40 Under 40 -- Making Their Mark
IDD Presents Its Second Annual List of The Top Pre-40 Deal Makers
By Editorial Staff December 10, 2007
In an essay from the Oct. 4, 2004 issue of Time, which profiled 20 Asian heroes under 40, the first woman president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino, recalled her late husband Benigno's 40th birthday celebration in 1972.
It took place at Fort Bonifacio, where Benigno was detained for opposing Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The other prisoners presented him with gag gifts -- a baby bottle and diapers. It was then that the Aquinos agreed, as Corazon wrote, "that life does begin at 40."
After her husband was assassinated in 1983, Corazon filled his shoes as opposition leader. In 1986, when she was 53, her "people power" movement finally overthrew the Marcos regime. She served as Philippine president for the next six years.
The 40 deal makers on IDD's list may not have overthrown dictators or led nations, but they have won the respect of their peers in the financial community. In a relatively short amount of time, they have become stars, or rising stars, in the capital markets and related sectors.
Those on the list hail from a variety of employers, from bulge-bracket banks to middle-market boutiques to law firms, and specialize in a myriad of industries and markets. Some names you may recognize, and perhaps others are unfamiliar. However, if they have been selected, chances are you will work with them soon enough.
To be sure, lists such as ours are not intended to be all-inclusive; without question there are plenty more "youngsters" who are shaping deals and carving out great careers who do not appear in our roster of 40. But the folks who do appear on the following pages are among the brightest, hardest-working people in the financial arena.
Of course, while grand accomplishments prior to turning 40 are admirable, the big 4-0 is by no means a cutoff date. Warren Buffett is still making headlines at 77. And don't forget 79-year-old T. Boone Pickens and 81-year-old Alan Greenspan.
If, according to President Aquino, "life does begin at 40," then much more can be expected from the capital markets players profiled on the following pages. -- Joshua Hamerman
*Justin Abelow, Deutsche Bank: Managing Director, Financial Sponsors Group
Investment banking definitely runs in the blood of the Abelow family.
Justin Abelow's father was an M&A banker with
Morgan Stanley, and Abelow's grandfather ran his own banking boutique. Justin's older brother was also an investment banker at
Goldman Sachs. But before he got into investment banking, Abelow briefly was an attorney at
Davis Polk & Wardwell. "I got sidetracked," he quips. Abelow has been a banker with
JPMorgan,
First Boston and
Houlihan Lokey prior to joining
Deutsche Bank. He has worked on more than 300 closed transactions involving over 40 private equity firms. Asked about the current tumult in the financial markets, Abelow says he believes that strategic buyers will be a greater presence when it comes to the buying of companies and this may lead to increased partnering between PE firms and strategic buyers. Also, he says there will be heightened activity within the industrial economy because of rising commodities prices and the weak US dollar.
*Mark Angelo, Yorkville Advisors: Founder, President
In 2001,
Mark Angelo launched
Yorkville Advisors, a Jersey City-based private investment firm that specializes in structured finance and direct equity investments in private and public companies, with $1.5 million in capital that came from friends and family. Six years later, the firm manages just under $1 billion in assets and intends to expand. The firm has offices in London, San Diego, and Jupiter, Fla., as well as joint ventures in Milan and Tel Aviv. The company finances publicly traded companies in 10 countries around the world. Angelo says Yorkville is a hybrid between a hedge fund and a private equity fund, or as he describes it, an investment bank wrapped in a fund structure. "We use many techniques and structures that a venture investor would do and apply them to public companies around the world," he says. Over the past year, the firm structured more than $800 million in equity capital in more than 100 transactions in the US and around the world.
*Tiff Armstrong, Harris Williams: Managing Director
Tiff Armstrong says he's optimistic about the investment bank's middle-market book of business for next year. "We're going to have our fifth straight record year; we're entering 2008 with roughly the same backlog we had in 2007." Armstrong isn't bashful when it comes to sharing insights about the middle market. In the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the banker explained how Sarbanes-Oxley regulations can negatively impact a mid-sized company: "SarbOx compliance costs can be $2 million a year for a $100 million to $500 million (sales) company." The onerous regulations haven't impacted Armstrong's ability to execute deals. Since joining
Harris Williams in 1993 the investment banker has overseen more than 125 M&A transactions. This year he's been involved with assignments for companies in diverse industries like
Global Energy Decisions,
Danaher, and
Hilsinger Holdings, among others. Armstrong, 39, is once again in the Mid-Atlantic region, having relocated back to Richmond, Va., roughly 18 months ago. He established the firm's San Francisco office in 1999.
