Kensington Partners
Paul K. DeGrado is the founding partner of Kensington Funding and continues in his role to role out the group’s evolving business plan. Paul is also the founding partner of the renowned New Jersey lawfirm, DeGrado Law, LLC. He worked to develop the practice into a multi-million dollar law firm concentrating in the fields of personal injury, no-fault arbitration, major medical arbitration and workers compensation reimbursement litigation. Mr. DeGrado graduated from Seton Hall University School of Law, J.D. and completed his under graduate degree at Fordham University in New York. Mr. DeGrado is licensed to practice law in New Jersey, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. He is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney, and has extensive experience in jury trials and all aspects of civil litigation. He is also one of less than 10 attorneys in the State of New Jersey who is certified as a Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Mr. DeGrado has been named a 2010 Super Lawyer Rising Star, and 2012 New Jersey Super Lawyer. He is also a member of American Association for Justice, American Bar Association, Bergen County Bar Association and the Justice Morris Pashman American Inns of Court.
Pietro Sollecito joined Kensington Funding as Partner in 2016, bringing international financing experience to the firm. Pietro served as Managing Director and founder of the boutique investment bank WoodRock & Co’s London office and European Investment Banking platform. He has worked in various capacities to originate, structure and underwrite in diverse capital raising projects and over a variety of industry sectors, including public sector, financial institutions, mining, heavy industry, real estate, and energy generation and distribution. Previously, Mr. Sollecito was Head of Nomura’s Central Eastern Europe and CIS Capital Markets practice in London, and Director in Rome and London for Nomura as Deputy Head of the South Eastern European Capital Markets group. In both capacities, he supervised and was directly responsible for originating, structuring and negotiating a variety of sophisticated financing transactions. Mr. Sollecito was a Vice President with Merrill Lynch in London, working as part of its Southern European Debt Capital Markets practice as an originator and senior structurer from 1999-2001. Previously, he worked with ING Barings as Vice President/Local Markets Trader in New York from 1996-1999 and as an Analyst/Associate at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in various roles on the Interest Rate and Foreign Exchange Options desks. He started his career at Citicorp as a Foreign Exchange junior trader in New York from 1993-1994. Mr. Sollecito holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Fordham University and an MBA in Finance/International Business from NYU’s Stern School of Business.