Turnaround, Restructuring and Distressed Investing Industry Hall of Fame
TMA presents the inaugural class of inductees into the Turnaround, Restructuring, and Distressed Investing Industry Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame was created in 2008 during TMA’s 20th anniversary year to honor those whose outstanding individual contributions have made a lasting positive impact on an industry dedicated to stabilizing underperforming companies, rebuilding corporate value, and retaining jobs. These icons of the industry were selected to be part of the initial class of inductees as highly esteemed professionals who have changed and helped shape the industry in a material way.
Future inductions will occur at five-year intervals with the next group to be honored at TMA 25th Annual Convention in 2013.
Jay Alix, CTP
AlixPartners
"Jay Alix is one of the founders of the modern era of financial restructuring." - Myron Trepper, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Jay Alix had a vision. He believed that troubled companies, if offered a unique expertise at a critical time when they had no one else to turn to, could be "turned around" and that a good living could made by practicing these skills. This conviction made him one of a small group who institutionalized the restructuring industry as we know it today.
Starting as a sole practitioner in Detroit in 1981, Alix built AlixPartners, a global firm that today has more than 900 employees in 14 offices on three continents. His concept for cross-functional, multilevel teams within a company’s workforce who were able to take action quickly left behind a legacy of corporate leaders with new problem-solving skills. Results-based "success fees" that align incentives for turnaround managers with those of clients and stakeholders was another Alix innovation that has proved effective for hundreds of companies and has been adopted by many in the industry.
Alix has been instrumental in convincing the corporate world that turnaround management requires special skills beyond those of a traditional business consultant. He has educated thousands through his speeches, books, articles, and seminars for lawyers, workout bankers, and judges. He took the restructuring profession to Japan in 2003 when he was invited to speak to key government, business, and association leaders. He was honored by the Japanese Association for Turnaround Professionals as its first foreign member with the title of "corporate sensei," meaning a revered teacher of the turnaround practice.
Alix also was chosen as key financial advisor to former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and formed his Government Transition Team of 400 business leaders in 1994, the year Alix was also appointed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton to the nine-person National Bankruptcy Review Commission.
Edward I. Altman, Ph.D.
Max L. Heine Professor of Finance
New York University Stern School of Business
"Prof. Altman is revered on Wall Street as the guru of default risk assessment." - Matthew B. Venturi, Venturi & Company
A chance comment in 1966 by his mentor and UCLA Prof. J. Fred Weston about bankruptcy as a possible dissertation topic led a young Ed Altman to pursue what he has called his "perverse enthusiasm" for the negative side of finance. At that time, literally no bankruptcy research was being done outside the accounting field.
Yet, his excitement for predicting corporate distress carried him forward. In 1968, Altman published the groundbreaking Z-Score Bankruptcy Model, a multivariate formula for the measurement of the financial health of a company and a powerful diagnostic tool that forecasts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy. The Z-score model and his mortality rate approach have established him as one of the original thought-leaders in the restructuring profession and have been used by firms to manage financial turnarounds.
Altman, the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has written or edited more than two dozen books and 130 articles in scholarly and professional journals. He has given countless presentations across the globe and received numerous prestigious awards. Since 1990, he has directed research in credit and debt markets at the NYU Salomon Center, where he developed the Altman Defaulted Debt Performance Indexes. He currently is vice-director of the center.
Altman has dedicated his life to the turnaround profession, the education and mentoring of future business leaders, and the assessment and management of credit risk exposure. He has served as chairman of the TMA’s Academic Advisory Council since 2000 and is considered the definitive source on credit risk by practitioners, regulators, other scholars, and the news media.
John (Jack) Wm. Butler Jr.
Partner, Co-Practice Leader, Corporate Restructuring Practice
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
"A lifetime of the highest professional achievements, volunteer service, and leadership in the insolvency field makes Jack Butler indeed worthy of Hall of Fame status." - Samuel J. Gerdano, Esq., Executive Director, American Bankruptcy Institute
Jack Butler never intended to be a lawyer. His college background was in business and public affairs at Princeton, but he was encouraged by his father to go into law. This proved to be good advice. While he was at the University of Michigan’s Law School, the Bankruptcy Code of 1978 was passed, revolutionizing restructuring practice and giving him the unique opportunity to "grow up" with the new law.