*Nicolas Beckmann, BNP Paribas: Managing Director, Co-Head of US Interest Rates Trading
BNP's
Nicolas Beckmann grew up near Aix en Provence but studied in Paris where he got a job as a runner for a brokerage firm trading futures on what was then the MATIF SA. "It was the most invigorating job," he remembers. "I was in the second year of university, 19 years old." Beckmann, whose favorite past-time is windsurfing, studied at the University of Paris where he also received his master of banking and finance. He started at BNP as an assistant trader on the swap desk. Those early days in the 1990s were heady ones. There was a push to introduce a common European currency and the end of the Cold War allowed Germany to re-unite. The central bank for Europe's largest economy, the
Bundesbank, had then raised rates to fight off inflation related to the reunification. The tight monetary policy propelled the Deutsche mark higher against other currencies on the foreign exchange markets and the result was that many investors were betting against the French franc and French government debt.
*Jay Bernstein, KPS Capital Partners: Partner
Jay Bernstein has had a frenetic year. At age 32, Bernstein is one of the private equity industry's youngest partners, and one of four at New York's
KPS Capital Partners. In 2007, he's assisted with raising capital for KPS' latest fund, a $1.2 billion special situations vehicle that makes control-oriented investments in companies involved in turnarounds, restructurings and bankruptcies; and, he's worked on numerous transactions with his fellow KPS partners, such as the acquisition of
Bristol Compressors, among several other assignments. Bernstein joined KPS in 1999 when co-founders and managing partners
Michael Psaros and
David Shapiro were raising their first fund. It's when he says he began learning the restructuring investment business in a hands-on fashion from Psaros and Shapiro. "Dave and Mike really taught me the business. Creating value in troubled businesses is not something you can learn in an investment banking analyst program." The Skokie, Ill., native and avid Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears fan knows a bit about finance, having spent a year at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
*Jonathan Biele, Cowen & Co.: Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets
Although
Jonathan Biele only joined
Cowen & Co. in July, his deal roster is long. He has raised more than $100 billion in more than 250 transactions during his career. Before Cowen, Biele was head of equity capital markets at
Lazard and a managing director in the firm's life science banking group, and was part of the equity syndicate and equity capital markets groups at
Lehman Brothers. He was also a vice president and syndicate manager at
ABN Amro Rothschild. Some of his most recent Lazard deals include acting as co-manager for the Feb. 6 IPO of
Synta Pharmaceuticals, which raised $50 million, and the $75.2 million IPO of
Xtent, which priced on Jan. 31. Biele was also co-manager of newspaper publisher
GateHouse Media's $285.7 million IPO in October 2006. It was Biele who, while at Lehman, priced the first legitimate IPO following 9/11. He was the bookrunner and lead manager on Israeli gastrointestinal imaging developer
Given Imaging's Oct. 3, 2001 IPO, which raised $60 million. Biele, who received a B.A. from St. Lawrence University, co-headed Cowen's equity capital markets group with
Richard Ng-Yow, who has left the firm.
*Mike Bingle, Silver Lake: Managing Director
Having joined the technology-focused private equity firm in 2000, one year after its establishment,
Mike Bingle is one of
Silver Lake's senior deal makers. One of his most notable transactions was Silver Lake's acquisition of global agency broker
Instinet, and the portfolio company's November 2006 sale to
Nomura. Bingle, along with
Kenneth Hao (see below), also helped fellow Silver Lake managing directors
Greg Mondre and
Egon Durban secure the buyout of
SunGard Data Systems. He is a board member at portfolio companies such as
Gartner and was formerly a director of
Ameritrade Holding and Instinet. He is based in Silver Lake's New York office and oversees North American operations with Mondre; his clients are mostly on the financial services side. Prior to Silver Lake, Bingle was a principal at
Apollo Advisors and an investment banker in
Goldman Sachs' leveraged finance group. Bingle received a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering from Duke University, where he completed a two-year National Science Foundation fellowship.
