decisions, and helping entrepreneurs and intermediaries avoid liability.

Her position prior to founding CrowdCheck was General Counsel of the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), chaired by now-Senator Elizabeth Warren. At the Congressional Oversight Panel, Sara spent 18 months on Capitol Hill investigating the implementation and consequences of the TARP in depth. She examined the government’s intervention in the automotive companies, the execution of the banking “stress tests,” the rescue of AIG, and the international aspects of the financial crisis.

Sara began her legal career in the London office of Norton Rose Fulbright. She later joined the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Chief of the Office of International Corporate Finance led the team drafting the regulations that put into place a new generation of rules governing the capital-raising process and the way in which non-U.S. companies accessed the U.S. capital markets.

In 1990, Sara returned to private practice at one of the law firms that became Clifford Chance, and in 2002, was elected to the first of three terms on the firm’s Partnership Council. During two of those terms, she served on the firm’s Audit Committee. While at Clifford Chance, she advised on capital markets transactions and corporate matters for companies throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Sara received her law degree from Oxford University and is a member of the New York and DC bars and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Sara served several terms on the Steering Committee of the Corporation, Finance and Securities Section of the DC Bar, is the Vice-Chair of the International Securities SubCommittee of the ABA Business Law Section and Co-Chair of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She holds a Series 65 securities license as a registered investment adviser. Sara is an Army wife, aunt, skier, cyclist, gardener and animal lover.

Andrew D. Stephenson, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy for CrowdCheck, has a wealth of experience assisting companies with understanding and taking advantage of the new landscape of online capital raising —including reward based crowdfunding, securities crowdfunding, offerings to accredited investors, and exempt public offerings of securities under Regulation A.  With CrowdCheck, Andrew assists companies through the due diligence and disclosures required when listing their securities with registered broker-dealers and other online securities intermediaries.  That effort includes helping companies identify and work through significant oversights and issues with their corporate governance and securities law compliance.  Andrew leads a team of CrowdCheck due diligence analysts and regularly contributes to the national dialog surrounding innovation in capital formation

Prior to joining CrowdCheck, Andrew was involved with evaluating internal company communications and reports as part of complex civil litigation matters. Andrew has also worked for the United States Congress. While there, Andrew evaluated and drafted policy on a range of issue areas.

Andrew received his B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and graduated, cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Andrew is a member of the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar.  Andrew is also a happy husband, father, San Francisco Giants fan, and music lover.

Huiwen Leo, Director of Investor Services, is a corporate and securities attorney. She began her career at the World Bank, where she focused on Private Sector Development issues including corporate governance, aid effectiveness, privatization and globalization. She then joined the New York office of Clifford Chance, where she advised on capital markets transactions and corporate matters for companies and major investment banks in Asia, Europe and Latin America. When her husband was based in Camp Pendleton and deploying to Iraq, she relocated to the San Diego office of Latham & Watkins, where she worked on everything from start-up financing to multi-million dollar deals. She has worked pro bono on microfinance in Haiti, clean tech in San Diego, and military family and veterans issues. Huiwen helps investors maximize the investment opportunities of crowdfunding by having the information they need to make an educated decision.

Huiwen received her B.A. and M.A. in law from Cambridge University and received her LL.M. with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of the New York and California bars. Huiwen has lived in Singapore and Beijing, traveled extensively throughout China, and is fluent in Chinese. 

Jamie Ostrow, Vice President of Process for CrowdCheck, has spent her career in both the U.S. and U.K. in distilling complex legal and financial concepts to a broad audience. She began her career as a pension actuary, consulting with human resource departments on a variety of employee benefit issues. As a corporate and securities attorney with the London office of Freshfields, Jamie advised on large IPOs and debt offerings. She also worked in a boutique law firm in New York on corporate governance, fund formation and capital raising issues. As a Counsel at the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, an overseer of Treasury’s efforts to stabilize the economy through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Jamie helped examine the government’s intervention in mortgage modifications programs and the banking sector and drafted reports for the public.

Jamie has been involved in volunteering throughout her career. She helped underserved New Yorkers navigate the law with respect to their civil legal issues and organized and led programs for legal volunteers to teach classes on the Constitution. She currently tutors middle schools students who are falling behind in mathematics and serves as a member of the New York City Bar Association’s committee on government ethics and state affairs.

Jamie received her B.A. in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Jamie is a member of the New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia bars. Jamie has been a cycling commuter during her times in London, Washington, D.C., and New York and has run both the New York and London marathons.