EW #10077 has been an investment banker for more than 18 years, specializing in restructurings and bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions and leveraged transactions. He has worked for companies in many industries including, among others, manufacturing, oil and gas, power and energy, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical distribution, telecommunications, media/entertainment, food and beverage, chemicals, textiles, retailing, infrastructure services and semiconductors.

He  is currently the head of   an advisory firm specializing in corporate restructurings and recapitalizations, litigation advisory services/expert witness representations and mergers and acquisitions. As part of activities on behalf of clients, the firm provides advisory services to debtors, creditors, acquirors and sellers of assets and other parties-in-interest. The firm also works with attorneys for its clients in providing expert witness reports and supporting testimony.

EW #10077 clients include Fortune 500 companies, large mutual funds and insurance companies, middle market debtors, financial sponsors and strategic buyers interested in purchasing troubled businesses. EW #10077  has been the senior banker representing clients that include, among others, Heritage Propane, Allegheny Energy, du Pont, ConAgra, AT&T Wireless, InterActiveCorp, Wilmington Trust Company, FAO Inc., the bondholders of Sunnyside Cogeneration Associates, the creditors of Vacaville Recreation Corporation, the special committee of the Board of Directors of Gart Sports Company and the Beloit Liquidating Trust.

Before forming this firm, EW #10077  was a managing director with a very prominent company in the Corporate and Leveraged Finance group, which he joined as a result of the companys acquisition of another major firm in 1997. At this company, he  was co-head of the Restructuring and Bankruptcy advisory group as well as participating in the firm’s fairness opinion practice. He was the senior team leader in many publicly announced transactions, including the sale of GP Strategies to Veronis Suhler, the squeeze-out acquisition of Mercom Cable by ABRY, an affiliate of Bain Capital, the restructuring and sale of Sunnyside Cogeneration to Constellation Power, the restructuring and sale of Great Lakes Pulp and Fibre, the reorganization and sale of Okeelanta Power, an affiliate of PG&E, to the Faniul family following the successful settlement of litigation against Florida Power and Light, the restructuring of Mobile Energy, an affiliate of Southern Company and the restructuring of Ramtron Corporation.

Prior to the acquisition, he was a Managing Director in Opperheimer’s Corporate Finance department beginning in 1995. At Oppenheimer, he worked on both merger and acquisition and restructuring advisory assignments. His tran sactions, among others, included the management buyout of Heritage Propane from Golder Thoma Cressey and Prudential, the squeeze out mergers of General Physics by National Patent, and of Faulding Inc. by Faulding Limited, the restructuring and sale of American Fiber Resources, an affiliate of Ahlstrom Engineering, to Cerberus Partners and the restructuring of Robbins Resources, an affiliate of the Foster Wheeler Company.

Before joining Oppenheimer, he was a Managing Director in the Merger and Acquisition department at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin starting in 1991. At Houlihan Lokey, he ran the New York office’s M&A group, overseeing the sale of Petrolane Partners to Suburban Propane, an affiliate of Quantum Chemical, the go private merger of textile manufacturer Alba Waldensian and the restructuring of Synergy Gas.

From 1984 to 1991, he was in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at PaineWebber Inc. He started as an associate, becoming a Managing Director in 1990. At Paine Webber, He worked on many middle market and large capitalization transactions, including the acquisition by Campeau Corp. of Allied Stores, the leveraged buyouts of Martha White Flour and White Lily Foods, the sale of H.J. Wilson to Service Merchandise, the sale of Bally’s to Goldern Nugget, the bid by Martin Sosnoff for Caesar’s Palace, the bid by Butler/Estrin for the Pennwalt Corporation and the acquisition of National Intergroup. He was named head of PaineWebber’s Restructuring group in 1989, overseeing the restructuring of Federated Stores on behalf of the senior creditors and the restructuring of Ames Department Stores of behalf of certain trade creditors.

As part of his work in both restructuring and mergers and acquisitions, throughout his career he has been involved in numerous litigations and settlement negotiations where he has actively assisted attorneys in examining strategies, analyzing discovery materials, providing both fact and expert testimony and both performing and supporting valuation analyses. EW #10077 has been deposed more than 40 times and has testified on dozens of occasions, including numerous times in Federal Court. He has been qualified as an expert in both merger and acquisition and restructuring litigations. His firm is currently retained in seven large and active commercial litigations, in which he is the designated expert for five of them. He also was the lead negotiator in the $225 million settlement of the Okeelanta Power litigation with Florida Power and Light, the $53 million settlement for Mobile Energy from Kimberly Clark and the $29 million settlement for American Fiber Resources from Ahlstrom Engineering.

In almost all of the mergers and acquisitions involving affiliated entities - which number more than 15 transactions - he has been called upon to provide support in a legal context for valuations contained in the associated fairness opinions.

Prior to joining PaineWebber, he was an attorney from 1982 to 1984 at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in the merger and acquisitions department.
 
EW #10077 received his B.A. with Highest Honors from the University of Virginia in 1979 and J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1982. He is a member of both the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association.