*James Brown, Canaccord Adams: Managing Director, Head of US Investment Banking
James Brown made the move to Boston from Vancouver in March of last year, heading up the investment banking team of the new firm spawned from
Canaccord's acquisition of
Adams Harkness. Today, he oversees a team of 48 bankers, focusing on the firm's core sectors: sustainability, technology, energy, consumer and life sciences. The investment banking group has grown revenue by 30% since the Adams Harkness deal in January 2006, and the number of deals the firm has acted on as lead manager has increased sharply -- 10 in the past two months. Another major accomplishment of Brown's is his build-up of a dedicated PIPEs team. Canaccord has gone from no ranking in the space to fourth in number of deals done so far in 2007. At Canaccord, the banker has been credited with redefining the firm's product mix, increasing the average economics in public offerings and aggressively pursuing lead mandates. He has been able to take advantage of cross-border deals between the US and Canada that resulted from the Adams Harkness merger.
*Robert Brown, Lincoln International: Managing Director, Head of Business Services and Transportation and Logistics Groups
Robert Brown has advised on a variety of mandates at Chicago-based
Lincoln International. He worked with
Cortec Group, a New York-based private equity firm, on its sale of a packaging and material handling equipment manufacturer,
Fischbein, to another private equity shop,
Circle Peak Capital, which closed in May. That same month, Brown and his business services group guided
Sembler Investments on its sale of
Skilled Services Corp., a skilled construction trades staffing provider, to
Labor Ready. In addition to his other duties, Brown also oversees Lincoln recruitment and works in the international business (Lincoln has foreign offices in Frankfurt, Paris and Vienna and recently hired Darren Redmayne to launch its London branch). Before joining Lincoln in 1998, Brown spent eight years in the New York and Chicago offices of
Price Waterhouse. He worked in the firm's investment banking and transaction services groups. The latter provided valuation consulting, due diligence and structuring services.
*Drew Chapman, DLA Piper: Chair, Alternative Asset Management Group
After he graduated from law school,
Drew Chapman, 33, left his native Australia to move to New York in 1997, as he was, in his words, "young and ambitious and wanting to move to the center of the financial world." When asked how his plan, a little more than 10 years later, has panned out, Chapman says "so far, so good." Chapman is the chair of DLA Piper's Alternative Asset Management practice, representing hedge funds, private equity funds broker-dealers, asset management firms, and service providers to the hedge fund market in their corporate needs. One of the interesting projects he is currently working on is a multi-billion-dollar emerging debt fund that will likely be listed on the Euronext, as well as a
Shariah-compliant real estate hedge fund, he says. He joined the firm in September from
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where he was the chairman of the fund services group.
*Paige Daly, LNK Partners: Managing Director
Paige Daly knows a thing or two about leveraged buyouts and the retail industry. During the course of her 11 year private equity career, which began in 1996 at the venerable Boston private equity house
Bain Capital, Daly has worked on both transaction and portfolio company oversight assignments with numerous consumer and retail-oriented companies. They are names that resonate with consumers like
Sealy,
Life Time Fitness,
Spyder Active Sports and
Bob's Discount Furniture, among others. After spending seven years at Bain, a firm where she was promoted to principal, Daly departed to accept a position with New York's
Apax Partners in 2003. As a partner at Apax, the engaging 37-year-old honed her retail investment prowess under the stewardship of former Apax retail chief and
LNK partner
David Landau. It was also where she met fellow LNK managing director Jeffrey Perlman. Daly joined LNK in February 2007. Lately, the Manhattan resident and mother of two children has spent her time helping LNK close a pending retail acquisition.
