Brandon Baer is a Managing Director, Fortress Investment Group, focusing on distressed debt and special situations with an emphasis on deep value investing, event driven bankruptcy, capital structure arbitrage, and litigation opportunities.  Prior to joining Fortress, Brandon was a Senior Vice President of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. where he was a member of the firm’s corporate credit related-strategies unit.  In that capacity, he focused primarily on special situations and private and public illiquid investments.  Brandon has served on numerous private and public boards including the boards of Alloy Power, Direct Group, FAO Schwarz, Foamex International, Oasis Legal Finance, The Boyds Collection Ltd, and Sure Fit Inc.  He also has served on ad hoc or official creditor committees including Adelphia Communications, BTA Bank, Dow Corning, Legends Gaming, The Legacy Estate Group, LLC, Silicon Graphics, and W. R. Grace.  Brandon began his career as an associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP where he focused on venture capital and private equity.  Brandon received a JD, cum laude, from Harvard University and a BA, summa cum laude, from Princeton University.

 

Hank Baer is the head of our Bankruptcy & Corporate Reorganizations group, and focuses his practice on complex financial transactions involving distressed assets.  Mr. Baer has significant experience representing buyers and sellers of assets in distressed situations, both in and out of court, and in the negotiation and implementation of global solutions for recapitalizing over-leveraged companies.  He has represented first lien, second lien and mezzanine lenders in bankruptcy proceedings and in out-of-court workouts, and has represented DIP lenders in Chapter 11 proceedings and Board of Directors of insolvent companies and of companies in the “zone of insolvency.”  Mr. Baer has represented all of the primary constituencies in Chapter 11 proceedings, including debtors, official committees, agents for syndicated loans, individual lenders, indentured trustees and retained professionals.

Throughout his career, Mr. Baer has represented clients in a broad cross-section of industries, including in the automotive, restaurant, paper, power, textile, grocery, printing, movable medical equipment manufacturing, coal, digital, technologies and real estate sectors, among others.  He has written extensively on the reorganization process and frequently appears on panels and at conferences.

Recent transactions include the representation of a large multi-national company in a strategic acquisition consummated pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, the representation of a private equity group in the de-leveraging of the balance sheet of one of its portfolio companies, the representation of a major financial institution with respect to its participation, in a multi-billion dollar DIP financing facility, the representation of an investment firm with respect to a non-performing senior secured loan, the representation of a technology company with respect to the bankruptcy of several closely related companies, and the representation of a financial advisor with respect to its retention in several ongoing bankruptcy cases.

Prior to joining Finn Dixon & Hearling, Mr. Baer was a member of the Insolvency group at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York.

Education
Fordham University (J.D. 1997)
Editor in Chief, Environmental Law Journal

Bates College (B.A. 1987)

Bar Admissions
Connecticut, 2009
New York, 1998
Massachusetts, 1997

Court Admissions
US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1998
US District Court of the Eastern District of New York, 1998
US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 2007
US District Court for the District of Connecticut, 2008

 

Jessica E. Beattie joined KKR in 2010 and is focused on public markets within the special situations investing business in KKR Asset Management. Ms. Beattie has over ten years of experience investing across the capital structure in public and private markets. Prior to joining KKR, she worked as a senior analyst on the Event Driven investment team at Eton Park Capital Management. Prior to Eton Park, she was a Partner with R6 Capital Management, which Eton Park acquired to build out its distressed credit business. Prior to R6 she was a Vice President in the Special Situations Group, a proprietary investing portfolio within the fixed income division of Goldman Sachs, where she was responsible for debt and equity investments in the automotive, forest products, gaming and industrial sectors. She holds a BS in Economics from Duke University.

 

Patrick A. Blott co-founded Blott Asset Management, L.L.C. in 2005, where he has responsibility for developing the firm’s special situations investments on behalf of institutional clients. Blott Asset Management, L.L.C. was one of the largest outside shareholders of Canwest Global Communications Corp, and led a successful Ad Hoc Committee of Shareholders to win a precedent setting creditor settlement. Mr. Blott has focused on special situations investing in New York for more than 17 years. He began his investment career in the distressed loan portfolio management group at BMO. He has worked as a senior professional in the private equity, leveraged finance, mergers, and hostile takeover defense businesses at JP Morgan & Co, Banc of America Securities, and Borealis Capital Corporation (OMERS). He has participated as a director and senior advisor at Beauceland Corporation, Express Pipelines L.L.C., Auto Guide Inc, BPC Long-Term Care L.L.C., The Hospital Infrastructure Company, Emerald Corp, and the Asper Group. He is an active supporter of the Crescent School and Columbia Business School almni organizations.

