Wharton Restructuring and Turnaround Conference

Ron Bloom - Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy

Since September of 2009, Ron Bloom has served as the Obama Administration’s Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy. Working closely with the National Economic Council, Mr. Bloom provides leadership on policy development and strategic planning for the President’s agenda to revitalize the manufacturing sector.  Mr. Bloom also serves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury, assigned to the President’s Task Force on the Automotive Industry, a role he has held since February of 2009. In this capacity, Mr. Bloom helped lead the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler LLC.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department Mr. Bloom served as a Special Assistant to the President of the United Steelworkers. His responsibilities included the Union’s collective bargaining program in its core jurisdictions, with an emphasis on the particular issues facing the Steelworkers in its dealings with companies facing financial difficulties or undertaking corporate transactions. He also coordinated the Union’s relationships with investors, in both public and private companies.

Prior to joining the Steelworkers, Mr. Bloom was one of the founding partners of the investment banking firm of Keilin and Bloom. The firm focused on financial transactions where employees played a role as stakeholders.

Prior to founding Keilin and Bloom, Mr. Bloom was a Vice President at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co. While at Lazard, Mr. Bloom worked on a wide variety of corporate transactions including mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and divestitures.

Mr. Bloom served as a research and negotiations specialist for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). While at SEIU he negotiated collective bargaining agreements in both the public and private sector, supervised contract administration, and directed a number of successful organizing campaigns.

Mr. Bloom, 55, was born in New York City. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and graduated with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

He currently lives in Pittsburgh.  

Jonathan S. Lavine - Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Sankaty Advisors

Jonathan Lavine is a Managing Director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston.

Mr. Lavine serves as the managing partner and Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors, Bain Capital’s fixed income and credit affiliate, which he founded in 1997. Today, Sankaty is one of the leading credit and distressed debt managers, with over 160 employees in offices in Boston, London, Chicago and New York and approximately $20 billion in committed assets under management.

Before the formation of Sankaty, Mr. Lavine worked in Bain Capital’s private equity business which he joined in 1993. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Lavine was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department.

An active participant in charitable organizations, Mr. Lavine is Chair of the Columbia College Board of Visitors, a member of the Boards of the Dana Hall School, Children’s Hospital Trust, City Year, Horizons for Homeless Children, and Stand for Children. Mr. Lavine also serves as a Director of the Boston Celtics.

Mr. Lavine received an M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia College. He was a 2008 recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. While at Columbia, he received the David Truman Award for outstanding contribution to the academic affairs of the college. In 2004, Mr. Lavine was named as one of the 40 outstanding Bostonians under the age of 40 by Boston Business Journal.

Marc Lasry - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Avenue Capital Group

Mr. Lasry is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a Co-Founder of Avenue. He is also a co-founder of Amroc. Since February 2009, Mr. Lasry has assumed day-to-day investment responsibilities for the Avenue U.S. funds. Distressed investing has been the focus of his professional career for over 24 years. Prior to operating Amroc as an independent entity, Mr. Lasry managed capital for Amroc Investments, L.P., the predecessor firm associated with Robert Bass Group, Inc. Mr. Lasry and Amroc Investments, L.P. were affiliated with Acadia Partners L.P., an investment partnership whose general partners include Keystone, Inc. (an investment firm that was associated with the Robert Bass Group, Inc.), American Express Company and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America. Prior to that, Mr. Lasry was Co-Director of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department at Cowen & Company. Prior to that time, he served as Director of the Private Debt Department at Smith Vasiliou Management Company. Mr. Lasry also clerked for the Honorable Edward Ryan, former Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Southern District of New York. Mr. Lasry has served and will continue to serve on the board of advisors/directors of both for-profit and not-for-profit public and private companies that are not affiliated with Avenue.

Mr. Lasry received a B.A. in History from Clark University (1981) and a J.D. from New York Law School (1984).