*Jane DeFlorio, Deutsche Bank: Managing Director
Prior to business school,
Jane DeFlorio worked for a drug manufacturer where she was in the "sterile core," meaning she was involved in making vaccines and drugs for eyes to treat glaucoma. "Everything had to be triple-checked constantly," DeFlorio says of her days there. After B-school, she worked at
Morgan Stanley for five years and then worked at
UBS for another five years. The Twin Cities, Minn., native was involved with
Kraft's sale of its Altoids and Life Savers businesses. DeFlorio was also involved in the sale of
Maidenform on behalf of
Oak Tree Capital in 2004. Later she advised
Ares in the public offering of the Maidenform business. She has also worked with
Wilbur Ross, who has acquired several companies in the textile arena. Her husband -- who she met in Harvard business school and who is a partner with a PE firm -- aids her in developing investment ideas. "He'll tell me if I'm crazy," says DeFlorio. DeFlorio's father was the CFO of a small Midwestern manufacturing company. "He was so happy when I told him I would go into investment banking," she recalls.
*Frank Drazka, Trenwith Group: Chairman
The investment banking and finance bug bit
Frank Drazka at an early age, when as a 17-year-old he won the Winthrop Smith scholarship. The scholarship led to an internship at
Merrill Lynch, which stirred a curiosity about Wall Street. After Merrill Drazka worked at
Bankers Trust, where he was involved with merchant banking, structured finance and high yield. Drazka has completed more than 120 deals in the area of public and private debt and equity offerings, leveraged buyouts, strategic advisory assignments and financial restructuring. In June, Drazka and
Trenwith completed the sale of
Tweeter Home Entertainment assets to
Schultze Asset Management. Drazka sees more advisory work on the horizon now that there are increasing signs of an economic slowdown. "Given the leverage ratios we are seeing among consumers and LBO deals and the looming 'R,' as in recession, word we will see more and more broken stories that need to be fixed," says Drazka. The Trenwith executive, a collector of wine who enjoys snorkeling, skiing and hiking, studied economics at Yale.
*Peter Falvey, Revolution Partners: Managing Director and Co-Founder
Before co-founding Boston-based
Revolution Partners, a middle-market boutique focusing on emerging technology companies, in January 2001,
Peter Falvey was in charge of East Coast software and business-to-business e-commerce banking at
Robertson Stephens. Falvey has advised on financings and M&A deals for clients such as
Allaire,
Centra Software,
Internet Capital Group,
Mail.com,
TSI Software and
Silknet. Although Revolution concentrates on the middle market, Falvey revealed to
IDD earlier this year that his firm has been interacting with
Goldman Sachs and other large banks more than usual. "We don't run into them every day, but we have been seeing them more often," he said (
See related story). Earlier in his career, he worked for
PaineWebber as an associate in the technology investment banking group and covered the Internet software sector. Falvey was also an associate at
NatWest Bank and a principal at
marchFIRST's venture investment subsidiary. While at the latter, he concentrated on wireless and Internet software infrastructure and application companies.
*David Feldman, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel: Partner, Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy
When distressed bondholders, investors, creditor committees and lenders need representation in out-of-court restructurings, bankruptcy cases and distressed debt and asset transactions, they often call
David Feldman. He has represented lenders in a bridge loan to
Hercules Technology Growth Capital, a revolving credit loan to
Arbor Realty Trust and an acquisition facility to
Real Mex Restaurants. Feldman has also been involved in bankruptcy cases such as
SLM International (representing the creditors' committee),
Auto Parts Exchange (bank group),
Sharp International (debtor),
Recycling Industries (post-petition creditors' committee and pre-petition bondholders),
American Architectural Products (creditors' committee) and
Newcor (post-petition creditors' committee and pre-petition bondholders). On the distressed M&A front, Feldman represented the acquirers of
General Chemical and
Golden Northwest Aluminum via bankruptcy proceedings.
