Panelists

Distressed Hedge Fund Panel – Window of Opportunity or Time for Restraint?

Cyrus Pardiwala - Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Cyrus Pardiwala is a Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and a member of the leadership team of the Business Recovery Services practice. Since joining the firm more than 18 years ago, he has worked in both a principal and advisory capacity on complex global transactions and corporate restructurings. Mr Pardiwala has helped companies restructure, and revitalize their operations and capital structure. focusing on stabilizing the operations, diagnosing troubled areas, developing and implementing operational and financial improvements and solutions, and negotiating restructuring proposals with creditors and other constituents. He also has extensive experience in advising financially distressed corporations to prepare for and restructure under the protection of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Areas of significant industry experience include electric utilities, power generation, commercial aviation, retailing, automotive and professional services organizations. He has specific expertise in dealing with cross border business issues, and he has worked in Europe, Asia and South America.

Mr. Pardiwala received a Master of Sciences in Finance from Texas A&M University and a Master of Management Studies in Engineering Management from BITS (Pilani) in India. He is a graduate of Stanford University’s Global Senior Executive Management Program.

Ivan Krsticevic - Brigade Capital Management

Mr. Krsticevic is a Partner at Brigade Capital Management and Co-Portfolio Manager of its Distressed Value Fund. Prior to joining Brigade Capital in 2009, Mr. Krsticevic was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Elliott Management Corp., where he focused on event-driven investments across the entire capital structures of North American and European companies. During his tenure from 1999 through 2009, he acted as a generalist, investing across a broad spectrum of industries. During this time, Mr. Krsticevic also served on a number of official and ad hoc creditors committees of bankrupt companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Krsticevic worked at Bear Stearns from 1997 through 1999, where he was a financial analyst in the Natural Resources Group. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Krsticevic worked as a financial analyst in the M&A department of Westar Energy from 1996 through 1997. Mr. Krsticevic holds a BBA with a concentration in Finance and Economics from Washburn University.

Kevin Lydon - Strategic Value Partners

Kevin Lydon, Managing Director, 40. Mr. Lydon oversees trading globally for the distressed strategies. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Lydon was a Managing Director and Co-Head of European and Asian Special Situations in London at Credit Suisse. From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Lydon was at Merrill Lynch, most recently serving as a Managing Director and Co-Head of European Leveraged Finance Trading in London (and was previously based in New York) where he managed a substantial trading book of distressed loans. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Lydon worked as an Analyst at Fitch Investment Services in New York. Mr. Lydon received an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 2000 and a Bachelor of Economics at Washington and Lee University in 1992.

Andrew Milgram - Marblegate Asset Management

Andrew Milgram is Managing Partner and CIO of Marblegate Asset Management. Prior to forming Marblegate, Mr. Milgram was a Principal at Epic Asset Management where he was responsible for generating, evaluating, executing, and managing investments in a portfolio of distressed and special situation assets across a variety of industry sectors over the last 5 years. In addition, he coordinated the firm's overall research process and directed its team of investment analysts. Mr. Milgram has sat on a variety of official and ad-hoc creditor committees and has been deeply involved in a number of corporate restructurings in both the United States and abroad. Prior to joining Epic, Mr. Milgram was a part of the capital market businesses at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Mr. Milgram began his career at Swiss Bank Corp (now UBS) where he was part of the global emerging market team responsible for the bank's proprietary investments in Russia, Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Milgram holds the Charted Financial Analyst designation and graduated from Colby College with a BA in Economics and International Studies. Mr. Milgram is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Stephen G. Moyer - PIMCO

Mr. Moyer is a senior vice president, portfolio manager and analyst in the distressed debt group in the Newport Beach office. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2009, he was a director with Tennenbaum Capital Partners. Previously, he was a partner and director of research at Imperial Capital, and he has also held positions at Banc of America Securities, Kemper Securities, Drexel Burnham Lambert, First Boston and the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. He has 24 years of investment experience and holds a JD from Stanford University School of Law and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He received an undergraduate degree from Grinnell College. He is the author of "Distressed Debt Analysis: Strategies for Speculative Investors," a leading textbook in the field.

