Professionals
Thomas Pikor
President
As the founder of Catalyst Intelligence, Mr. Pikor is an accomplished executive with over twenty years of experience conducting high-stakes investigations on behalf of prominent law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions and high-profile individuals. He specializes in complex due diligence research, cyber investigations and asset tracing, and has extensive experience in the practice areas of workplace investigations, intellectual property disputes and class-action litigation. Mr. Pikor’s ability to unearth “hidden” financial, legal, business and online references about a party, and identify connections with other seemingly unrelated parties, has been a hallmark of his success as an investigator over the past two decades.
With access to an array of commercial databases as well as numerous proprietary online search tools and a global network of well-placed investigative assets, Mr. Pikor regularly works with investment firms and sophisticated investors to develop in-depth profiles of prospective investment targets and their executive management teams.
Mr. Pikor’s investigative findings have been utilized in court proceedings involving commercial loan defaults. At trial, testimony provided by Mr. Pikor helped secure a guilty verdict against an investor accused of making fraudulent asset transfers to avoid satisfying a multi-million dollar construction loan. In a separate matter, Mr. Pikor’s investigative findings were integral to his law firm client’s successful bid to vacate a $10 million FINRA arbitration award.
Mr. Pikor regularly collaborates with outside and in-house counsel to investigate allegations of employee malfeasance and develop counter-measures to threats of workplace violence and corporate sabotage. He also has substantial experience orchestrating surveillance and undercover operations.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Pikor was Regional Managing Director and head of the Los Angeles Office of SafirRosetti, a leading international security and investigations firm. Prior to joining SafirRosetti, he worked as an analyst at prominent international intelligence and investigative consultancies in Los Angeles and New York City. He also gained valuable research experience as an Information Specialist with The Associated Press.
Mr. Pikor earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Cornell University. He is a licensed Private Investigator in the State of California.
Stephanie Izen
Senior Intelligence Analyst
Stephanie joined the Catalyst team in 2015. With a background in both business and law, Stephanie is an expert in conducting comprehensive background investigations, including financial analysis as well as legal analysis. She is a master of online research – parsing voluminous data to find the “needle in a haystack, ” and analyzing intelligence from multiple conflicting sources. Deep dive social media research is another area in which Stephanie excels – finding hard-to-find profiles, discovering aliases, and unearthing potentially adverse information.
Stephanie’s investigative experience includes due diligence of prospective investments on behalf of private equity firms; background diligence on Fortune 500 companies’ prospective board members; regulatory third-party background checks requisite to the granting of money transmitter licenses; and assessments of the bona fides of claimants and arbitrators in various ADR forums. Her duties recently expanded to include reputational assessments of newly formed crypto currency ventures for a preeminent digital currency and blockchain technology law firm.
Stephanie is also experienced in gathering details and information in person, — interviewing key parties and supporting witnesses as well as reluctant individuals and (potentially) adverse witnesses. Stephanie has been praised by Catalyst clients for her ability to find difficult-to-find facts, witnesses and information.
Prior to joining Catalyst, Stephanie spent close to a decade practicing law at boutique firms in and around the Los Angeles area. Stephanie practiced predominantly civil, commercial, and business litigation; clients included a medical device manufacturer, a well-known coffee company, and a national cosmetics retailer. Then, after a firm merger, she began practicing family law, which, in turn, led to a position handling high profile divorces and custody cases for a high octane firm in Beverly Hills.
Stephanie received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology (with honors) from U.C.L.A. , and obtained a Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California.
Ken Shane
Senior Intelligence Analyst
Mr. Shane is an accomplished corporate investigator with almost a decade of experience at Catalyst, working directly under Mr. Pikor. He specializes in cyber and social media investigations, executive-level background checks, asset tracing, difficult locates and process serving, testifying in court, employee investigations, insurance fraud investigations, as well as surveillance and undercover operations.
Prior to entering the investigative field, Mr. Shane spent almost two decades working in Public Affairs, with high profile clients in real estate and business, as well as Health Insurance Management at a Fortune 500 company, in New York City. Mr. Shane received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinema, in which creative thinking, pre-texting (or acting) and filming, all come into play in the investigative world.
Amber Dargenio
Intelligence Analyst
Equipped with a strong background in analytical writing and research, Amber excels at piecing together missing links and synthesizing information to create a cohesive picture of the subject at hand. Amber’s investigative experience includes due diligence investigations for private equity firms, pre-employment background checks, and regulatory third-party background checks requisite to the granting of money transmitter licenses. Amber specializes in deep social media and online research and is adept at detecting key information from voluminous data.
Prior to joining Catalyst as an intelligence analyst, Amber worked in both the legal services and private investigation industries. As a litigation paralegal for a Boston-based litigation and business law firm, she assisted with cases pertaining to insurance fraud and defense, tort, worker’s compensation, personal injury, and employment law. Amber’s investigative experience also includes challenging locate investigations, managing difficult service of process, asset investigations, missing persons cases, and coordinating surveillance operations for Subrosa and domestic surveillance.
Amber received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and History from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. During her undergraduate career, Amber was a cross-registered student and research assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Amanda Bright
Ms. Bright joined the Catalyst team in mid-2021 as a Corporate Intelligence Analyst, performing social media and due diligence investigations for prominent private equity and venture capital firms. She utilizes OSINT techniques, conducts in-depth research, and analyzes complex records. Ms. Bright quickly gained additional responsibilities, assisting and collaborating with clients, overseeing surveillance efforts from start to finish, conducting locates, and aiding in operational tasks to ensure an exemplary work product. As she has grown with the company, her casework has expanded to include investigations surrounding claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, and other liability cases.
Prior to working for Catalyst, Ms. Bright worked coordinating executive protection for on-going, short term and urgent assignments. She collaborated with in-house EP specialists as well as subcontractors, both armed and unarmed, to ensure security teams were in place and clients were safe. Before working in EP, Ms. Bright developed a career in private investigations. Her first role was in desktop investigations, which included research, analysis, and record collection. After honing her desktop skills, she was up for a new challenge and took the opportunity to learn the art of interviewing, specifically AOE/COE. She worked on numerous workers’ compensation and liability cases interviewing claimants, witnesses, colleagues, and supervisors. The experience and knowledge led her to train, mentor and grow a field intelligence division. She then had the opportunity to oversee a private investigations affiliate office. The time there molded her understanding of operations, management, and customer relations, and exposed her to other avenues of investigations such as surveillance and process serving.
Ms. Bright graduated from California State University Sacramento with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. This is where her interest in white collar crime investigations started. She interned with the California FPPC, under state investigators, investigating state and local politics. Her internship experiences propelled her next steps into a career in investigations. She went on to obtain a California PI license and co-found a ladies leadership network.