Butler spent the 1980s at two Michigan law firms and then joined Skadden in Chicago as a partner in 1990. There, he is credited with developing one of the most prominent restructuring practices ever assembled, representing high-profile companies in out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 cases. As a result, Butler’s name regularly appears on the lists of "top lawyers" worldwide.
He was one of the first lawyers to join the fledgling TMA in 1988, when it had fewer than 100 members. He recognized early on the need to develop high standards and a code of ethics for the emerging industry. He helped create the blueprint for TMA’s structure, advocating that it include all the disciplines committed to distressed M&A and corporate renewal. After serving as TMA’s 1996-1997 chairman, he became a major force in creating the Cornerstone Fund to expand TMA’s education and research.
Known for his philanthropy, Butler is on the boards of Children Affected by AIDS Foundation and of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership, which awarded him its Albert Schweitzer Award. In 2008, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO).
He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and the International Insolvency Institute. An American Bankruptcy Institute board member for six years, he helped produce its National Report on Professional Compensation and its Bankruptcy Reform Study.
Dominic DiNapoli
Executive Vice President & COO
FTI Consulting, Inc.
"Dom DiNapoli has never been one to seek the spotlight. Discretion has always been his trademark. So this honor comes with a certain degree of irony, which makes it even more deserved." - DeLain Gray, FTI Corporate Finance
Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern restructuring industry, Dom DiNapoli has spent the past 25 years helping major corporations and their leaders overcome structural challenges and achieve successful business turnarounds.
DiNapoli began his career with Touche Ross as an auditor. However, his love of a challenge soon led him to Major Pool and Equipment Corp. During his tenure as CFO of this struggling company, DiNapoli fostered what has become a lifelong passion for strengthening companies through the application of restructuring tools.
His talents developed rapidly, first at Frank Zolfo & Company and then at Price Waterhouse, where he was hired in 1986 to develop its modest bankruptcy and restructuring practice. In less than a decade, that practice became the largest in the nation, a feat that DiNapoli repeated at Coopers & Lybrand, which later merged with Price Waterhouse to become the most powerful practice of its kind in the country.
During his tenure at FTI, the company has grown from 500 professionals to more than 3,400 in 21 countries and has a market capitalization of more than $2 billion.
DiNapoli and his teams have been on the front lines of some of the most visible and hotly contested assignments with companies such as Drexel Burnham Lambert and LTV Steel. He drew on these and other experiences to co-author and edit two editions of Workouts and Turnarounds and The Practical Guide to Corporate Restructuring. These authoritative guides are now part of the curricula in institutions such as New York University.
Lawrence A. Marsiello
Retired Vice Chairman & Chief Lending Officer
CIT
"Larry’s 30 years as an outstanding industry leader and his style of creative, yet conservative, credit structures is unequaled in our industry." - Robert Dangremond, CTP, Managing Director,
AlixPartners
When Larry Marsiello retired at CIT in New York in February 2008, he left a legacy that will long be remembered throughout the turnaround and restructuring community. During his 34-year tenure, he solidified CIT’s position as a leader in corporate renewal financing and passed the baton to CIT’s National Restructuring Group to continue its leadership.
His career began in 1974 at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. After he joined CIT, he advanced through several positions before becoming CEO of CIT’s Commercial Finance Group in 1999. He set new benchmarks in structuring loans to mitigate risk and built many long-standing client relationships.
Under Marsiello’s leadership, CIT became an industry innovator in proactive debtor-in-possession (DIP) loans in the early 1980s. He left his imprint on the largest bankruptcies of the 1990s, supporting Federated and Macy’s with vendor lines of credit and Wang Laboratories with a DIP facility when prevailing wisdom was not to lend against technology assets. His innovations in CIT financing resulted in two TMA Turnaround of the Year awards in 2006: Friedman’s Inc. (Large Company) and R.G. Barry Corporation (Mid-size Company).
From advancing funds to a privately owned apparel company that needed factoring to providing DIP financing to a billion dollar publicly held airline, Larry Marsiello created a mindset that motivates CIT’s next generation of professionals to structure financial solutions that help a business take the next step.
Harvey R. Miller
Partner
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP
"Harvey Miller’s contributions to the restructuring community, both from a practice and intellectual standpoint, are unparalleled." - Stephen Karotkin, Partner, Business Finance & Restructuring Department, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Harvey Miller became fascinated with restructuring work after being assigned to a Chapter 11 case on his first job after graduating from Columbia Law School in 1959. He moved to one of the few law firms specializing in bankruptcy in 1963, where Charles Seligson, a leading bankruptcy scholar, taught his 30-year-old protégé to "have a broad perspective, consider all the interests, and be fair," a valuable lesson that has served him well to this day.