 

Mr. Breazzano is a co-founder and President of DDJ Capital Management, LLC, and has more than 30 years of experience in high yield, distressed, and special situation investing. Prior to forming DDJ, from 1990 to 1996, he was a vice president and portfolio manager in the High Income Group at Fidelity Investments, where he had investment management responsibility for over $4 billion in high yield and distressed assets. Specifically, he was a portfolio manager of the Fidelity Capital & Income Fund, which was one of the largest high yield funds in existence at that time. In addition, Mr. Breazzano co-managed the distressed investing operation at Fidelity.

Prior to joining Fidelity in 1990, Mr. Breazzano was a vice president and portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price Associates. Before joining T. Rowe Price in 1985, he was a high yield analyst and vice president at First Investors Asset Management, which had over $1 billion in high yield assets under management. Mr. Breazzano began his professional career at New York Life as an investment analyst.

Mr. Breazzano currently serves on the boards of Applied Extrusion Technologies, Inc., Bush Industries, Inc., Rita Restaurant Corp., and The Wornick Holding Company, Inc., and is coauthor of the chapter entitled “Trading in the Distressed Market” in Investing in Bankruptcies and Turnarounds. Mr. Breazzano received his MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University where he currently sits on the advisory board, and graduated cum laude with a BA from Union College, where he currently sits on the board of trustees.

 

Rich has over 25 years of experience servicing the steel, manufacturing, retail, construction, service and oil industries, providing bankruptcy and liquidation services and acting as the chief financial officer of several companies.

Representative examples of Rich’s engagement experience include:

• Served as the chief financial officer of two privately held, integrated aluminum manufacturers with combined revenues of over $1 B. Negotiated and managed credit facilities, bond offerings, asset securitizations and DIP financings.  Responsible for acquisitions and divestitures of companies from $1 M to $500 M in annual revenue.  Served as Chief Operating Officer for the company’s blanking and aftermarket automotive subsidiary.
• Appointed as Interim President and CEO of Neenah Foundries upon its emergence from bankruptcy.
• Served as interim chief financial officer and oversaw the financial aspects of the wind down of a specialty steel company.
• Responsible for originating and closing approximately $2 B of debt financing for various metal companies with financings ranging in size from $60 M  to over $300 M.
• Assisted a distressed steel processing company in obtaining debt financing and served as interim chief operating officer during its financial turnaround and acted as financial adviser to equity owner during the sales transaction process.
• Assisted a large domestic foundry (ferrous) in refinancing, strategic alternatives review and advised board on sales process.
• Financial advisor to creditors committee for Indalex (aluminum extruder), Crucible Materials (specialty steel), and Rath Gibson, Inc. (stainless steel tubing).
• Serving as litigation trustee to the Crucible Materials estate.

Rich is a graduate of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and is qualified as a financial expert in Federal District and state courts.
 

 

Mr. Drucker is responsible for corporate finance transaction origination, analysis and execution. Prior to joining Garrison Investment Group, Mr. Drucker spent the previous 23 years in various capacities with the CIT Group. He most recently was a Senior Managing Director and leader of CIT's Hedge Fund Coverage and National Restructuring Groups. For the period 2004 to the end of 2006, Mr. Drucker was Co-President of CIT Business Capital, where he presided over a team of 200 professionals consisting of leverage and asset finance originators, three distinct industry coverage teams, the predecessor Restructuring Group, account managers and the risk and credit policy committees. Prior to 2004, Mr. Drucker held the role of National Marketing Manager and was a founding member of the Restructuring Group in 1989. His breadth of experience includes middle market leveraged finance for acquisitions, growth, and restructuring scenarios with emphasis on asset based, cash flow and enterprise value financing. Mr. Drucker received his B.S. in Industrial Relations from Cornell University and his M.B.A from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Mr. Fineman is portfolio manager of the Third Avenue Special Situations Fund, a private partnership that invests in distressed securities and corporate reorganizations. As head of Third Avenue’s distressed debt research team, Mr. Fineman helps all of Third Avenue’s managers identify appropriate opportunities throughout the capital structure. He joined the firm in 2006.

Mr. Fineman has approximately 20 years of experience in distressed, restructuring and related roles. Prior to joining Third Avenue, Mr. Fineman worked as a distressed investing and restructuring analyst with Sanno Point Capital Management, LLC, a credit-driven opportunities hedge fund, and Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC (now part of Macquarie Group, Ltd.), where he implemented corporate restructurings and reorganizations for companies, debtors, creditors and lenders. He also has over 10 years of experience as a sell-side equity analyst and investment banker having worked at prominent investment firms including Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Alex. Brown & Sons, Inc. (now a division of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.) and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Mr. Fineman is chairman of the Board for Home Products Incorporated, a $200 million housewares manufacturing company and the largest U.S. manufacturer of ironing boards. Prior to his role as chairman, Mr. Fineman chaired the Official Creditors Committee during Home Products’ Bankruptcy proceedings and was responsible for successfully implementing an in-court restructuring in only 90 days. Mr. Fineman has also participated on many ad-hoc committees including LandSource Communities LLC, U.S. Shipping, Grant Forest Products, and Building Materials Holding Corporation.

