2020 The M&A Advisor Virtual Series

Speaker Bios

Rachelle Kakouris

Director, Research, S&P Global Markets Intelligence

Rachelle specializes in data-driven trend analysis and commentary on the leveraged finance markets, focusing her efforts on showcasing developments and movements as tracked by LCD’s S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index – a widely used proxy for the $1.2 trillion leveraged loan market.

Joining LCD in 2014, Rachelle honed her leveraged finance background covering the often complex subset of distressed debt; placing particular emphasis on unearthing the detail behind the balance sheet maneuvers of companies on the brink, and market-moving trends as they relate to stress identifiers in broader market indices.

Before joining LCD, Rachelle wrote for Reuters and IFR on the U.S. high-yield corporate bond market in New York, and prior to that on sovereign and covered bonds as a markets reporter in London during the height of the financial crisis. Rachelle got her start as a research analyst at Thomson Financial, and interning at UBS.

Alexander Gladstone

Reporter, Wall Street Journal

Alexander Gladstone covers financial distress and restructuring for The Wall Street Journal and WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. He was previously at Debtwire, and before that spent several years as a business correspondent in Shanghai, China

Kevin Carey

Partner, Hogan Lovells

Judge Carey is a partner in Hogan Lovells US LLP’s Business Restructuring and Insolvency practice, resident in the firm’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office. Judge Carey was first appointed to the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2001, then, in 2005, began service on the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (as chief judge from 2008-2011). Judge Carey is on the Executive Committee of the Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute and serves as Vice President of Membership. He is a past Global Chairman of the Turnaround Management Association and is an honorary member of the Turnaround, Restructuring and Distressed Investing Hall of Fame. Judge Carey is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the International Insolvency Institute. He is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Judge Carey is also a part-time adjunct professor in the LL.M. in Bankruptcy program at St. John’s University School of Law in New York City, New York. He began his legal career in 1979 as law clerk to Bankruptcy Judge Thomas M. Twardowski, and then served as Clerk of Court of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Judge Carey received his J.D. in 1979 from the Villanova University School of Law and his B.A. in 1976 from The Pennsylvania State University.

Perry Mandarino

Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Investment Banking And Head of Restructuring, B. Riley Securities, Inc.

Perry Mandarino is senior managing director, co-head of investment banking and head of corporate restructuring at B. Riley Securities, Inc. He has advised several hundred companies over his 30-year career in corporate finance and has significant retail and consumer industry expertise. He helps companies develop strategic solutions and financial alternatives to improve operational inefficiencies, specializing in complex debt and equity transactions and strategic planning in support of companies’ business transformation initiatives. He has advised stakeholders across a broad range of industries, including retail, distribution, communications, business services, manufacturing, healthcare, construction energy and real estate companies, among others. Perry is nationally recognized for his contributions to the financial services industry as a thought leader. He regularly speaks at conferences and is a frequent contributor to the media on the evolving retail industry landscape. He regularly appears on CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, among others.

Jack Butler

CEO, Birch Lake

One of the most highly regarded dealmakers and thought leaders in the restructuring, corporate reorganization and M&A communities, Jack has been credited as one of the principal architects of restructuring solutions for dozens of companies across a diverse range of industries, including Delphi Corporation, Kmart Corporation, Masonite International, Inc., Per-Se Technologies, Inc., Rite Aid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, Warnaco Group, Inc., Xerox Corporation and on behalf of creditors in the American Airlines’ reorganization and merger with US Airways Group, Inc. He co-founded the corporate restructuring practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he was a practice leader for twenty-three years and previously served on the executive leadership team at Hilco Global. Jack’s recent transactions at Birch Lake include leadership of merchant banking relationships in the food, consumer electronics, legal tech and transportation industries, among others.

Jack is a member of the M&A Advisor Hall of Fame and the Turnaround, Restructuring and Distressed Investing Industry Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is awarded to Americans who exemplify outstanding qualities in both their personal and professional lives. In 2016, Jack received the Harvey R. Miller Outstanding Achievement Award for Service to the Restructuring Industry and he and his family were honored with the Anti-Defamation League’s Jerold S. Solovy Freedom Award. A founder and past chairman of the Turnaround Management Association, Jack has served in leadership positions for many other industry organizations, including the American Bankruptcy Institute, American Board of Certification, Commercial Finance Association and its Education Foundation, INSOL International and New York Institute of Credit. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy and International Insolvency Institute.