Miller caught the eye of Weil Gotshal partner Ira Millstein, who brought him into the firm in 1970 to build a bankruptcy practice. Miller’s first challenge was to "make the representation of debtors respectable by successfully explaining that Chapter 11 was not a death knell but a viable alternative for a distressed company."
One of the few practicing attorneys whose career spanned periods before and after the 1978 Bankruptcy Code, Miller’s legal innovations included the creation of the doctrine of necessity, which allows debtors to pay pre-petition vendors that provide supplies crucial to the company’s continued operations. This was a major shift from the strict application of the code that delayed payment until the debtor emerged from bankruptcy.
During his 32-year tenure at Weil Gotshal, he was an integral figure in the firm’s rise to prominence in the restructuring arena, where he was involved in many of the mega billion dollar bankruptcies from the 1970s to the 21st Century. He left Weil in 2002 to serve as a vice chairman of banking firm Greenhill & Co., but returned to his "first love" in 2007.
Miller has mentored and trained many prominent restructuring attorneys at Weil and as an adjunct professor at New York University Law School and a lecturer at Columbia University School of Law. He has written several highly regarded publications in the restructuring field and in 2008 established the Harvey R. Miller Professorship for Business Solutions at Columbia Law School.
Henry S. Miller
Co-Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Miller Buckfire
"Henry Miller’s integrity, ethics, and professionalism make him a pleasure to work with within the very difficult situations in which we find ourselves." - Ted Stenger, CTP, Managing Director, AlixPartners
One might suppose that the chairman of one of the leading independent investment banks focusing on corporate restructuring would be a solemn, stern person. Yet, those who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Henry Miller as he creates unique restructuring solutions cite not only his integrity, intellect, and expertise, but also his humanity and wit.
His ability to use humor, great quotes, and stories to illustrate a point and defuse tense situations makes him an unforgettable figure in the top ranks of a daunting industry. During his 35+ year career, Miller has represented debtors, creditors, and other constituents in complex out-of-court and Chapter 11 reorganizations across a broad spectrum of industries. He played a leading role in many large airline-related restructurings in the late 1980s and mid-1990s while at Prudential Securities and Salomon Brothers.
He solidified his place among the icons of the industry with his skillful representation in 2002 of Kmart, the largest retail bankruptcy in U.S. history; Stolt-Nelson, a complex international shipping and offshore oil services firm in 2004; Spiegel/Eddie Bauer in 2005; and of Dana Corporation in 2007, one of the first large corporate bankruptcies under the new amendments to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. All these cases had thorny intercreditor issues, which Miller led in resolving, paving the way to overwhelming creditor support of their plans of reorganization.
One of his crowning achievements, however, is Miller’s founding with Kenneth Buckfire of Miller Buckfire in 2002. The firm embodies his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to independent and creative thinking. In just seven years, the firm has grown to 60 professionals, with whom Miller remains involved on cases, serving as a mentor and advisor to junior and senior bankers alike.
William C. Repko
Senior Managing Director
Evercore Partners Inc.
"Bill Repko has won the respect of clients and colleagues for his sense of fair play and ’can do’ attitude. He is unwilling to believe that anything is a hopeless case." - Stephen Sieh, Managing Director, Evercore Partners
When William C. Repko joined Evercore Partners in September 2005, he switched from the lender side of the table to sit beside companies needing restructuring advice. He brought with him 25 years of banking experience when he retired from J.P. Morgan, where he had served as head of The Restructuring Group.
Repko soon found that retirement was not for him. A lunch with longtime friend David Ying, a restructuring advisor, was the springboard for the two to launch a new restructuring practice at Evercore Partners, which had been principally an M&A boutique.
Repko began his career at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in 1981, which, after a series of mergers, became JPMorgan Chase & Co. He inherited the International Harvester case, a massive out-of-court restructuring that took years of work, resulting in what is now Navistar Inc. From 1981 to 1987, he completed several significant transactions in the bank’s workout department for Eastern Airlines, Texaco, A.H. Robins, and others. In 1987, he implemented the bank’s strategy of using alternative investments to reduce its exposures in less developed countries, converting billions of dollars of sovereign debt into equity positions in local companies.