Michael Weinstock - Monarch Alternative Capital

Mr. Weinstock is a co-founder and co-Portfolio Manager of Monarch Alternative Capital LP. Prior to forming Monarch in March 2002, Mr. Weinstock was a Managing Director of Lazard and served as co-Portfolio Manager of the Lazard Debt Recovery Funds. In 1992, he joined Lazard’s then-recently formed High Yield Bond Department as a Vice President to build a distressed debt research effort. Under Mr. Weinstock’s leadership, Lazard’s distressed debt research team was ranked #1 in the distressed debt category by Institutional Investor magazine in 1998. Prior to joining Lazard, Mr. Weinstock became a distressed debt research analyst in 1991 when he joined R.D. Smith & Co., a pioneer in the field of distressed debt investing. Prior to that, he was an investment banker for seven years at Salomon Brothers and Goldman Sachs working on corporate finance, securitization, and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He currently serves on the Investment Committee of the Jewish Community Foundation. Mr. Weinstock graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, with a B.S. in Economics and from Harvard Business School with an M.B.A.

Case Study Panel – Restructuring of General Growth Properties

Elizabeth Abams - Miller Buckfire

Elizabeth Abrams is a Vice President of Miller Buckfire. Ms. Abrams’s restructuring transaction experience includes representing companies and stakeholders across a variety of sectors. Previous transactions include representing General Growth Properties, Inc., Calpine Corporation, LNR Partners (special servicer for Innkeepers), The Pyramid Companies/Palisades Center, American Capital, Ltd., Greatwide Logistics Services, Inc., Gate Gourmet, Mirant Corporation (Creditors’ Committee), Dura Automotive Systems, Inc., CDX Gas, LLC (Creditors' Committee), Applied Extrusion Technologies, Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Creditors’ Committee), Dow Corning Corporation (Creditors’ Committee).

Ms. Abrams has a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School and a B.A.S. from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ronen Bojmel - Miller Buckfire

Ronen Bojmel is a Managing Director of Miller Buckfire. Prior to joining Miller Buckfire, Mr. Bojmel was a member of the financial restructuring group of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, formerly Wasserstein Perella & Co., which he joined in 1996. Mr. Bojmel's transaction experience includes representing numerous companies and other constituents in a variety of chapter 11, out-of-court and other restructuring transactions, including most recently General Growth Properties, Standard Pacific Corp., Simmons Bedding Company, Vulcan Capital on Charter Communications, CW Capital (special servicer for Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village), LNR Partners (special servicer for Innkeepers), and Neff Corp. Additionally, Mr. Bojmel has advised in various leveraged finance and merger and acquisition transactions.

In his role as lead restructuring banker of General Growth Properties ("GGP"), Mr. Bojmel was the architect of GGP's landmark CMBS restructuring agreement with a group of the nation's most prominent special servicers and its multi-staged exit strategy from chapter 11. In his role as the lead banker of Simmons Bedding, Mr. Bojmel led Simmons through a fully consensual prepackaged restructuring, effectuated as a sale under a plan and which was subject to FTC review, to Ares Management and Ontario Teachers, the owner of Serta, another bedding company.

Mr. Bojmel was recognized by Turnaround Management Association in 2005, receiving an award for Midsize Company Transaction of the Year for his work on Grupo TMM and again in 2009, receiving an award for Large Transaction of the Year for his work on Simmons Bedding Company. Mr. Bojmel is a frequent speaker in restructuring-related conferences. Mr. Bojmel moved to New York from Israel in 1992 having been recruited to securities operations for aviation security under the Consul General of the Government of Israel, while simultaneously obtaining his B.B.A. in finance from Hofstra University (magna cum laude). Prior to arriving in New York, Mr. Bojmel fulfilled his mandatory military service by joining the Israeli Defense Forces as a soldier, and after two years was selected for officer training on a fast track. After completion of his officer training, he led a field combat unit and reached the rank of Captain.

Andrew Dietderich - Sullivan & Cromwell

Andrew (Andy) Dietderich is a deal lawyer focused on restructuring and bankruptcy transactions and special situation investments. He has extensive experience in finance, securities and M&A transactions, and currently coordinates Sullivan & Cromwell's Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group. Mr. Dietderich's recent engagements include: representing Pershing Square and Fairholme Capital Management in their $3.925 billion capital commitment for the stand-alone plan of General Growth Properties, representing The Weinstein Company in the successful out-of-court restructuring of various indebtedness, representing Ares Management and Teachers' Private Capital, the owners of Serta, as plan sponsors in the acquisition of Simmons Bedding, representing the Board of Directors of CIT Group Inc. in its analysis of restructuring alternatives, representing Fiat and New Chrysler in the purchase of substantially all of the assets of Chrysler in bankruptcy, and representing RR Donnelley in its bid to acquire substantially all of the assets of Quebecor World in bankruptcy. Mr. Dietderich has received numerous recognitions as a leading lawyer in restructuring matters.