Mr. Fineman received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Delaware. Mr. Fineman is a CFA charterholder, a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, and holds a certification in Distressed Business Valuation.

 

Martin Flics, head of the Linklaters U.S. restructuring & insolvency practice and co-head of the U.S. banking practice, advises companies, secured and unsecured creditors and financial advisors in major U.S. and cross-border bankruptcies and restructurings. Significant aspects of Marty’s broad-based bankruptcy practice include advising purchasers of assets of, and investors in, distressed companies, and lenders to distressed companies (including providers of debtor-in-possession and exit financing). He also regularly provides advice on bankruptcy issues in a broad range of complex transactions including financing, M&A, commercial, structured finance and derivative transactions, including providing structuring and drafting advice to maximize desirable outcomes in U.S. bankruptcy proceedings.  He has led our U.S. bankruptcy representation in many high profile matters, including Lehman Brothers, Truvo, Samsonite, DBSD, Dura and numerous others.  Marty is named as a leading lawyer in Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Chambers USA 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

 

Jason Friedman is a Managing Director responsible for identifying, evaluating, structuring and managing distressed and special situation investments for Marathon, a global asset management firm with approximately $10 billion in capital under management.

Prior to joining Marathon, Mr. Friedman was a Principal for CCMP Capital and its predecessors JP Morgan Partners, Chase Capital Partners and Chemical Venture Partners. Mr. Friedman began his career at Chemical Bank where he was trained as a credit analyst and worked within the Acquisition Finance and Global Structured Finance Groups.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Intechra Group LLC and Humboldt Redwood Company, and has served on multiple boards of directors of entities undergoing financial or operational restructuring. Mr. Friedman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Economics from Duke University, and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

 

Alex Greene is a Managing Partner of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a global asset manager focused on property, power and infrastructure with over US$100 billion of assets under management. Mr. Greene leads Brookfield’s restructuring and related financing activities in the United States, investing in companies which are experiencing financial and operating difficulties and in need of capital and strategic advice.

Mr. Greene joined Brookfield in December 2005 from The Carlyle Group, where he was co-head of the firm’s financial restructuring activities.  Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Greene was a senior restructuring partner at Gleacher Partners, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Whitman Heffernan Rhein & Co., Inc. and its affiliate M.J. Whitman & Co. He began his career at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.

Mr. Greene has a BBA in finance from The George Washington University.

Mr. Greene is a member of the Board of Directors of Central Alberta Well Services Corp. and Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging, Inc.  He is also a member of the Finance Committee of the Tourette Syndrome Association and a volunteer firefighter. His interests include mountaineering, classic automobiles and crossword puzzles.

 

Don MacKenzie is a founder and Senior Managing Director at  Conway MacKenzie, Inc., a leading restructuring and financial advisory firm to the middle market. He is frequently called upon by institutions and investors to provide expert advice relating to crisis management, transaction financing, turnaround and corporate renewal. He has served as interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer for both public and private middle-market companies and large Tier 1 automotive suppliers.
 
Mr. MacKenzie is a Certified Turnaround Professional, Certified Public Accountant and received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Michigan State University. He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants.  He frequently conducts seminars and lectures on the subjects of automotive restructurings and general corporate renewal topics.

 

Perry Mandarino is the practice leader for PwC's Business Recovery Services. He has over 20 years experience specializing in areas of strategic planning, complex debt restructurings, preparation of turnaround and business plans, cash flow analyses, preference investigations, fraud and fraudulent conveyance investigations, collateral evaluation and claims resolution. He has assisted numerous clients in the negotiation, development and implementation of Plans of Reorganization. He has a broad range of restructuring and bankruptcy industry experience, including retail, distribution, communications, business services, manufacturing, healthcare, construction and real estate companies.  
 
Perry served as the Chief Restructuring Officer (“CRO”) of Hoop Holdings, Inc. d/b/a/ The Disney Stores. He also served as the Examiner in the Polaroid, Inc. and Summit Global Logistics chapter 11 cases.  Perry has represented several lending institutions including D.E. Shaw, BNP Paribas, Wachovia Bank and Lampe, Conway & Co.  He has extensive experience in the Bankruptcy Courts in the Districts of Delaware, New Jersey and New York, where he has testified and been qualified as an expert in matters related to financial viability, valuation, general reorganization matters and financing. Perry’s has assisted clients in raising over $700 million in debt and equity financings. Perry has represented over 300 clients during his career.
 