*Simon Fludgate, Aksia: Principal, Head of Operational Due Diligence and Risk
Simon Fludgate started his career in the public accounting field, but knew he wasn't going to be an accountant forever, as it wasn't innovative enough for his liking. More interesting, challenging and rewarding has been working in the hedge fund sector. Fludgate, 36, joined
Aksia, a hedge fund research and advisory team, a year ago and focuses on operational due diligence, develops products for funds, and assesses funds for inclusion in clients' portfolios. He runs a team of five people in New York and Tokyo. Prior to Aksia, Fludgate worked for two years at
Credit Suisse as head of operational due diligence and deputy head of risk management for its fund of funds group, where he formed the operational due diligence team. Fludgate ran a team of six people in Zurich and New York that managed $20 billion. He was also a voting member of Credit Suisse's Fund Review Committee and Portfolio Review Committee. Six people left Credit Suisse to form Aksia. A graduate of the State University of Albany, Fludgate is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and speaks at many conference events on hedge funds.
*Christopher Forrester, Morrison & Foerster: Partner
Christopher Forrester's expertise lies within corporate governance matters and representing emerging growth. He works with a wide variety of companies from technology to industrialist, mostly small and mid-cap in size. Forrester, 35, is based in San Diego, and also has extensive experience in M&A with both public and private companies and in strategic partnering transactions, including joint ventures. His work is US focused, but he works on international cross -- border deals as well. Notably, Forrester represented
Multi-Fineline Electronix in its proposed $500 million acquisition of Singapore-based
MFS Technology. He also completed the $107 million IPO of
MediciNova and the sale of
Xcel Pharmaceuticals to
Valiant Pharmaceuticals for $280 million. He has worked two years at
Morrison & Foerster. Prior to his current position, Forrester was a partner at
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for five years. He began his legal career at
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn in Washington, DC.
*Brent Gledhill, William Blair: Head of European and Asian Banking
Brent Gledhill, 38, has been at
William Blair for 11 years and has worked as head of European and Asian Banking at Blair's London office. In the past three years, the team has completed more than 60 transactions involving companies from 17 different countries. Recent notable deals, he says, include the sale of
Uster, a Swiss company that makes testing and measurement tools for classifying cotton and related apparel products, to
Alpha Gruppe, a German-French private equity firm in 2006. What Gledhill particularly enjoys about his work is the fact that each day is different. He likes the variety his job brings, whether it is in terms of countries, sectors or different markets. Although he acknowledges that cultural gaps in deal making and communications are sometimes difficult to manage, he says his firm has built an interesting team and he is often traveling with someone who speaks the native language. There are days, however, when you "definitely have to remind yourself to be patient," he says. Gledhill holds a BS in business administration from Miami University.
*Jonathan Gray, The Blackstone Group: Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Real Estate Group
Jonathan Gray set the cornerstone for his private equity real estate career 15 years ago when he joined New York's
Blackstone Group in 1992. During his tenure at Blackstone, Gray ascended its rungs from the firm's corporate advisory services group to its private equity group before being named co-head of the real estate investment group alongside senior managing director
Chad Pike. The Blackstone real estate mover and shaker has executed a host of public-to-private buyouts involving well-established companies like
Extended Stay America,
Trizec Properties,
CarrAmerica Realty and
Wyndham International, among others. But, the most high profile deal given its size Gray cobbled together was Blackstone's $39 billion buyout of
Equity Office Properties Trust. Besides his deal execution skills with large real estate concerns the Manhattan resident has overseen the firm's pool of real estate investment funds, such as the close of its $5.25 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners V fund in June 2006.
*Kenneth Hao, Silver Lake: Managing Director
Since joining
Silver Lake in 2000,
Kenneth Hao has taken the reins of the private equity firm's Asian deals and some domestic operations as well. In addition to
Mike Bingle (see above), he also helped fellow Silver Lake managing directors
Greg Mondre and
Egon Durban secure the buyout of
SunGard Data Systems. The $11.4 billion SunGard acquisition by a Silver Lake-led private equity consortium closed in August 2005 and is second-largest LBO on record, as well as the largest technology privatization. Before Silver Lake, Hao spent a decade at
H&Q, most recently as a managing director working with semiconductor, software and computer systems companies. While at the firm, he oversaw the systems and semiconductor investment banking business for two years and spearheaded Asia-Pacific banking mandates. The December 2002 IPO of
Seagate Technology was the first he ever priced. Hao graduated with an A.B. in economics from Harvard University and is a board member of portfolio companies
Avago Technologies and
NetScout Systems. One of his past board directorships was at Certance Holdings, a previous Seagate division now owned by
Quantum Corp.