In 1991, Repko developed the platform for J.P. Morgan’s restructuring business with a mission to deliver capital to troubled corporate clients. Its first transaction was refinancing Chrysler Corporation, followed by General Motors/GMAC, and IBM. Since joining Evercore, he has advised on a number of important transactions, including General Motors in its bankruptcy filing and MGM Mirage in its refinancing, both in 2009.
With a lifetime devoted to the restructuring profession, Repko is in demand as a speaker at industry conferences, where he generously shares his expertise.
Wilbur L. Ross Jr.
Chairman & CEO
WL Ross & Co., LLC
"There is no question that Wilbur Ross has been able to redefine the paragons for success in restructuring. His ability to foresee opportunities and to execute precise operational and financial restructuring strategies has had an immense impact on our industry." - Ward K. Mooney, Executive Managing Director, Crystal Capital
A faculty advisor at Yale helped Wilbur Ross, who was toying with the idea of being a writer, get his first summer job on Wall Street. That and an MBA from Harvard set the course for the individual who today is the best-known turnaround financier in the U.S.
He became one of the country’s foremost bankruptcy advisors in the 1970s, but it was just 11 years ago that Ross, whose group had been managing the restructuring business at Rothschild, began doing private equity investing. He got out of the advisory business altogether in 2000 when the group bought the private equity business from Rothschild to create WL Ross & Co. LLC.
Ross looked for opportunities in distressed industries, such as steel, that no other investor would touch. He organized International Steel Group in April 2002 and, through acquisitions, made it the largest integrated steel company in North America. It merged with Mittal Steel to form the largest steel company in the world. He went on to form other companies, including International Textile Group, International Coal Group, and International Automotive Components, which have commenced operations and initiated acquisitions in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Recently, he has been active in acquiring mortgage-related companies.
In 1999, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung awarded Ross a medal for his help during the nation’s 1998 financial crisis. Earlier, 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 Rudolph Giuliani.
In addition to TMA’s board of directors, among the many boards Ross has served on are those of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and the Yale University School of Management, which has presented him with its Legend of Leadership Award.
Sanford C. Sigoloff
Retired Chairman & CEO
Sigoloff & Associates
"Sandy Sigoloff was an originator of the entire concept of turnaround managers going back to the 1970s. His contributions to the growth of the profession are extraordinary." - Gregory L. Segall, Managing Partner, Versa Capital Management
A degree in physics and chemistry is not the usual training for a turnaround professional, whose work is sometimes more art than science. However, when Sigoloff graduated from UCLA in 1951, he went to work for the Atomic Energy Commission, which led to a job in 1958 with EG&E, Inc., a leading radiation laboratory. He moved to the Electro-Optical Systems Division of Xerox Corporation in 1963, where he became the company’s youngest group president.
He got a full dose of the restructuring experience in his next position as CEO of bankrupt Republic Corporation, which emerged from Chapter 11 in two years, as did Daylin Inc., which he led through a reorganization in 1974.
It was the Wickes Companies case, however, that solidified his standing as a top restructuring professional. He became CEO of this $4 billion retailer in 1982 and led it through the then-largest non-railroad bankruptcy in U.S. history. It was one of the first major cases under the recently enacted U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and Sigoloff completed the reorganization in 32 months during a severe economic recession.
When Wickes was sold, Sigoloff formed his own firm and went on in 1989 to run the reorganization of the U.S. arm of Australian conglomerate L.J. Hooker, which included retail and real estate development operations in one of the first-ever cross-border insolvency proceedings.
With a passion for education, Sigoloff became an adjunct professor at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and was appointed to the California State Board of Education. He was one of the first members of TMA and was a faculty member of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professional from 1995 to 2002. His participation helped establish the CTP as the most recognized advanced certification for turnaround practitioners and earned him a TMA Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.
The Hall of Fame Selection Committee also recognized the following past TMA Chairs as honorary members of the Turnaround, Restructuring, and Distressed Investing Hall of Fame:
Gilbert C. Osnos, CTP
Partner, CRG Partners Group LLC
TMA Chairman, 1990-1991
Gil Osnos has served as CEO, COO, CRO, and president of more than 80 companies in industries that have included construction, distribution, government contracting, household chemicals, leasing, light and heavy manufacturing, oilfield services, publishing, retail and wholesale distribution, software, and technical training schools.