Prior to joining PwC, Perry was a Senior Managing Director of Traxi, LLC. Prior to joining Traxi, Perry spent 14 years at Arthur Andersen LLP where he was a Partner in the Firm's Global Corporate Finance - Corporate Restructuring Group.  Perry also was managing director - restructuring in the investment-banking firm of Berenson Minella & Co.

 

 

Jeff Marwil is a Partner in the Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group. During his 24 years of experience in the bankruptcy, workout and corporate restructuring area, he has developed a reputation for providing sophisticated strategic advice to upper-tier companies in distress and for solving challenging legal and business issues. 

Jeff also has long-term and extensive experience representing public and private companies (in and out of court) in restructuring complex capital structures and reorganizing their financial affairs and business operations. Jeff has an in-depth understanding of the roles and responsibilities of officers and directors of both publicly traded and privately held companies, and regularly is retained to provide advice on issues of fiduciary duty related to companies in distress, their creditors and their shareholders.

In addition to counseling clients through workouts, restructurings and reorganizations, Jeff has represented companies, private equity funds, hedge funds and other investment groups in the purchase and sale of distressed companies, debt and assets.  He has assisted numerous clients, both on the sell side and the buy side, with structuring and consummating complex transactions. He also has represented senior secured lenders and official committees in major workouts, restructurings and reorganizations.

He also represents hedge funds, their managers/advisers, and sophisticated fund-of fund and pension plan investors in hedge fund restructurings, wind-downs, liquidations, and complex litigation matters. He currently serves as the Trustee for the Litigation Trusts of the Bayou Group of hedge funds, having successfully pursued, in their Chapter 11 cases, fraudulent conveyance recoveries from Ponzi scheme recipients for the benefit of defrauded investors. Other matters in which Jeff has been involved include the representation of a large group of investors in Ezra Merkin’s Madoff “feeder funds,” Fund counsel in an attempted restructuring, and now winddown, of a multibillion dollar onshore and offshore affiliated group of multistrategy hedge funds, and counsel to the provisional liquidator named in Bermuda for the two corporate parent companies of Chapter 11 debtor SageCrest Holdings, Inc.

Nationally recognized as an independent fiduciary, Jeff handles investigations of fraud and pursuing recoveries for investors and other victims of fraud. In addition to his role in the Bayou matter, he serves as the Securities Exchange Commission-selected and Southern District of Indiana-appointed Conservator and Receiver for the Church Extension of the Church of God and United Management Services.

Jeff has consulted with the bipartisan leadership of several Senate committees as they conducted oversight in pursuit of possible legislation on hedge fund registration and regulations. Legislation introduced in the 109th Congress contained language recommended by Jeff concerning the necessity of independent, outside auditors for hedge funds.

Jeff is a frequent speaker at the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Turnaround Management Association and other privately sponsored educational events.

 

Effective March 2009 Mr. McCarthy became Global Head of Asset Management for Starwood Capital Group reporting to the CEO, Barry Sternlicht.  In this capacity, Mr. McCarthy is responsible for the asset management of the firm’s global real estate portfolio and is a member of the Investment Committee.  Mr. McCarthy supervises a global team of 35 and the management of approx. 125 transactions across eight funds with ~ $5.0 billion of invested equity and more than $20 billion of assets under management (“AUM”).  In this capacity, Mr. McCarthy is responsible for maximizing returns at both the investment and fund levels across a portfolio that includes equity investments, distressed debt, acquired and originated mortgage loans, and operating companies in various real estate businesses.  In addition, Mr. McCarthy is responsible for ensuring appropriate liquidity at the fund level, quarterly mark-to-market valuations, investor reporting, and participation in fund level Fx and interest rate hedging decisions.

Prior to joining Starwood, Mr. McCarthy was Global co-Head of Asset Management for Lehman Brothers Real Estate Private Equity and was located in London, England reporting to the Co-Head of Real Estate Private Equity, Mark H Newman.  Mr. McCarthy was responsible for managing the assets of five funds with ~ $7.7 billion of invested equity, over $40 billion of AUM and a global staff of 85 employees.

Mr. McCarthy began his career at Lehman Brothers in June 2005 as Managing Director responsible for the asset management of the European portfolio.  In this capacity, Mr. McCarthy was ultimately responsible for approximately 55 investments and $25 billion of AUM and the development of a team of 25 associates.  Several of the investments were large public to private transactions; as such Mr. McCarthy directed the investment through board positions and was on the board of various companies across Europe.  In addition, in early 2007 Mr. McCarthy accepted responsibility for building out the asset management of Lehman’s India real estate business.