John Dischner - AlixPartners

John Dischner is a Managing Director in the turnaround and restructuring services practice, and has held officer and advisory roles in various large restructurings. Mr. Dischner has over 12 years of experience in crisis management and business reorganizations, and has demonstrated expertise assisting companies with financial restructurings, operational improvement plans, asset sales and liquidity management. Mr. Dischner has led the resolution of several challenging situations in a broad cross section of industries including real estate and homebuilding, financial services, manufacturing and consumer products, environmental services and telecommunications.

Mr. Dischner earned a Master of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Northwestern University.

Marcia Goldstein - Weil Gotshal & Manges

Marcia Goldstein is chair of the Business Finance & Restructuring department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and a member of the firm's Management Committee. She has practiced with the firm for over thirty years in all areas of domestic and international debt restructuring as well as crisis management and corporate governance. She has been a lecturer at Yale Law School, Columbia Law School and Cornell Law School and is a frequent speaker at restructuring seminars both domestically and internationally.

Ms. Goldstein has been the lead restructuring lawyer assisting AIG with respect to various aspects of the overall restructuring of the company, including its obligations to the Federal Reserve, leads the firm's restructuring for Kaupthing Bank, the largest Icelandic bank which is in insolvency proceedings in Iceland and Chapter 15 in the US and serves as lead restructuring counsel for General Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT which is the largest real estate company to seek Chapter 11 relief. She also serves as lead counsel in the Chapter 11 cases of Extended Stay Hotels, a chain of 680 hotels, Washington Mutual Corp., LandSource, a large land development company, Advanta Corp, provider of small-business credit card account services, and BearingPoint. She served as lead counsel in the restructuring of WorldCom, Inc., achieving confirmation of its plan of reorganization in fifteen months, and in the international restructuring of Parmalat S.p.A., and led the firm’s representation of Eurotunnel. In Atkins Nutritionals, Ms. Goldstein represented the company in achieving its reorganization in Chapter 11 in only five months, including the resolution of potential fraudulent transfer litigation. She has also represented debtors, bank groups, secured and unsecured creditors, statutory creditors' committees, trustees, and other parties in other major debt restructurings and Chapter 11 cases. These include Alliance Mortgage, American Home Mortgage, Hollinger, Inc., Galvex Holdings, Inc., North American Bus Industries Rt., Regal Cinemas, Inc., Washington Group International, Inc., AMF Bowling Worldwide, Inc., Exide, Inc., Oxford Automotive, Inc., United Companies Financial Corp., Marvel Entertainment Group, CRIIMI MAE, Storage Technology, Inc., Southland, Inc., and Warnaco, Inc.

Ms. Goldstein is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, the American College of Bankruptcy and the International Insolvency Institute and has chaired the Business Reorganizations Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of NY.

In 2009, Ms. Goldstein was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in New York” by Crain’s New York Business and in 2008, she was named one of the ’50 Women to Watch’ by the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 10 issue). She was named one of the two “Women of the Year in Restructuring” in 2008 by the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation. She has been recognized as an "Outstanding Bankruptcy Lawyer" for the years 2002 through 2009 by Turnarounds and Workouts, and as “Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyer of the Year” – four years running – by Who's Who Legal (for the International Bar Association). The American Lawyer featured Ms. Goldstein as a "Dealmaker of the Year" in 2004 for leading the successful restructuring of WorldCom and in 2008 for her leadership role in situations at the epicenter of the financial crisis, including Chapter 11 counsel for Washington Mutual, restructuring advisor to AIG, and counsel for Kaupthing Bank in its global insolvency. In 2007, she was honored as one of the National Law Journal's "Most Influential Women." Ms. Goldstein is consistently ranked as a "Leading" Lawyer for Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business.

Ms. Goldstein graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with an A.B. in 1973. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School in 1975, where she was articles editor of the Cornell Law Review. She currently chairs the Law School Advisory Council.

Financial Restructuring Panel – The Return of Special Dividends: Fraudulent Conveyance Or A Brighter Future?

C.J. Brown - The Blackstone Group

C.J. Brown is a Managing Director in the Restructuring & Reorganization Advisory Group.

Since joining Blackstone in 2005, C.J. has assisted in advising on a variety of restructuring transactions involving companies such as Allied Capital Corporation, Ambac Financial Group, Inc., Bally Total Fitness, Buffets Holding Inc., Countryside Power, D. Sokolin Co., EuroTunnel, Ford Motor Co., Granite Broadcasting, Horsehead Holdings Corp., MBIA Inc., Merisant Worldwide, Inc., Movie Gallery Inc. and Young Broadcasting. Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Brown was an Associate in the Global Industries Group at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., where he worked on several capital-raising and merger and acquisition advisory transactions.