He has served on boards of directors and as an advisor to the boards of numerous companies, including American Mirrex Corporation, Bill’s Dollar Stores, Dunham’s Athleisure Corp.; Furr’s/Bishop’s, Inc.; Mrs. Field’s Famous Brands, Inc.; and Strauss Auto Stores. He is a co-founder of TMA and has authored many articles and lectured extensively on the turnaround industry.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition to TMA, he is a member of American Bankruptcy Institute and the Business Executives for National Security. He sits on the boards of directors of several profit and non-profit organizations.
Gerald P. Buccino, CTP
CEO, Buccino & Associates, Inc.
TMA Chairman, 1992
For more than 30 years, Gerald P. (Jerry) Buccino has consulted with CEOs, boards of directors, lenders, creditors, and other stakeholders on turnaround strategies to improve cash flows and enterprise values. A founding member of TMA, Buccino has held several posts within the organization and now serves on the Past Chairman’s Council and the Cornerstone 15 Council. He founded Buccino & Associates, Inc., in 1981.
Buccino received Beta Gamma Sigma’s 2005 Medallion for Entrepreneurship, an award that honors business creativity and a commitment to bettering humankind. In 1996, his lifelong belief in the importance of education led him to endow, in perpetuity, a scholarship at the Center for Leadership Studies at Seton Hall University. In 1990, he founded The Buccino Foundation, which provides financial assistance to medical research, the handicapped, battered women, the homeless, and other philanthropic causes.
Buccino earned master’s and doctorate degrees in business from California Coast University, Santa Ana. He has written about and lectures extensively on a variety of restructuring topics.
Thomas J. Allison, CTP
Executive Vice President, Senior Managing Director
Mesirow Financial Consulting, LLC
TMA Chairman, 1993
Thomas J. Allison provides leadership in complex turnaround situations, advising major reorganizations, managing investment funds, negotiating loan agreements, and placing loans for companies in distress and insolvencies. His experience covers a variety of industries, including aviation, transportation, retail, consumer products, general manufacturing, importing, distribution, high technology, healthcare, food, and paper and packaging.
Allison serves in interim management and CRO roles for companies across multiple industries. He also provides financial advisory services to businesses experiencing significant financial and operating difficulties.
Allison previously served as the national restructuring practice leader at Huron Consulting and was a founder and former chairman of the Association for Certified Turnaround Professionals (ACTP) before it merged with TMA. He led the team that earned TMA’s 2007 Transaction of the Year, Large Company, award for USA Commercial Mortgage Company.
In addition to TMA, Allison is a member of the Commercial Finance Association (CFA), American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), and Robert Morris Associates. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from DePaul University.
William J. Hass, CTP
CEO, TeamWork Technologies, Inc.
TMA Chairman, 1994
An author, turnaround consultant, entrepreneur, and advisor to management, William (Bill) J. Hass has more than 25 years of turnaround, restructuring, dramatic change and distress consulting experience with more than 100 business units and their leaders. A former consulting partner at Ernst & Young, he also is a past vice president and director of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals and a past president of TMA’s Chicago Chapter.
Hass works with distressed and healthy companies on issues of strategic options, value building, corporate renewal, and dramatic change. He has led a variety of educational seminars and conducts research in the area of stock price trends, valuation, and business failure. He is a community leader for the Illinois CPA Society’s Center for Corporate Financial Leadership, which serves seven states and more than 20,000 CPAs. He is the co-author most recently of Building Value through Strategy, Risk Assessment and Renewal.
Hass holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering systems analysis and operations research from the University of Illinois-Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is an inventor with U.S. and foreign patents.
John M. Collard, CTP
Chairman, Strategic Management Parters, Inc.
TMA Chairman, 1995
John Collard is chairman of Strategic Management Partners, Inc., a turnaround management firm specializing in distressed and troubled companies, private equity advisory, transition into new markets, defense conversion, and M&A. He has more than 35 years of operating experience in rapid growth, transition and turnaround environments.
Collard has been advisor to the National Economic Councils under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); World Bank; Boris Yeltsin’s Russian Privatization Agency; and on small business issues, technology reinvestment, turnaround management, and equity investing techniques.
He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where he was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame, and studied design with R. Buckminster Fuller.
Thomas D. Hays III, CTP
Principal, NachmanHaysBrownstein, Inc.
TMA Chairman, 1998
Tom Hays has provided leadership as interim CEO, chairman, or advisor to the board in a wide variety of companies, both private and public. He has extensive experience in manufacturing, distribution, operations, accounting, restructuring, refinancing, and litigation.