Prior to joining Lehman, Mr. McCarthy was a Partner at O’Connor Capital Partners (“O’Connor”), co-Head of O’Connor’s European business and head of European Asset Management reporting to the Fund co-CEO, Jeremiah W. O’Connor, Jr.  O’Connor was co-sponsor of the Peabody and Argo Funds with JP Morgan and solely responsible for asset management.  While with O’Connor, Mr. McCarthy managed a peak of $5.0 billion in European AUM, principally across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain.  In this capacity, Mr. McCarthy served on the board of companies in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Prior to his employment with O’Connor, Mr. McCarthy was with GE Capital for 17 years.  Mr. McCarthy spent 12 of those years with GE Real Estate where he held a variety of positions.  From October 1998 until he joined O’Connor, Mr. McCarthy was located in Vienna, Austria and was responsible for GE Real Estate’s investing activities across Central Europe, which included the leadership of a Warsaw Poland, based office Development Company.  During Mr. McCarthy’s tenure in Central Europe he was responsible for investment strategy and through a series of transactions the acquisition of $600 million of assets. 

Prior to this, Mr. McCarthy was with GE Real Estate in Chicago, Illinois and was a senior investment officer for the Midwest where annual investment volume was ~ $300 million.  Prior to this, Mr. McCarthy held a various positions with GE Real Estate, including assignments in new business development and asset management. 

Prior to joining the GE Real Estate business, Mr. McCarthy was with the GE Capital Audit Staff from 1986 through 1988.  During this time, Mr. McCarthy travelled 100% of the time and conducted financial and operational audits of various GE businesses.

Mr. McCarthy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut and an MBA (concentration in Accounting) from Fordham University, New York, NY.   Mr. McCarthy is married with three children ages 21, 19 and 17.

 

Jason New is a Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group and Head of Distressed Investing for GSO Capital Partners. Mr. New focuses on managing GSO's public investment portfolio with a specific emphasis on stressed and distressed companies and on sourcing direct distressed investment opportunities.   Mr. New is a member of the GSO Investment Committee. Before joining GSO Capital in 2005, Mr. New was a senior member of Credit Suisse's distressed finance group.   Mr. New joined Credit Suisse in 2000 when it acquired DLJ, where he was a member of DLJ's restructuring group.   Prior to joining DLJ in 1999, he was an associate with the law firm Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood where he practiced law in the firm's corporate reorganization group. Mr. New received a JD from Duke University School of Law and a BA, magna cum laude, from Allegheny College.

 

John J. Oros is a Managing Director of J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC, a private equity firm based in New York. In addition, Oros serves as CEO of Financial Guaranty Advisors, Inc. Oros served as Executive Chairman of Enstar Group, Ltd. and predecessor companies from 2000 until August of 2010.  From 1980 to 2000, Oros was an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he became a general partner in 1986. Before that he was a Vice President of Both Merrill Lynch and Verex Corporation, where he headed Mortgage Finance. Oros serves on the Board of Directors of BTG, Pactual in Sao Paulo Brazil, Encore Capital Group in San Diego, CA, The Flowers National Bank, MO, OneWest Bank, CA, and Saddle River Valley Bank, NJ.

Oros is an appointee to the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, a member of the Investment Committee of the Children's Aid and Family Services of New Jersey and is Chairman of the University of Wisconsin Foundation. Oros was an appointee as chairman of the Federal Savings and Loan Advisory Council and served 10 years on the Board of the Community Foundation of New Jersey.  Oros was named a Distinguished Business Alumnus by the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin.

BBA, University of Wisconsin, School of Business, 1971.
2nd Lt, US Army Reserve, 1968-1974. 

 

Steve co-founded Dalton Investments LLC in1998.  He oversees Dalton’s distressed debt strategies and is the portfolio manager for Dalton’s distressed credit portfolios

Mr. Persky has over 28 years of fixed income experience.  He received his credit training at Citibank, where he was a senior credit officer.  He then joined Salomon Brothers, where he traded high yield and international fixed income securities in New York and Tokyo.  Prior to founding Dalton, he was a Vice President at Payden & Rygel, a Los Angeles based investment advisor, where he managed institutional fixed income portfolios. 

Mr. Persky holds an A.B from Harvard College (1980) where he majored in Asian Studies.  He is a CFA charter holder (1994) and a member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, Inc and the CFA Institute.  He frequently speaks about investing in distressed credit and authored a chapter in “Credit Derivative Strategies,” published by Bloomberg Press in 2007. 