C.J. received a BA in Accounting from Moravian College and an MBA with Distinction from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Ron Greenspan - FTI Consulting

Ronald Greenspan is a senior managing director in the FTI Corporate Finance practice and is based in Los Angeles. Mr. Greenspan also is the west region leader of the practice and is the national leader of the FTI Real Estate and Structured Finance group. With more than 30 years of diverse international experience, he applies his broad background to a wide variety of very high profile advisory, bankruptcy and litigation engagements. He is experienced in representing all stakeholders, including debtors, creditors and equity interests.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Greenspan was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Prior to that, he held senior management positions as the chief operating officer of Los Angeles Land Companies, the executive vice president of Brookside Savings & Loan Association and the executive vice president of The Heritage Group.

Mr. Greenspan has contributed articles to TMA Journal of Corporate Renewal, ABI Journal, American Banker, Daily Bankruptcy Review and the Urban Land Institute. His most recent articles include “Money Changes Everything,” Daily Bankruptcy Review, June 16, 2010; “2009 – It Was a Very ____ Year,” Daily Bankruptcy Review, January 13, 2010; “Real Estate Workouts: Building a New Paradigm,” ABI Journal, 2009; “Interview, Selection, Retention and Role of Financial Advisors,” Inside the Minds: The Role of Creditors’ Committees in Chapter 11 Bankruptcies, 2008; “Description of the Mortgage and Asset-Backed Securities Markets, Roles of Principal Participants and Key Terms,” Mortgage and Asset Backed Securities Litigation Handbook, 2008; “Recovery In U.S. Homebuilding Sector Is Likely To Take Several More Years,” Daily Bankruptcy Review, 2008; “Predicting Corporate-Default Cycle Upended by History-Bucking Trends,” Daily Bankruptcy Review, 2007; “Homebuilders: A Cycle Unlike Prior Cycles,” Daily Bankruptcy Review, 2006; “KERP’s Are out, But Incentives Are In,” TMA Journal of Corporate Renewal, 2006; and ‘“UnTill” We Meet Again: Why Till Might Not Be the Last Word on Cram Down Interest Rates,” ABI Journal, 2004.

Mr. Greenspan has given numerous speeches and presentations at conferences, seminars and forums over the past 20 years. His topics have included “Subordination of Senior Lender Liens: How You Can Be Right, But Oh So Wrong”; “Real Estate Services in a Countercyclical Environment”; "Peering in on Commercial Real Estate: How Distressed Will it Get?"; “Industry Trends: Who Will Benefit From and Who Will Labor Under the Economic Recovery”; “When the Game Changes-A Path to Recovery and Renewal for the Irish Economy”; “Prospects for the Residential Market”; “Economic Update on the Economy/Housing Market”; “How Safe is the Harbor? Navigating Restructurings Involving Insurance Company and Other Specialized Counterparts, CD’s, Mortgage Reps, Biofuels Contracts and Obscure Derivatives”;

Eric Mendelsohn - Lazard

Mr. Mendelsohn joined Lazard in 1999 and is a Managing Director in Lazard’s Restructuring Group. Mr. Mendelsohn has experience in a wide range of corporate finance activities including restructurings and reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions and financings, advising clients such as Evergreen Solar, Cooper Standard, Metaldyne, the UAW with respect to the establishment of the GM VEBA, the secured creditors of Bearingpoint and Eddie Bauer, Journal Register, Centro, Collins & Aikman, Tower Automotive, The Air Transportation Stabilization Board, Milacron, Atlas Air, WorldCom, Hayes Lemmerz, 360networks, Fruit of the Loom, Sun Healthcare Group, NextWave Telecom, BAAN Company NV, and CAI Wireless Systems. Mr. Mendelsohn received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Middlebury College. Mr. Mendelsohn also serves as Lazard’s Wharton MBA recruiting team captain.

William J. Nolan - FTI Consulting

William Nolan is a senior managing director in the FTI Corporate Finance practice and is based in Charlotte. Mr. Nolan has worked in all areas of corporate recovery, including working with senior management in business turnarounds and corporate bankruptcy. He has over twenty years of diverse financial consulting and management experience.

Mr. Nolan has considerable experience working with senior management teams in the areas of financial and operational restructuring, loan workouts and business planning. He has assisted management in developing business plans, devising short to medium term financial strategies and projections for use in troubled debt restructures, and implementing controls over cash expenditures, overhead and operating costs.