Jack received an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. In addition to serving in leadership positions with numerous civic and charitable organizations, he officiated high school and college football for many years and is a lifetime member of the American Football Coaches Association.

Jay Goffman

Vice Chairman Global Advisory, Rothschild & Co.

Jay Goffman is a Vice Chairman of Rothschild & Co’s Global Advisory practice in North America, advising clients across the firm’s Restructuring, Debt and M&A practices. Mr. Goffman has over 36 years of experience in restructuring and M&A, and prior to joining Rothschild & Co in 2020, he was the Global Co-Head of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Corporate Restructuring Group. Mr. Goffman has been honored with numerous awards directly related to restructuring. He was named among The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers by The National Law Journal in 2010. He was recognized as one of The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers of the Year in 2011 for his work in restructuring MGM, the largest prepackaged bankruptcy ever completed in under 33 days. In the 2011 Financial Times’ U.S. Innovative Lawyers report, Mr. Goffman was named as one of the 10 most innovative lawyers in the U.S. and recognized as a “pioneer” and a leader in out-of-court and prepackaged restructurings. In 2016, Mr. Goffman was presented with the Restructuring Leadership Achievement award at the 8th Annual Turnaround Atlas Awards recognizing his leadership and numerous contributions to the broader restructuring community over more than three decades. In 2016, The American Lawyer bestowed upon Mr. Goffman its Transatlantic Finance Dealmaker: Restructuring (U.S.) award for his contributions to international restructuring. In 2015, the New York Institute of Credit bestowed upon Mr. Goffman its 42nd Leadership in Credit Education Award for his dedication and commitment to the credit industry. He also has been named one of Law360’s MVPs and one of the Leading Restructuring Attorneys in the U.S. by Turnarounds and Workouts on numerous occasions. Mr. Goffman holds a BS from The State University of New York of Binghamton and a JD with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Duncan Bourne

Managing Director, Wynnchurch Capital

Duncan Bourne has been with Wynnchurch since 2003. He brought more than twenty-two years of consulting and operational experience to the firm, including stints as Senior Manager with Ernst & Young, Senior Associate with Alix Partners and Partner with BDO Seidman LLP. Duncan began his career with BP Amoco as a chemical engineer. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional and a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor.

Steven Liff

Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Equity, North America, Sun Capital

M. Steven Liff, Senior Managing Director & Head of Private Equity in North America, has extensive leveraged finance and mergers and acquisitions experience. Mr. Liff is a member of Sun Capital's Investment Committee which approves all investments made by Sun Capital. In addition, Mr. Liff is a member of the Sun Capital Executive Committee which oversees and manages the overall strategy of the firm. Aside from his committee responsibilities, Mr. Liff manages the North American private equity team which includes the offices in Boca Raton, Los Angeles, and New York City. Furthermore, Mr. Liff provides oversight for the transaction team in Europe to ensure commonality in our investment approach on a global basis. Prior to joining Sun Capital in March of 2000, he worked at NationsBank and Bank of America Commercial Finance, focusing on marketing, underwriting, and closing new leveraged finance transactions.

Nick Leone

Partner in the Restructuring and Special Situations Group, PJT Partners

Nick Leone is a Partner in the Restructuring and Special Situations Group at PJT Partners, based in New York. Mr. Leone has spent more than 25 years in finance, advising companies in a wide range of activities including restructuring, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining PJT Partners, Mr. Leone worked at Blackstone for 20 years, serving as a Senior Managing Director. Before that, Mr. Leone worked at both Drexel Burnham and Salomon Brothers. Mr. Leone has been involved in a variety of restructuring transactions across numerous industries. In addition to his experience advising U.S. companies, he has represented companies based in Brazil, England, France and Canada. Mr. Leone received a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Peter Kaufman