 

Sam Plimpton is co-head of the Private Investment Group, overseeing private investments in debt, equity and real estate, and is a member of Baupost’s Management Committee.  Prior to joining Baupost, Sam was an independent advisor, developer, and  investor in real estate ventures.  Sam held a research appointment in Real Estate at the Harvard Business School from 1978 to 1980.  He has served as a Trustee or Overseer of, among others, National Braille Press, New England Conservatory of Music, The Trustees of Reservations, The Massachusetts Farm and Conservation Land Trust, and Boston Foundation for Architecture.  Sam is a graduate of Stanford University, received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and his Masters in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The Baupost Group, L.L.C. (“Baupost”) was established in 1982 and is a registered investment adviser.  Baupost currently manages over $23 billion of capital on a discretionary basis.  Baupost follows an event-driven value investment philosophy with a bias toward the preservation of capital.  This investment philosophy is implemented with a broad and flexible charter.  The firm is an experienced investor in a wide range of securities and asset classes, including domestic and foreign bonds and stocks; securities; bank debt; and trade claims of companies in financial distress; real estate-related debt and equity including direct ownership of property; residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities; structured vehicles including CLOs, CDOs, and other structured products; private equity investments; and other illiquid investments.  While the bulk of Baupost’s assets are invested in publicly-traded securities, the firm also has significant real estate and private equity holdings.    

 

Until July 2009, Steven Rattner served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury and led the Administration’s efforts to restructure the auto industry.  Prior to joining the Treasury Department in February 2009, he was a Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group LLC, a private investment firm that under Mr. Rattner’s leadership, had more than $6 billion of assets under management.  

Until March 2000, Mr. Rattner was with Lazard Frères & Co., where he served as Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Rattner, who joined Lazard Frères in 1989 as a General Partner, was previously a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley.  Before beginning his investment banking career in 1982 with Lehman Brothers, Mr. Rattner was employed by The New York Times for nearly nine years, principally as an economic correspondent in New York, Washington and London. He continues to write on public policy issues for publications that include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Financial Times. He is the author of Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.

Mr. Rattner has served as a board member or trustee of a number of public and philanthropic organizations including the Educational Broadcasting Corporation (Chairman), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City (Chairman), Brookings Institution and the New America Foundation.  He is currently a Fellow of Brown University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Mr. Rattner graduated in 1974 from Brown University with honors in economics and was awarded the Harvey Baker Fellowship. He is married to Maureen White, who is the Senior Advisor on Refugee Issues to Richard Holbrooke, the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. They live in New York and have four children.

 

David is a Managing Director of Bayside Capital.  Bayside is an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global middle market private investment firm with over $8.5 billion of equity capital under management.  David is involved in all aspects of the investment process, including sourcing, transaction structuring, financing, and execution of post-closing growth strategies.

Before joining Bayside, David was with GSC Group, a middle-market focused distressed debt and corporate credit investment firm. While at GSC, he was co-head of the control distressed strategy and led investments across a variety of industries. David also sat on the Board of Directors of several GSC portfolio companies. Prior to GSC, David was with The Blackstone Group, in the Principal Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions Groups, where he worked on a variety of private equity and advisory transactions.

David received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

 

Wilbur Ross, CEO of WL Ross & Co. LLC, may be one of the best known private equity investors in the U.S.  His private equity funds bought Bethlehem Steel and several other bankrupt producers and revitalized them into the largest U.S. producer before merging them into Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion.  Mr. Ross remains a Director of what is now ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company.  He also created and chairs International Coal Group; International Textile Group, the most global American company in that industry; and International Auto Components Group, a $4.5 billion producer of instrument panels and other interior components, operating in 17 countries; Compagnie Europeenne de Wagons Sarl, the largest rail car leasing company in Europe, and American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., the second largest servicer of subprime mortgages.  He is a member of the Boards of Assured Guaranty and Greenbrier Companies, both NYSE-listed, of PLASCAR listed in Brazil, and of BankUnited.

Mr. Ross was Executive Managing Director of Rothschild Inc. for 24 years before acquiring that firm’s private equity partnerships in 2000.  He is a Board Member of Yale University School of Management, Partnership for New York City, Palm Beach Civic Association, Business Roundtable, Harvard Business School Club of New York, The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, The Harvard University Committee on University Resources, BritishAmerican Business, The Blenheim American Foundation, Palm Beach Preservation Foundation and the Chairman’s Council of the U.S./India Business Council.  He is Chairman of the Japan Society and Chairman of Palm Beach Firefighters Retirement Fund.  President Kim Dae Jung awarded him a medal for his assistance in Korea’s financial crisis, President Clinton appointed him to the Board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund and he served as Privatization Advisor to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  China Institute has presented him with its Blue Cloud Award.  Mr. Ross formerly served as Chairman of the Smithsonian Institution National Board.