Mr. Nolan’s diverse background extends into financial services; manufacturing; restaurants; healthcare, and real estate wherein he has served as advisor to companies, and advised secured creditors, and unsecured creditors committees in out-of-court and in bankruptcy distressed situations. Mr. Nolan has considerable mortgage banking experience and has been very active in the reorganization of many sub-prime lending concerns. Mr. Nolan co-authored two articles in the American Banker entitled “The Fight for Survival: Sub prime Lending, Where to From Here” and “At What Point Are Servicing Rights Born?”

Mr. Nolan also has extensive experience in working in international insolvencies and workouts. As a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) United Kingdom insolvency practice, Mr. Nolan gained experience in the specialized area of UK insolvency, working as a receiver and administrator. Mr. Nolan’s UK experience included managing and selling companies, including companies associated with Polly Peck International, one of the UK’s largest ever insolvencies.

Prior to its acquisition by FTI Consulting, Mr. Nolan served as a partner in the U.S. division of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Business Recovery Services group. Prior to joining PwC, Mr. Nolan held an executive financial management position with the Pizza Hut division of PepsiCo. As a financial manager of over 300 Pizza Huts in the state of Ohio, Mr. Nolan was responsible for identifying under-performing stores and working with local management to improve their performance as well as developing and implementing plans to eliminate excess operating costs and preparing and executing annual operating and financial budgets.

Mr. Nolan is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors and the International Bankruptcy Association. He served as treasurer of the Delaware Valley Chapter of Turnaround Management Association.

Mr. Nolan holds an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in economics from the University of Delaware.

Jamie Sprayregen - Kirkland & Ellis

James H.M. Sprayregen is a Restructuring partner in the Chicago and New York offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mr. Sprayregen is recognized as one of the country’s outstanding restructuring lawyers. Mr. Sprayregen has extensive experience representing major U.S. and international companies in and out of court as well as buyers and sellers of assets in distressed situations. He also has extensive experience advising boards of directors, and generally representing domestic and international debtors and creditors in workout, insolvency, restructuring, and bankruptcy matters. He has handled matters for clients in industries as varied as manufacturing, technology, transportation, energy, media, and real estate. Chambers & Partners has described Mr. Sprayregen as a “great clients’ lawyer, admired for his ‘unflustered ways.’” In March 2010, Mr. Sprayregen was selected by The National Law Journal as one of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers.”

Mr. Sprayregen returned to Kirkland & Ellis in December 2008. He rejoined the Firm after nearly three years with Goldman Sachs, where he was co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Restructuring Group and advised clients in restructuring and distressed situations. The 2009 edition of Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business highlighted Mr. Sprayregen’s return to Kirkland & Ellis after his nearly three years with Goldman Sachs. Mr. Sprayregen was listed as a first tier lawyer practicing in the bankruptcy/restructuring category, and was described as having an “outstanding reputation for complex Chapter 11 cases.” The 2010 edition of Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business recognized Mr. Sprayregen as a key individual, noting that “he will lift the practice even higher,” and that he is known for his ability to “smooth the waters where needed but also take an aggressive stand when necessary.” Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Sprayregen spent 16 years at Kirkland & Ellis, where he led bankruptcy cases for United Airlines and Conseco, among many others. Some of his recent representative matters include General Growth Properties, Innkeepers USA Trust, Japan Airlines Corporation as U.S. and international counsel, Visteon Corporation, Lear Corporation, Reader’s Digest Association, Corus Bankshares, Inc., Majestic Star Casino LLC, and ION Media Networks, Inc.

Mr. Sprayregen is a frequent lecturer and speaker, and also has published numerous articles on insolvency, fiduciary duty, and distressed M&A issues. He also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He earned a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

David Stern - Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern

David M. Stern is a founding member of KTB&S, and a litigation attorney, specializing in business litigation, bankruptcy, reorganization and creditor’s remedies. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1995. Over the last 30 years, Mr. Stern has written and lectured widely on issues of federal civil practice, discovery and bankruptcy litigation.

Mr. Stern served as special litigation counsel, appellate counsel and trial counsel in numerous cases on behalf of debtors, trustees, Creditors’ Committees and defendants including, in recent years, the Adelphia, Barry’s Jewelers, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Circuit City, Crescent Jewelers, Enron, First Alliance Mortgage, Heller Ehrman, IndyMac, Iridium, Lake Las Vegas, National Century, National Energy Gas & Transmission, Pliant, and Washington Group bankruptcy cases.