Currently principal in charge of NHB’s Auto Dealer Group, Hays began his career in 1969 as a CPA with Arthur Andersen and advanced to 3M and Conrail. He began his independent consulting career as a special consultant and expert witness for Penn Central Company, where he negotiated the eventual dismissal of more than 7,500 lawsuits. In 1981, he founded a specialized printing company, which he sold to a national multifaceted competitor. He then specialized in complex turnaround assignments.
Hays served as chairman of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals as well as its Standards Committee for several years. As one of the profession’s first CTPs, he conducted CTP management and accounting review courses, including sessions at Northeastern University; was instrumental in the development of a training course for loan officers; and has conducted courses on dealing with troubled loans.
In addition to TMA, Hays is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), and the Rotary Club of Philadelphia-Paul Harris Fellow. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), AICPA’s Consulting Division, and the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs. He is also active in the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter.
Hays holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Minnesota and an MBA.
Martin J. McKinley
Partner, Fordham Capital Partners LLC
TMA Chairman, 1999
Marty McKinley is the former head of Wells Fargo Business Credit. During his 20 years there, he saw the asset-based unit grow from one office and about $70 million in loans to 28 offices and about $7.5 billion in loans. Factoring volume went from zero to acquiring a factoring business, which then grew from about $80 million to about the $8 billion level.
He is currently a partner with Fordham Capital Partners, which provides working capital and purchase order financing for small to medium-sized businesses. In 1974, he began his career with the former Walter E. Heller & Company and became president of Norwest Business Credit, Inc. (predecessor to Wells Fargo Business Credit, Inc.), in 1989.
McKinley was the first recipient of TMA’s Chairman’s Award, given for outstanding leadership in fostering the stature of the corporate renewal industry and of the association. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Windsor and an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago. He has guest lectured there, as well as at the Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis.
David L. Auchterlonie, CTP
Chairman & CEO, The Scotland Group
TMA Chairman, 2000
David Auchterlonie founded The Scotland Group, Inc., in 1986. The firm specializes in assisting underperforming and distressed businesses through hands-on corporate turnaround management.
Auchterlonie has served as interim CEO for clients in retail, healthcare, consumer products, transportation, food, manufacturing, distribution, and telecommunications, among other industries. He also recruited, mentored, and supervised CEOs serving the firm’s clients in multiple industries, all in highly distressed settings. Clients have included companies, bank groups, creditor committees, and equity sponsors both in and outside of bankruptcy.
Prior to forming his firm, Auchterlonie was a financial officer for three public companies. He began his career in 1968 with Price Waterhouse in Los Angeles. He is a frequent speaker at seminars related to corporate renewal and turnaround management, has authored several articles related to these topics, and serves on the board of advisors of an internationally based distressed debt fund. Auchterlonie also is a past board member of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals (ACTP).
Melanie Rovner Cohen
Senior Mediator/Arbitrator, ADR Systems of America, LLC
TMA Chair, 2001
In her position as senior mediator/arbitrator at ADR Systems, Melanie Rovner Cohen’s areas of interest and practice are commercial and corporate law, including secured transactions, bankruptcy, and reorganization.
She is a panelist and regular speaker for many organizations, including the American, Illinois State, and Chicago Bar Associations, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and the Commercial Law League of America, and has authored numerous articles on various aspects of bankruptcy and lending law. Active in these organizations as well as in the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Rovner Cohen has also chaired the bankruptcy and reorganization committee of the Chicago Bar Association.
A past president of TMA’s Chicago Chapter, she has been an instructor at DePaul University College of Law, where she received her law degree, and The John Marshall Law School, both in Chicago, teaching secured transactions, real estate, and debtor-creditor law courses.
Rovner Cohen was a law clerk to the Hon. Frederick J. Hertz, bankruptcy judge for the Northern District of Illinois. In 1991, she was named a fellow of Brandeis University, where she had received her bachelor’s degree. She has been named a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been invited into the membership of the International Insolvency Institute.
Peter L. Tourtellot, CTP
Principal, Anderson Bauman Tourtellot Vos & Company
TMA Chairman, 2002
Peter Tourtellot is one of the founding principals of Anderson Bauman Tourtellot Vos & Company. He has served as interim CEO and president of companies in a variety of industry sectors in the role of turnaround professional, and as a consultant to many others.