Mr. Ross is a graduate of Yale University and of Harvard Business School (with distinction).  He is the only person elected both to the Private Equity Hall of Fame and the Turnaround Management Association Hall of Fame.

 

Sheryl Schwartz is a Senior Managing Director of Perseus and works on mezzanine debt investments, private equity investments, and investor relations. Prior to joining Perseus in 2010, Ms. Schwartz was head of TIAA-CREF’s alternative investment team. She joined TIAA in 1988 and performed a variety of functions there, including three years investing in corporate private placements, two years trading secondary private placements, and four years investing in mortgage and asset-backed securities. Beginning in 1997, Ms. Schwartz was appointed to establish and develop TIAA’s alternative investment portfolio. During the following 13 years, Ms. Schwartz built a diversified portfolio of approximately $13 billion of commitments in alternative investments, including investments in buyouts, venture capital, distressed and turnaround, mezzanine debt, energy and infrastructure, and timber. As head of TIAA’s alternative investment team, Ms. Schwartz managed a team of 10 professionals and was responsible for all fund, direct private equity co-investment, and mezzanine debt opportunities sourced from TIAA’s relationships with fund managers. Ms. Schwartz has over 22 years of experience investing in fixed income and alternative investments. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Association of Venture and Equity, Inc. (WAVE), which is a nonprofit organization that is committed to the development and advancement of women in private equity and venture capital. She was also a long-time member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA).

Ms. Schwartz holds both a B.S. and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

 

David Shapiro is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of KPS Capital Partners, LP, and a member of its Investment Committee. KPS Capital Partners, LP is the manager of KPS Special Situations Funds, a family of private equity funds with over $2.6 billion of committed capital focused on constructive investing in restructurings, turnarounds, bankruptcies and other special situations.

Mr. Shapiro and the Co-Founders of KPS have successfully developed and executed an investment strategy that has resulted in the creation of vibrant and successful enterprises out of assets or companies that were close to shutdown or liquidation, suffering from a history of operating losses, operating in bankruptcy, or in default of obligations to creditors.

Mr. Shapiro currently serves on the Board of Directors of the following KPS portfolio companies: WWRD Holdings Limited, North American Breweries, Inc., HHI Group Holdings, LLC, Motor Coach Industries, Inc., Attends Healthcare Inc., Bristol Compressors International, Inc., Global Brass and Copper, Inc.

Mr. Shapiro previously served on the board of directors of the following KPS portfolio companies that were successfully sold to a variety of U.S. and international strategic and financial buyers: Speedline Technologies, Inc. (Chairman), Blue Heron Paper Company (Chairman), Americast Technologies, Inc., Ashcroft Inc., New Flyer Industries, Ltd. (Chairman), Genesis Worldwide II, Inc., Wire Rope Corporation of America, Inc. (Chairman), and Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc.

Previously, Mr. Shapiro was an investment banker with Drexel Burnham Lambert and Dean Witter Reynolds.

He received a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan with High Honors and an MBA with a Specialization in Finance from the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business.

 

David Shepardson is the Washington Bureau Chief of The Detroit News. He attended the University of Michigan studying history and worked as a free-lance writer for The News starting in 1993. He served as managing news editor of the The Michigan Daily and was an intern at the Middlesex (Massachusetts) News before joining The Detroit News as a staff writer in 1995. He covered a variety of beats in Detroit before moving to the Washington Bureau in March 2006 to cover the auto industry. He was named bureau chief in January 2009.

In June, Mr. Shepardson was part of a team that won the Gerald Loeb award for excellence in business journalism for coverage of the financial struggles and bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. Previously, he has twice been a finalist for the Loeb, for coverage of the bankruptcies of Kmart and Delphi. He has won a number of other investigative and other journalism awards. He regularly appears on NPR and the PBS Newshour. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Nicole.

 

Peter Sotoloff is a Managing Director of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies and is a founding Member.  He is based in New York.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Sotoloff was a Principal at Tribeca Associates, an institutionally capitalized owner, operator and developer in New York City. Mr. Sotoloff oversaw the acquisition, financing and development of large scale office, lodging, for-sale residential and mixed-use assets and portfolios.

Prior to that, Mr. Sotoloff oversaw US financing, nonperforming loan acquisition and global currency and interest rate risk management strategies for the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, a series of global opportunity funds. In addition, Mr. Sotoloff was involved with the management of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Special Situations Fund investment program.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Sotoloff was with Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Funds, a global real estate opportunity fund sponsor.