Mr. Stern earned a B.A. in Economics cum laude from Columbia University in 1972, and a J.D. from Stanford University Law School in 1975, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the Stanford Law Review. Following graduation, Mr. Stern served as law clerk to the Honorable Ben C. Duniway of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Operational Restructuring Panel– Maintaining Revenue Growth in a Post-Recession Economy

Alan Holtz - AlixPartners

Alan is a Managing Director in the firm’s Turnaround and Restructuring Services practice focused on middle market clients. For almost 23 years, he has advised on all aspects of the financial restructuring process, including bankruptcy planning, business planning and analysis, cash management, operational improvement, creditor information management, valuation and the structuring and negotiation of plans of reorganization. Alan has provided these services to companies and their management and directors, and also to financial institutions and creditors’ committees, across a wide variety of industries.

Neil Heyside - CRG Partners

Neil Heyside is a seasoned senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in process improvement, change management and operational reengineering in the U.K., U.S., Europe and South Africa, delivering tailor-made solutions to his clients. He has served numerous large and small companies in a wide array of industries, including Financial services, Food processing, Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Media & publishing, Retail, Transportation, Utilities and Waste management & recycling.

Mr. Heyside provides strong, flexible leadership, working closely with management teams to devise powerful and effective operational improvement programs that unlock the incremental value of core business processes, such as production planning and scheduling, inventory management, customer service, information technology and transportation. Utilizing an iterative process, Mr. Heyside offers his clients a rigorous and effective methodology that focuses on aligning systems, people, resources and business processes to drive the implementation of high-impact improvement strategies that produce quantifiable results.

Mr. Heyside also possesses particular expertise with Media and Publishing industry clients. Representing over 650 publishing titles, he has implemented improvement programs across virtually all functions of the organization, a significant portion being editorial departments. He has demonstrated the ability to significantly streamline the operations of publishing companies through implementation of cost re-deployment and reduction without sacrificing quality or performance.

Robert L. Olsen - DuPont

Robert joined DuPont in 2007 and serves as Corporate Marketing Director responsible for the DuPont's Corporate Marketing Practice and DuPont Marketing Excellence program globally. He leads DuPont’s effort to develop best-in-class B2B marketing capabilities to drive superior revenue growth and deliver market-driven innovation to its customers. Robert also chairs DuPont’s Growth Board.

Prior to joining DuPont Robert was with Deloitte Consulting as a leader in their Customer and Market Strategy practice helping clients enhance revenue through improvements in customer strategy, marketing and sales effectiveness. He started his career at Rhodia, Inc. where he held various positions in sales, marketing and strategic planning.

Robert currently resides in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children. He received an MBA from Rutgers University, a BS from Villanova University and attended the Executive Development Program at INSEAD.

Mike Sinoway - AlixPartners

Mike has 20 years experience working with manufacturing and consumer products companies. His expertise spans all areas of sales and marketing. Mike developed the “Industrial Pricing Certification” program for the Professional Pricing Society, teaches strategic planning as part of Purdue’s University’s executive education program, and has been cited in journals ranging from Business Week to CRM Magazine.

His significant consulting clients have included AT&T, Black & Decker, Bowater, Cadbury Schweppes, Carrier, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Dow, DuPont, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, Heinz, Henkel, Holiday Inn Worldwide, Honeywell, Husky Injection Molding, Jabil, Johnson & Johnson, Monsanto, MCI, Nestle, Otis Elevator, Philip Morris, Rohm & Haas, Sonoco Paper Products, Sun International, and Wrigley’s.

Thomas Kichler - One Equity Partners

Mr. Kichler is a Managing Director of One Equity Partners (OEP). Prior to joining OEP in 2002, Mr. Kichler was a Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup). He also worked at Wasserstein Perella and at Ernst & Young. In 20 years of investment banking, Mr. Kichler advised on over 100 completed M&A transactions with a transaction value exceeding $50 billion. He previously served on the Boards of LBC Holdings, Progress Rail Services Corporation and SMG Holdings. He is a Director at Columbian Chemical Company, Patil Rail Infrastructure, Ltd, NCO Group and Western Hospitals. Mr. Kichler graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a CPA.

Legal Restructuring Panel  – The Rise in Out-of-Court Restructuring

Joshua C. Cascade - Wellspring Capital

Joshua C. Cascade joined Wellspring in 2002. He previously spent four years with Odyssey Investment Partners where he worked on a number of leveraged acquisitions and recapitalizations of middle-market companies. Prior to joining Odyssey, Joshua was an associate with The Blackstone Group in the restructuring group, advising clients in corporate turnarounds, debt restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. Joshua received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan.

Judge Robert Drain - US Bankruptcy Judge, Southern District of New York

Robert Drain is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York.

Judge Drain received his B.A. degree cum laude with honors from Yale University in 1979 and his J.D. degree in 1984 from the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar for three years.

At the time of his appointment in 2002, he was a partner in the Bankruptcy Department of the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he represented debtors, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, official and unofficial creditors committees, and buyers of distressed businesses and distressed debt in chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and bankruptcy-related litigation. He also was actively involved in several transnational insolvency matters.