President and Head of Restructuring and Distressed M&A, Gordian Group, LLC

Peter Kaufman is President of Gordian Group, the leading investment bank focused solely on advising boards and private equity firms interested in shareholder recoveries in tough situations. He heads the firm’s Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice. Peter has been ranked the #1 investment banker nationally in financial restructuring. He is the co-author of the definitive books in the field, Distressed Investment Banking: To the Abyss and Back – 2nd Edition and Equity Holders Under Siege: Strategies and Tactics for Distressed Businesses. He is also the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bacchus Capital Management, a private equity firm that invests in wineries. Mr. Kaufman received a B.A. with honors in History and Art History from Yale College (where he lettered in lacrosse), and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated in the top quarter of his class and where he serves as an Adjunct teaching “Advising Boards of Directors Under Siege”.

Liam Logue

EVP Global Corporate Development, UDG Healthcare plc

Liam Logue is Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Development at UDG Healthcare plc., leading all of its investment activity. Liam joined UDG in 2003 and has led its transformation from an Irish and UK distribution services company into an international pharmaceutical services business. UDG has invested in more than 50 acquisitions and joint ventures in this timeframe, and today has operations in 35 countries.

Liam is based in UDG’s North American offices in New Jersey.

Prior to UDG, Liam worked in investment banking with IBI Corporate Finance (Bank of Ireland), venture capital with CFM Capital and trained as an accountant with KPMG.

Liam graduated with a B.Sc in Accounting and Finance from Queen’s University Belfast and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School through its flagship executive management program.

John Tishler

Partner, Waller Law

John Tishler is a partner in the Nashville office of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP where his legal practice focuses on the representation of hospitals, health systems and healthcare companies – along with their financial advisors and lenders – in complex strategic transactions involving organizations facing financial difficulty. Leveraging more than three decades of experience as an insolvency and restructuring attorney, Mr. Tishler develops and delivers creative solutions and strategic planning advice that address both immediate challenges and long-term objectives. His extensive experience includes corporate insolvency/board advice; creditor’s rights; financial services; defaulted bonds and commercial litigation.

Mr. Tishler earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Tennessee College of Law where he served as editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Law Review. He earned a B.A., cum laude, from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Tishler is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and a past president of the Tennessee Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. John was named “Lawyer of the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America© 2021 for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law in Nashville, Tennessee. He served Waller as its chairman from 2008 to 2014.

Emily Johnson

Member, McDonald Hopkins

Emily focuses her practice on matters primarily for clients in the healthcare industry. She provides regulatory and compliance assistance on both a federal and state level. She has assisted clinical laboratories, hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, community hospitals, physician specialty groups, telehealth providers, surgery centers, healthcare associations, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers on regulatory, licensing, compliance, reimbursement, contractual, and corporate matters. She has provided support to entities during licensure and accreditation surveys and assisted in navigating state professional licensure laws, CLIA standards and state and federal laboratory laws and regulations, government and private payor reimbursement, state and federal fraud and abuse rules, state telehealth laws, and state and federal pharmacy regulation. She also has advised clients on direct to consumer testing issues and applicable state requirements.

She also has experience with provider-based compliance issues and the 340B Federal Drug Pricing Program, including implementation, program compliance, audit preparation, and preparing for audits conducted by the Office of Pharmacy Affairs.

In addition, she has significant experience with HIPAA compliance, including drafting HIPAA policies and procedures, breach response and notification, drafting responses to investigations conducted by the Office for Civil Rights, and advising clients on proactive HIPAA compliance and breach prevention.

Prior to joining McDonald Hopkins, Emily served as healthcare attorney/senior consultant at a national legal-based healthcare management consulting firm and outside counsel to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

Emily earned a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in 2010. She received a B.A., Dean's List, from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2005.

Steven Fleming

Partner, US Leader – Business Recovery Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Steve is a Principal in the New York office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and the US leader of the firm’s Business Recovery Services practice (“BRS”). He has more than 22 years of business advisory experience with PwC, during which he has been assigned to the firm’s London, New York and Dubai offices.

Steve has provided financial advisory services to many of our local and international clients, spanning the whole deal spectrum from devising acquisition/disposal strategies to performing valuations and due diligence, business reviews, and negotiating with potential investors. He has extensive experience in assisting distressed companies in the development of pro forma financial statements, the preparation and analysis of business plans and strategic alternatives, analysis of cash flow and working capital management, identification of liquidity enhancing activities, including the execution of cost savings initiatives, and the identification and prosecution of avoidance actions, including preferences and fraudulent transfers.