Mr. Sotoloff has been involved in analyzing and structuring acquisitions and financing for numerous real estate investments across all property types and geographies.

Mr. Sotoloff graduated with highest honors from the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania with a BS in Finance with concentrations in Finance, Real Estate Finance and
Management, and completed the International Business Strategies Program at the London School of Economics.

Mr. Sotoloff is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Urban Land Institute, the CRE Finance Council and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

 

Mr. Streicher has overall responsibility for all of Rockwood's debt capital markets activities and structured transactions. On the debt side, Mr. Streicher is responsible for all of Rockwood’s borrowings, lending, and interest rate and overall leverage management as well the restructuring of all existing loans. Additionally, he is responsible for structured transactions including recapitalization actives with respect to both new investments and existing assets.

Prior to joining Rockwood, Mr. Streicher worked at The Related Companies, a real estate developer, manager and financier. While at Related, Mr. Streicher focused on the repositioning and financing of mixed-use properties.

Prior to the Related Companies, Mr. Streicher was a High Yield Analyst at Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette where he worked on analyzing a verity of different types of companies including, real estate, health care and other companies.

Education
University of Rochester, Bachelor of Arts in English, 1994
Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Masters of Business Administration, 2002
Mr. Streicher is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

 

Aaron P. Wolfe, Managing Director, joined Sun Capital in 2002 and has over a decade of experience in leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, and financings in both the public and private markets. Mr. Wolfe has experience in a wide range of industries including but not limited to retail (including specialty apparel, general merchandise and grocery), distance selling, consumer products, transportation, packaging, general industry and building products. He has significant experience acquiring divisions of large corporations and effectively managing the transition to being a stand alone business. Mr. Wolfe has also been instrumental in a wide range of debt and equity restructurings including the acquisition of numerous companies through bankruptcy processes. In addition to operating in North America, Mr. Wolfe has international experience including working for an affiliate of Sun Capital in London in 2008 and 2009. Prior to joining Sun Capital Partners, he worked with Harris Williams & Co., a boutique investment bank, where he specialized in mergers, acquisitions, and leveraged buyout transactions. Mr. Wolfe graduated, with Distinction, from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a focus on Natural Sciences.

 

Oliver Wriedt is a managing director in Providence’s Capital Markets Group based in our New York office.  Prior to joining Providence in 2010, Mr. Wriedt was a partner at Sciens Capital Management.  Previously, he was a partner and global co-head of marketing and structured products at GoldenTree Asset Management.  Mr. Wriedt spent six years at Deutsche Bank in London and New York, where he held several sales management positions, most recently as managing director running the alternative asset solutions effort in North America.  Before joining Deutsche Bank in 1998, Mr. Wriedt worked for five years at NORD/LB in Hannover, Singapore and New York.  Mr. Wriedt received a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University.

 

Bruce R. Zirinsky is Chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s Global Business Solutions Group and Co-Chairman of the firm’s Business Reorganization & Financial Restructuring Practice. He has focused his practice on U.S. and international financial restructurings and reorganizations for almost 40 years.

In 2008, The American Lawyer named Bruce a “Dealmaker of the Year” for his lead role in the highly successful Chapter 11 reorganization of Northwest Airlines. He is one of the premier bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys in the United States and has represented debtors, creditors, investors and other parties in large and complex restructurings, reorganizations, acquisitions, financings and litigation, covering a broad range of industries and issues. Bruce has played a major role in the restructuring, reorganization, sale or acquisition of many large, complex businesses in the airline, telecommunications, energy, health care, manufacturing, retail, food services, financial services, real estate, rail car, shipping, forest products, petroleum, computer, media, casino gaming, and hospitality industries, among others. He has led a number of recent significant matters, including the acquisitions of Crescent Realty, LandSource Communities and a consortium’s bid to acquire Extended Stay Hotels. Mr. Zirinsky is currently representing creditors in the American Airlines, General Motors and Abitibi-Bowater Chapter 11 cases. He is also currently acting as lead counsel in several out-of-court restructurings.

Bruce’s clients include numerous Fortune 500 companies; public and private companies; commercial banks; investment banks; insurance companies; asset management, private equity and investment funds; and other business enterprises. His practice encompasses counseling debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, creditor committees, public bondholders, shareholders, and investors involved in many of the largest and most complex U.S. and international reorganizations and restructurings, financial transactions, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions.

He has been regularly selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers magazine and listed in Chambers & Partners USA Guide, an annual listing of the leading business lawyers and law firms in the world and Best Lawyers in America®.

Bruce holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.S. from Cornell University.