Judge Drain is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Insolvency Institute, and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He is a past member and secretary of the Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is an adjunct professor at St. John's University School of Law and has lectured and written on numerous bankruptcy-related topics.

Since his appointment he has presided over such chapter 11 cases as Loral, RCN, Cornerstone, Refco, Allegiance Telecom, Delphi, Coudert Brothers, Frontier Airlines and Star Tribune. He also has presided over the ancillary or plenary cases, as the case may be, of Corporacion Durango, Satellites Mexicanas, Parmalat S. p. A. and its affiliated United States debtors, Varig S.A., Yukos (II), SphinX, and Galvex Steel.

Jeff Saferstein - Paul Weiss

A partner and deputy chair of Paul, Weiss’s Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department, Jeffrey D. Saferstein practices exclusively in the areas of corporate restructurings and workouts, bankruptcy and specialized financings. He has been involved in major domestic and international restructurings and bankruptcies, including Lehman Brothers, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, AbitibiBowater, Samsonite Company Stores, Buffets, Alpha Media, Thomas Nelson, Adelphia Communications, Atkins Nutritionals, Loehmann’s and The Penn Traffic Company. He has also recently been involved in several restructurings of Structured Investment Vehicles and in a workout of one of the monoline insurers.

Mr. Saferstein has written and lectured on numerous bankruptcy topics including co-writing an article for the New York Law Journal titled “When Second Lien Lenders Break Their Silence” (October 2007), co-writing an article for the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal titled "Equitable Subordination: Good-Faith Transferees Beware" (April 2006) and speaking on two panels sponsored by Bloomberg L.P. on Distressed Debt and Bankruptcies and at the New York City Bar Association, and the Wharton Restructuring and Turnaround Conference on Governmental Involvement in Distressed Opportunities. He has been named in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and Legal 500 as a leading practitioner in the bankruptcy field and to Lawdragon’s 3000 Leading Lawyers in America.

Agnes Tang - Perella Weinberg

Agnes K. Tang is a Managing Director in the New York Office of Perella Weinberg Partners. Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners, Ms. Tang was most recently a Senior Vice President at Houlihan Lokey. Ms. Tang has focused on financial restructuring, M&A and financing transactions across a variety of industries including retail, consumer products, publishing and business services.

Ms. Tang was formerly an investment professional at MMC Capital’s early stage venture fund and a strategy consultant at The Oliver Wyman Group, a business division of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Ms. Tang received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Northwestern University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Christopher Wilson - Houlihan Lokey

Mr. Wilson is a Managing Director and head of the Media & Telecom Group at Houlihan Lokey and is based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Mr. Wilson was previously in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group, where he focused on financial restructurings of telecommunications services providers.

Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Wilson was with Montgomery Securities, specializing in media and telecommunications M&A and corporate finance. He was also a member of the Consumer Group of EVEREN Securities and in corporate finance with the Media and Telecommunications Group of Union Bank. He also managed proprietary trading in foreign exchange and derivatives at Drexel Burnham Lambert from 1986 until 1990.

Mr. Wilson holds a degree in engineering sciences from Harvard University and an M.B.A., with honors, from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

Distressed Private Equity Panel – Investing in a Post-Crisis World

Mark Sponseller - Alvarez & Marsal

Mark Sponseller is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Transaction Advisory Group (A&M TAG) in New York. For more than 14 years, Mr. Sponseller has worked with multinational corporate and private equity clients on audits and financial diligence projects involving both public and private companies.

Mr. Sponseller specializes in providing accounting and transaction advice to strategic and private equity clients, with a focus on add-on acquisitions, direct platform investments and divestitures. He routinely assists clients from pre-deal evaluations through to post-deal purchase price adjustments on both the buy- and sell-side, assisting clients in analyzing the quality of earnings, net assets and cash flows; assessing key business drivers; commenting on SEC, accounting and other reporting requirements; critiquing valuation models; and working with legal counsel on purchase agreements and in support of purchase price adjustments.