He has experience serving as a Chief Restructuring Officer (“CRO”) in connection with Chapter 11 cases, and has been qualified as an expert witness with respect to Valuation, DIP financing, §363 transactions and other bankruptcy related matters.

Vin Batra

Managing Director, Configure Partners

Vin has more than 25 years of investment banking and financial advisory experience across mergers and acquisitions, financings, and special situations.

Prior to joining Configure Partners, Vin was a Managing Director at various investment banks including Duff & Phelps, Alvarez & Marsal and Deloitte Corporate Finance. Vin spent the early part of his career at Lehman Brothers and Arthur Andersen.

Vin received his M.B.A. from New York’s University’s Stern School of Business. He is a Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder and a C.P.A. (Inactive; State of Colorado).

Vin is also a FINRA General Securities Registered Representative (Series 7, 63 and 24). Vin resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

Amy Cappellanti-Wolf

Board Member & Former Chief Human Resources Officer

Amy Cappellanti-Wolf is an accomplished senior human resources professional, executive coach, public speaker, with leadership experience from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Her expertise focuses on developing high performance teams and guiding organizations through complex and challenging business transformations, including pre-IPO, rapid growth, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and consolidations. Her management roles span high-tech (Symantec, Silver Spring Networks, Cisco, Sun Microsystems), entertainment (The Walt Disney Company), and consumer goods (Frito-Lay). Amy’s specialty areas include Business Transformation and Change Management, Organizational Design and Process Management, Business Partnership, and Total Rewards.

Amy holds an M.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations and a B.S. in Journalism and Public Relations, both from WVU. She provides ongoing support of children and foster children as a Board member of the non-profit Pivotal and serves as an advisor to several private companies. Recently named one of the top 50 most influential women tech leaders by the National Diversity Council, Amy has been a Forbes Human Resources Council Official Member since September 2018. She sits on the Board of Directors for Softchoice and Betterworks in addition to serving on Betterworks HR Advisory Council. In October 2019, Amy was named to the Roll of Distinguished Alumni at WVU’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics.

Shari Yocum

Principal, People Advisory Americas Transaction Leader, Ernst & Young

Shari Yocum is a Principal leading EY's People Transaction Practice in the Americas. With more than twenty years of experience, Shari has successfully advised global companies on complex mergers & acquisitions, large corporate change initiatives, and HR transformations. As a practitioner of HR, Shari spent a number of years working in HR COE’s and as a client facing HR Business Leader in the large technology firms. Shari is often cited in industry publications on Human Resources Strategy and Post-Merger Integration issues and she speaks regularly at industry conferences.

Navin Nagrani

Executive Vice President, Hilco Real Estate

Over the fifteen years Navin has been with Hilco, he has served as a central deal maker in many of Hilco’s largest principal and advisory-related transactions. His primary responsibilities include leading several key strategic initiatives for the firm, including shaping the real estate business development strategy and execution as well as overseeing deal origination, deal qualification and transaction structuring.

Navin is on the Executive Board of Directors for the Real Estate Investment Association (REIA) where he previously served a term as President. He is Director of Strategy for the Young Real Estate Professionals Association and sits on the National Board of Trustees for the Turnaround Management Association (TMA). Navin is also an active member of the Restaurant Leadership Advisory Council.

A published author of articles, Navin frequently speaks at industry events on the topics of restructuring and real estate. He is sought after in the real estate industry, having been named to the prestigious “40 Under 40” list of top executive leaders by both M&A Advisors and, more recently, the Commercial Finance Association. Navin is also an award-winning member of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA).

Sanjay Kacholiya

Vice President, Strategic Business Development, Citrix

Sanjay Kacholiya is a seasoned tech executive with over 20 years of experience across numerous functional areas including Corporate/Business Development, Strategy, Finance, and Operations. His career spans both consumer and enterprise environments within larger public and privately held companies as well. Sanjay has worked across several domains including hardware, enterprise software, industrial software, b2b/b2c, and media/telecom.