*Scott Humphrey, BMO Capital Markets: Executive Managing Director and Head of US M&A
Scott Humphrey may not have been able to secure a spot on the University of Arizona golf team, but he was able to find his niche in the US middle market. When he considered leaving
Deutsche Bank after 10 years to join
BMO, it was the latter's focus on the US middle market which persuaded him (
See related story). After he came to BMO in February, he helped advise
Save-Mart on its acquisition of non-core assets. The portfolio went on the block when a
Cerberus Capital Management-led buyout group bought
Albertson's. The deal doubled Save-Mart's size and provided the firm with many other mandates due to the real estate sales which followed. Humphrey is based in Chicago and oversees 29 professionals. He reports to
David Casper and
Dominic Petito, co-heads of US investment and corporate banking, and
Andre Hidi, global head of M&A. Prior to Deutsche, where he supervised the Chicago office's M&A practice, Humphrey spent seven years at
BT Wolfensohn. He was also a principal at Cleveland-based
Brass Rock Holdings.
*Dimitri Jobert, BNP Paribas: Director, Co-Head of Global Sponsor Finance
As a young person,
Dimitri Jobert says he dipped into French financial newspapers, soaking up stories about "the world of finance and corporations -- how they live and die." Some of those stories probably come to mind amid the current financial tumult. "It is a very interesting time," he says of the current crisis. "A lot of activity has come to a halt. There is a pipeline of deals that have not been sold yet. Until these get sold, I don't think the market will show a sign of strong flows." An avid skier, Jobert is also a fan of classical music and operas by
Mozart and
Strauss, particularly the Strauss' "Salome." He finds
BNP the ideal employer because it allows employees to shift to different parts of the world. He now lives in New York, but Jobert grew up in Paris, the descendent of White Russian emigres who fled the Russian Revolution. In his home, Russian, German, French and English were spoken. Naturally, he says, "I was curious and eager to live somewhere outside of France." Prior to working on LBOs, Jobert was involved with project finance deals for power plants and toll roads.
*Cathy Leonhardt, Peter J. Solomon Co.: Managing Director, M&A Group
On
Cathy Leonhardt's desk you'll likely find a copy of
Women's Wear Daily next to the
Wall Street Journal. She's always eyeing trends in fashion, trawling
WWD for clients or ideas. "I am always a big reader. The key is not to be too focused on your personal preferences." Leonhardt started at
Wachovia. After business school she decamped for
Morgan Stanley. Since her arrival at
Peter J. Solomon four years ago, she was involved with the sale of
Kate Spade and
Phillips-Van Heusen's acquisition of
Superba. This year she was involved with French global retailer
Pinault-Printemps-Redoute's purchase of
United Retail Group for its Redcats business. The draw to investment banking? "You get involved with decisions for a business with a corporate board, senior management or its private owners." In recent years, Leonhardt was kept busy by financial buyers that were willing to pay higher prices for retail businesses than the usual strategic buyer.
*Michael Maxworthy, Marlin & Associates: Partner
Michael (Max) Maxworthy joined
Marlin & Associates in 2001, following the firm's founder,
Ken Marlin, over from
Veronis Suhler Stevenson. His focus is on what he calls digital information technology companies, "essentially any company in information technology that helps manage or slice and dice data and content." He started his career as a research assistant at
Morgan Stanley, moving on to
AIG, and has since worked on a wide-ranging lineup of deals, including the notable
Bloomberg buy last year of
Brainpower, a Dutch provider of data management software to investment managers. (It was Bloomberg's first-ever acquisition, and Marlin was the exclusive adviser to Brainpower.) Maxworthy, among the younger members of our "40 Under 40" crowd at 32, enjoys working in the middle market space, "helping companies that are just on the cusp of taking off." Maxworthy is a member of the Young Executives Board for the National Down Syndrome Society, and a former director of the Upward Bound Program at Binghamton University. He is also an avid motorcyclist, though he keeps it to the track these days. "Too many run-ins with soccer moms," he says.
