Cruttenden Executive Leaves to Start Company : Finances: Danzi Capital Group will specialize in raising cash for biomedical and technology firms.

IRVINE —  A top corporate finance executive has left Cruttenden & Co. to start his own investment banking firm that will help raise capital for biomedical and small technology companies in Orange County.

Michael Danzi, 33, recently formed Danzi Capital Group in Irvine, which will specialize in raising cash for technology companies through private equity or debt offerings.

“This area is a real hotbed of activity,” Danzi said Wednesday. “This is going to be the Silicon Valley of the 1990s in medical technology. We want to be the gateway to transactions in that area.”

Danzi, who was with Cruttenden for 18 months, brought along several employees he worked closely with at the other investment bank to work at his firm. Tom Stellar, a Cruttenden vice president of retail sales, and John Chan, assistant vice president of corporate finance, will serve as senior associates. In addition, Kathy McLuckey, Danzi’s assistant at Cruttenden, has also joined the new firm.

“I just wanted to strike out on my own, get my name on the door,” he said. “It just seemed natural for us to stay together.”

Danzi said that “it just seemed appropriate” to start his own company at this time. He cited an overall lack of investment banking companies in the county.

The firm, based at Brinderson Towers in Irvine, has applied with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Assn. of Securities Dealers to provide other services such as stock trading and underwriting capability for initial public offerings.

While with Cruttenden, Danzi said that he and his employees collectively raised $20 million for public and private companies, including Premier Laser Systems in Irvine, Advantage Life Products in Laguna Hills and RXM Medical in Newport Beach.

“I would say that we have a year to a year and a half before we have a serious competitor,” Danzi said. “It’s a great environment for us.”

Cruttenden & Co., which has about 100 employees and is among the largest investment banks based in Orange County, already has filled the slots vacated by the Danzi executives, Chairman Walter Cruttenden III said. The firm concentrates on a broad range of the market, although it does financing for biomedical and health care firms, he said.

“I wish them well,” Cruttenden said. “It’s always tough to get going. But Orange County certainly is under-banked, and there’s a lot of dynamic start-up companies here.”

Cruttenden said that his firm might cooperate on ventures with Danzi’s company.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Danzi was an investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert in Beverly Hills from 1987 to 1988. He then worked for Union Bank and later Cruttenden.