Sanjay currently leads Corporate Development for Citrix Systems. In this role, he oversees all M&A activity, strategic investments, OEM partnerships, and integration.

Prior to his role at Citrix, Sanjay was at GE Digital, the software and analytics division of GE. In this role, Sanjay led several activities including M&A, JV's, partnerships, and other projects across all of GE Digital’s operating regions worldwide. He has led numerous strategic initiatives which have positioned GE Digital as a leader in the Industrial Internet space.

Before his time at GE Digital, Sanjay led M&A, BD, and platform partnerships for Eventbrite (IPO: EB), a leader in the ticketing and event management space. Prior to Eventbrite, Sanjay led M&A and strategy for Synopsys a leading provider of technical design software. He executed numerous acquisitions across the globe that fueled the company's growth and were instrumental in establishing its top market share position.

He has also spent time within the Strategy & Corporate Development groups at both Cisco and HP where evaluated and led numerous acquisitions and strategic initiatives.

Sanjay graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

He serves on the advisory board for Junior Achievement Silicon Valley.

Emily Slater

Managing Director, Burford Capital

Responsible for assessing and underwriting legal risk across a broad range of practice areas and for identifying high-value investments in the marketplace.

Prior to Burford, Emily was a litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, where she specialized in complex securities and other bet-the-company litigation and regulatory investigations.

Cathy Reece

Director, Fennemore

Cathy has represented committees and trustees in large Ponzi-scheme/securities fraud cases and has helped draft the plans and trust documents to set up trusts, as well as representing trusts implementing the plans.

Cathy has represented secured lenders, municipalities, committees, unsecured creditors, trustees in large chapter 11 cases, such as Baptist Foundation of Arizona, Mortgages Ltd., El Paso Refinery, Coyote Hockey, and Veris Gold USA, and in numerous real estate cases involving shopping centers, office buildings, apartments/condos, health care, hotels, mines and manufacturing facilities.

Eric Fisher

Partner, Binder & Schwartz

His practice focuses on bankruptcy litigation and other complex commercial disputes

Mr. Fisher has handled numerous high-stakes bankruptcy litigations, including serving as special counsel to the creditors’ committee in the General Motors bankruptcy proceedings and as plan administrator in the bankruptcy proceedings of DPH Holdings Corporation (formerly known as Delphi Corporation).

Corey Massella

Partner, UHY LLP, Managing Director, UHY Advisors

Corey Massella has more than twenty-five years of experience as an entrepreneur, tax, and business advisor, and as a specialist in SEC accounting and audit services. Additionally, Corey has experience serving as a Private Equity and Technology Industry Group Practice Leader for a Top Twenty accounting firm.

Corey has successfully guided his clients through all facets of the mergers and acquisitions transaction cycle to help them make critical decisions, while ensuring transactions are strategic and seamless. He has deep experience advising private equity funds, hedge funds, banks, broker-dealers, investor relations firms, and various other financial services companies. As a business consultant, Corey has worked with CEOs and CFOs, as well as the boards of both public and private clients. He has performed due diligence and negotiations on both the buy and sell sides. Corey also has experience preparing business plans and initial public offerings (IPO), and with cash flow and productivity analysis to help scale businesses for growth, as well as extensive knowledge and experience in complex tax structuring and planning.

In 2015, Corey was selected as the winner of the SmartCEO award for Industry CPA Leader in New York. He has served as moderator for several conferences, including ACG NY’s “M&A Landscape: Diving into Four of the Hot Industry Sectors” and “The M&A Advisor Summit,” and has authored numerous articles.

Ross Gatlin

Managing Partner, Prophet Equity

As Managing Partner of Prophet Equity, Mr. Gatlin is focused on identifying, making, managing and realizing a portfolio of control investments in strategically viable, asset intensive, middle market companies where there are significant value creation opportunities and maintaining key financial and banking relationships in order to maximize portfolio companies’ financial returns. He is also focused on driving increases in equity value by optimizing portfolio and business unit strategy while being responsible for day-to-day operations of the partnership and relations with the limited partners. He is a member of the Office of Change Management of each investment.