*Rory McKinney, D.A. Davidson & Co.: Managing Director, Investment Banking
Investment banking is so often about relationships -- those you build and those you maintain.
Rory McKinney has become adept at both at the ripe old age of 30. McKinney earlier this year was brought on to
D.A. Davidson, the largest investment bank based in the Northwest, to head the expansion of the firm's FIG business. He cut his teeth at
Hovde Financial, an investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and valuation for financial institutions, and while there was involved in a number of whole-bank transactions. Before that he had a stint at
Deutsche Bank in New York. Among the deals McKinney has had a hand in are
Zions Banc's purchase of
Stockmen's Bancorp,
Western Alliance Bank's buy of
First Independent Capital, and
Wells Fargo's purchase of a collection of banks in Colorado from
Fremont Bancorp. Along with the pride he takes in understanding, and successfully executing on, his clients' objectives, McKinney, based in Lake Oswego, Ore., sees his singular focus on the financial-services arena as one of his strengths.
*Mitchell Nussbaum, Loeb & Loeb, Partner and Chair, Corporate Securities Practice Group
He's on the fast track to growing his firm's international securities practice, and with his revenues for the year set to hit $10 million, it's no surprise that
Mitchell Nussbaum made partner at 33. He generated $7.5 million in revenue last year. New York-based Nussbaum, 38, has represented more than 40 Asian companies, including the first Chinese, Taiwanese and Thai companies to list on the American Stock Exchange. He also works with investment banks and funds in connection with their interest in that area. Nussbaum is applying his experience in taking internationally-based corporations public to new clients in the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Israel and Greece. Nussbaum is involved in the development of special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs), as well. He has completed close to 40 SPAC initial public offerings, including deals for the purchase of companies in technology, energy, and consumer products. Nussbaum chairs the Securities Practice Group at Loeb, making him the youngest practice team leader. Under Nussbaum's leadership, the securities team completed SPAC deals ranging from $27 million to $225 million.
*Jeffrey Perlman, LNK Partners, Managing Director
Jeffrey Perlman, a managing director at
LNK Partners, doesn't just bring financial acumen to the firm, a White Plains, N.Y.-based consumer and retail-oriented private equity group he joined in 2006, but corporate operations experience, too. He's rolled up his sleeves as a senior vice president of strategy and operations for
Starwich Salads and Sandwiches where he "helped roll out units in the New York area" in 2005, and as a manager of corporate finance for
ITT Corp., a position that enabled Perlman, an avid New York Knicks fan, to see a few games at Madison Square Garden. The 36-year-old dealmaker is quick to do wnplay his operating experience. It was at New York private equity firm
Apax Partners, which he joined in 2000, where Perlman really honed his retail investing skills as a principal under the watchful eyes of
David Landau, a partner at LNK, which stands for Landau, Nasella, Klatsky. At Apax he worked on high-profile retail transactions like
Phillips-Van Heusen's $425 million acquisition of
Calvin Klein (Apax backed the purchase).
*Anna Pinedo, Morrison & Foerster: Partner
Anna Pinedo is undoubtedly making waves in the industry, and it's been an especially busy past few months due to credit crisis. One of many expertise areas for Pinedo lies within derivatives and structured products, and she has been advising clients what positions to pull away from, and discussing long-term planning such as restructuring. The other "fun, creative" part of her work is advising investment banks on new financial product developments that may have tax, accounting or regulation benefits. She has devoted much time to working on new structured products, and each year, she works on up to 50 securities offerings, some common stock or debt securities, which total in the billions. Pinedo, 38, fluent in Spanish, also works with financial institutions in connection with international offerings of equity and debt securities. She is in the midst of writing two books, one on financial derivatives the other on regulations of exempt securities offerings. Pinedo participates in organizations for mentoring women and literacy programs, particularly for Hispanic women. She speaks at numerous industry conferences.