He is a past president and chairman of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals. He served as Vice President of Education and a member of ACTP’s board of directors prior to its merger with TMA as of January 2008 and as TMA Vice President, Certification, and president of the Certification Oversight Committee after the merger. Tourtellot also is a board member with TMA’s Carolinas Chapter.
Tourtellot is a graduate of the University of Phoenix and the Executive Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a member of the advisory board for the Love School of Business at Elon University, where he was elected chairman in 2003, and also serves as a director of several companies engaged in manufacturing, retailing, construction, and distribution.
Randall S. Eisenberg, CTP
Senior Managing Director, Corporate Finance
FTI Consulting, Inc.
TMA Chairman, 2003
Randall Eisenberg co-leads FTI’s services to underperforming companies. He has extensive experience advising senior management, boards of directors, and equity sponsors in revitalizing companies that are stagnant, underperforming, or in crisis. His experience includes a broad range of services emphasizing implementation of sound business practices that focus on rebuilding shareholder and stakeholder value.
Eisenberg’s background extends into numerous industries where he has served as an advisor to companies, served in interim management positions, advised secured lenders and unsecured creditors, and represented companies and equity funds in the acquisition of distressed businesses. His experience includes most aspects of development and implementation of turnaround plans in an out-of-court setting or through Chapter 11 and certain other international court-supervised insolvency processes.
Eisenberg is a frequent lecturer, is regularly interviewed in the media about turnarounds and restructurings, and has written and co-written numerous articles. He is a past president of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals; fellow, International Insolvency Institute; and a trustee with Save the Children. Eisenberg is also the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to the Turnaround Profession Award (1995).
He holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific. Prior to joining FTI, Eisenberg was a partner with the U.S. division of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Business Recovery Services practice.
John R. Rizzardi
Attorney, Cairncross & Hempelmann P.S.
TMA Chairman, 2004
Since 1979, John Rizzardi has provided strategic and general business planning to a wide range of companies and their owners, and litigation and dispute resolution assistance to clients in his business and litigation practice. And, since 1983, he has also provided commercial bankruptcy and creditors’ rights advice to clients affected by potential or actual insolvency proceedings, including bankruptcy litigation, all while serving his clients’ broader needs.
A member of the Washington State Bar Association, the King County Bar Association, and the Oregon State Bar Association, Rizzardi currently serves on the executive committee of the Washington State Bar Association’s Creditor/Debtor Section. The many honors he has received include being listed as a "Top Business Lawyer" in 2006, 2007, and 2008 in Seattle Business Monthly magazine.
Rizzardi received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and a law degree from Seattle University School of Law.
Ward K. Mooney
Executive Managing Director, Crystal Capital
TMA Chairman, 2005
Ward K. Mooney is executive managing director of Crystal Capital. Previously he served as president of Bank of America’s Retail Finance Group and COO of Back Bay Capital Fund LLC. He was a founder of both of these businesses, which most recently operated within Bank of America.
Mooney has more than 20 years’ experience in corporate banking, throughout which he has been responsible for developing and managing many diverse business groups. In addition to being a past chairman of TMA, he serves on the board of advisors of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a member of the board of directors for Casual Male. He has been the recipient of TMA’s Chairman’s Award and the Award of Liberty from The Anti-Defamation League.
Mooney holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Holly Felder Etlin, CTP
Managing Director, AlixPartners
TMA Chair, 2006
Holly Felder Etlin has nearly 30 years of experience providing restructuring and reorganization services to companies and their creditors in the media, retail, distribution, consumer products, financial services, and healthcare industries.
Before joining AlixPartners, she was a principal with XRoads Solutions Group in New York. Etlin and her team were recognized with a Turnaround of the Year Award in 2007 for their work with Winn-Dixie.
Etlin holds a bachelor’s degree from the UCLA. She is a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (CIRA), and, in addition to TMA, is a member of American Bankruptcy Institute, Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, and International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation.
Colin P. Cross
Managing Director, Crystal Capital
TMA Chairman, 2007
Prior to his current position with Crystal Capital, Colin Cross was a managing director of Back Bay Capital Funding LLC, where he established the firm’s Chicago office and was responsible for originating and structuring new investments for the business.
He had previously co-founded Heller Investments, Inc., the direct equity subsidiary of Heller Financial, Inc. Prior to 1989, Cross served 10 years as a commercial lender and originations manager with Heller Financial, Inc., and BankBoston, N.A.
Cross holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.