Mr. Gatlin has 20 years of private equity investment experience having been a founding partner and principal of three successful private equity firms and funds focused in this specific investment segment. He has experience across every element of the private equity value chain having led the sourcing, structuring, closing, managing and realization of top tier returns for investment partners. His track record over the last twenty years includes over $650 million dollars of control private equity investments spanning approximately 75 corporate entities with over $6.0 billion in combined revenue. These investments have generated value of ~$2.45B for investors thus far, the vast majority of which has been fully realized. The Internal Rate of Return for these investments defines the very top of the private equity industry standard.

Prior to founding Prophet Equity, Mr. Gatlin was a Founding Partner and Principal of a Southlake-based private equity firm. As a Founding Partner, Chief Restructuring Officer and Managing Director, Mr. Gatlin was responsible for sourcing, structuring and closing high return investments and driving value creation post close. In this capacity, he helped build a portfolio of companies investing approximately $100M of capital yielding +$770M in value. Mr. Gatlin served as a member of the Office of Change Management of each Portfolio Company as well as sometimes taking on the operating roles of Chief Restructuring Officer and/or Chief Financial Officer at each company. In addition, Mr. Gatlin continues to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of each of the investments he participated in. Prior to this experience, Ross was a founding principal of Carlyle Management Group in Dallas, Texas where he also helped build and manage $176M of invested capital yielding +$900M of value. Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Gatlin worked as a senior manager at Bain & Company, helping develop and successfully implement strategic and operational turnarounds primarily for well known Fortune 500 companies and their subsidiaries.

Prior to Bain, Mr. Gatlin served as a financial restructuring advisor and investment banker at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. At Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Gatlin worked across a myriad of industries as an advisor to Creditors, Debtors and Equity holders in devising and implementing in-court and out-of-court sales, reorganizations and exchange offers as well as corporate finance activities such as debt and equity capital raising, valuations, mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Gatlin has extensive corporate finance, principal investing, strategy, and business management experience across multiple industries including: aerospace, airline, automotive, business and consumer services, cable, computer hardware and software, consumer products, defense, distribution, equipment, energy, food, healthcare, manufacturing, medical device, pharmaceutical, real estate, satellite, ship repair, staffing, steel, synthetic turf, tanker trailer, transportation and telecommunications sectors. His experience ranges across the value chain and includes some of the most successful companies in the world as well as underperforming and distressed turnaround situations where significant value was also created. Mr. Gatlin’s work includes mergers and post-merger integration, acquisitions, acquisition financing, recapitalizations, work outs, turnarounds, financial restructurings, exchange offers, due diligence, business valuations, detailed financial modeling and the design and valuation of complex securities. His experience also includes corporate and business unit strategy development, full potential cash creation planning and implementation, new product development, marketing and brand strategy, dealer and distribution optimization, process reengineering, complexity management, cost reduction, plant consolidation, headcount reduction and procurement optimization projects to name a few.

Ross has been a frequent speaker at private equity related conferences on subjects such as Turnaround Investing, Driving Value Creation, The 363 Sale Process, Distressed Investing, Holistic Value Creation™ (HVC™) and other related topics. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where he was one of only two in his class to receive both the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award and Beta Gamma Sigma honors. He earned his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in finance.

Rob Colorina

Director / Advisor, American Industrial Acquisition Co.

Rob is an Investor with experience in corporate, growth, turnaround, and start up situations. Rob is also a previous political appointee in the U.S. related to United Nations, Asia, and technology. Prior platforms include Ford Motor Company, Bank of America, Keppel (Asia) IVI Investments, and family office.

Jamila Justine Willis

Partner, DLA Piper

Jamila Justine Willis focuses her practice in the area of financial and corporate restructuring and has extensive experience in complex restructurings across industries.

Jamila represents debtors, distressed investors, sponsors, purchasers of distress assets and other interested parties in a wide range of restructuring and insolvency matters, including cases under chapters 11 and 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code and cross-border insolvency proceedings.

In addition, Jamila represents debtors, secured creditors, acquirers and distressed investors in distressed asset sales and acquisitions, including Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 foreclosure sales and Bankruptcy Code Section 363 sales.

Jamila also advises firm clients in liquidations, corporate wind-downs, bankruptcy litigation and other bankruptcy-related matters.



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