Mr. Sponseller has led diligence transactions of various sizes during his career, with a significant number of those transactions involving cross-border acquisitions / divestitures in Canada, Mexico or Western Europe. His due diligence experience spans a wide variety of industries, including financial services (banking, brokerage, real estate, derivatives and leasing), light and heavy industrial products, consumer products and services, retail, chemicals and metals. Mr. Sponseller also leads the financial services vertical within TAG.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Sponseller was a Partner with the Transaction Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) in New York. At PwC, his responsibilities included leading financial due diligence projects for large and middle market private equity investors and Fortune 500 corporations engaged in leveraged buy-outs and recapitalizations. Additionally, he managed the delivery of other services such as the coordination of transaction tax, operation due diligence and human resource consulting. Prior to joining PwC, he spent four years with the Audit & Assurance and Transaction Services practices of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Mr. Sponseller earned a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and attended Manchester Business School in the U.K. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Paul Halpern - Versa Capital Management

Mr. Halpern has invested in, managed and advised companies in special situations for more than 20 years. His experiences cover a wide spectrum of industries in circumstances ranging from underperformers to liquidations. Previously, he practiced insolvency law, specializing in business reorganization of middle market companies.

He is currently a Director of Allen-Vanguard, Black Angus Steakhouses, Bob’s Stores, Brite-Line Technologies, Central Parking, Holliston, Plymouth Rubber Europa, Polartec, Republic Storage Systems and Simplexity.

Mr. Halpern received a J.D. from Stanford Law School (with distinction, law review and Order of the Coif) and his B.A. from Reed College (Phi Beta Kappa).

Kristopher Hansen - Stroock & Stroock & Lavan

Kris Hansen is the Co-Chair of Stroock's nationwide Financial Restructuring Group. Mr. Hansen is recognized by Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business, the K&A Restructuring Register and Turnarounds and Workouts as one of the nation's top restructuring attorneys. Throughout his career, he has guided his clients through numerous proceedings in bankruptcy and appellate courts across the country, as well as through many out-of-court situations. In the past year, Mr. Hansen represented the bondholders who acquired, among others, Trump Entertainment, Neff Rental, Neenah Foundry, Panavision and Rath Gibson, and represented bondholder committees in the restructurings of Fairpoint Communications, Boston Generating and Morris Publishing. Mr. Hansen currently represents the bondholders in the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company chapter 11 case as well as the bondholders in a number of private transactions in the gaming space. Mr. Hansen received his B.S. in Finance from Fordham University in 1992 and his J.D. from Fordham University in 1995.

Stan Parker - Apollo

Stan Parker is a senior partner of Apollo Global Management, LLC having joined the firm as an associate in 2000. He currently co-leads Apollo’s Media and Telecom efforts as well as leading Apollo’s investments in the Transportation sector. Prior to that time, Mr. Parker was employed by Salomon Smith Barney Inc. in its Financial Entrepreneurs Group within the Investment Banking Division. Mr. Parker currently serves on the boards of directors of AMC Entertainment, Affinion Group, CEVA Logistics, Charter Communications and Momentive Performance Materials and has historically served on the boards of United Agri Products and Quality Distribution Inc. Mr. Parker graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

David Simon - Littlejohn & Co.

Mr. Simon is a Managing Director at Littlejohn & Co. and has been with the firm since 2001. At Littlejohn, Mr. Simon has had responsibilities for investments across a broad range of industries. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Simon was with Fenway Partners, Inc., a private equity firm then focused on investments in branded consumer businesses with significant opportunities for growth. Prior to that he was a member of the Financial Entrepreneurs Group of the investment banking department of Smith Barney, Inc. where he advised private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Mr. Simon received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School with honors in 2001 and a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from The Wharton School, magna cum laude in 1995.

Mr. Simon currently serves as a Director of Littlejohn’s investments Clean Earth (an environmental services firm) and Cosmetic Essence (a contract manufacturer of cosmetics) and previously served as a Director of Littlejohn’s prior investments in Van Houtte (a Canadian gourmet coffee company) and PSC (a manufacturer of bar code scanners). Additionally, Mr. Simon was actively involved in Littlejohn’s prior investments in Eliokem (a specialty chemical company) and Jerr-Dan (a tow truck manufacturer).

In his personal pursuits, Mr. Simon is a strong advocate for and supporter of the University of Pennsylvania and serves as a member of the Executive Board of The Penn Fund, the organization responsible for soliciting unrestricted annual gifts from undergraduate alumni as well as from friends of the University of Pennsylvania.

Carl Stanton - Wellspring Capital Management

Carl M. Stanton joined Wellspring in 1998. He previously served as a principal of Dimeling, Schreiber & Park, a middle-market private equity firm. Prior to this, he worked at Peter J. Solomon Co,. a boutique investment bank specializing in mergers & acquisitions and restructuring advisory services, and in the National Office and Corporate Finance Group of Ernst & Young. Carl serves on a number of company boards of directors and is active with the University of Alabama, where he serves on the Commerce & Business Administration Board of Visitors, and other non-profit organizations in New York City. Carl holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama and an MBA from Harvard Business School.



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