*Jonathan Pruzan, Morgan Stanley: Co-Head North American FIG
Jonathan Pruzan, 39, who used to head
Morgan Stanley's US Bank group, was newly appointed co-head of North American FIG M&A. Pruzan spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley, which he says gives him an edge, as he has been focused on the same client base which expands across sectors and geographies. "It lends to my credibility as people in this space know me well. My clients look to me for honest strategic guidance and counsel," he says. Pruzan, a native New Yorker and a self-described, "honest, direct, not the type to sugar coat things," kind of person, still enjoys the same aspects of his job that he found attractive when he started: The strategic aspects, the deal dynamics and trying to build new relationships. His most notable and memorable deal (and
IDD's 2006 deal of the year) was advising
General Motors in its 51% sale of
GMAC to
Cerberus Capital. "While you're in the middle of it, it's quite difficult, but when you're done and successful, you feel quite good about it."
*Patrick Ramsey, Merrill Lynch: Managing Director in M&A
He's only 39, but having joined
Merrill Lynch just after his graduation from Harvard Business School makes
Patrick Ramsey, a managing director in M&A, a veteran of the firm. The most interesting part of his job, Ramsey says, is helping clients solving tricky strategic problems, and helping them come up with the best solutions to deliver on their objectives. He's had an interesting past year. One noteworthy transaction is the pending $19 billion leveraged cash acquisition by
Basell of
Lyondell, a publicly traded petrochemical company, which is expected to close later this year. Ramsey says the deal represents the largest chemical transaction in history, cash or stock. That announcement came on the heels of the $11 billion sale, also pending, of
Huntsman to
Hexio. Since the beginning of 2005 through September 2007, Ramsey has advised on 27 completed or pending M&A transactions representing total transaction value of more than $115 billion, spanning the chemicals, consumer and retail sectors.
*Brian Roberts, Evercore Partners: Senior Managing Director, Corporate Advisory
When
Evercore Partners hired
Brian Roberts in January 2006 to build its San Francisco corporate advisory branch, the firm was relying on his experience as
Microsoft's deal pro. He previously spent five years at the computer software giant, most recently as a corporate vice president in charge of the corporate development team. One of his last deals at Microsoft was the
Groove Networks acquisition, which brought on
Ray Ozzie as the company's new chief software architect. He was also involved in the $60 billion merger discussions with
SAP. During his tenure at Evercore, Roberts has worked with
IronPort on its $830 million sale to
Cisco and
Winternals on its sale to Microsoft. He also advised
Silver Lake and
TPG on their pending divestiture of
Network General to
NetScout, and worked with
BlueLithium on its pending $300 million sale to
Yahoo. Earlier in his career, Roberts was vice president of business development at
Inktomi, where he executed almost $2 billion in transactions, and a vice president at
Lazard. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
*Michael Santini, Merrill Lynch: Managing Director and Group Head, Multi Industries, America
Michael Santini is
Merrill Lynch's managing director and group head, multi industries, America, and at 39 is the youngest banker to have a group head ro le since formation in 1998. Santini, who has been at the bank for 13 years, was the lead advisor to
IBM on the sale of its PC division to
Lenovo of China. He has completed more than $45 billion of lead-managed financing transactions consisting of add-on common stock and IPO offerings, convertible bond offerings and debt offerings. Significant financings include advising
GE on its $2.3 billion second offering in
Genworth in 2006,
Republic Services on its $1.5 billion IPO in 1998 and its subsequent $1.7 billion secondary equity offering in 1999, as well as advising
Danaher on a $517 million
Contingent Payment LYONs offering and $700 million of LYONs for
Marriott. In addition, he has been involved in merger and acquisition deals with aggregate transaction values of $55 billion. Significant M&A transactions include advising
Bain/
Carlyle/
CD&R on the $8.5 billion LBO of HD Supply from
Home Depot in 2007.
*Oliver Sarkozy, UBS: Managing Director, Co-Head of Global FIG
Oliver Sarkozy has been involved with some of the most notable banking mergers in recent years:
Mellon's merger with
Bank of New York,
Charles Schwab's sale of US Trust to
Bank of America, and
MBNA's sale to Bank of America among them. Sarkozy, the half-brother of the president of France, grew up in France until he was seven. When his mother remarried an American diplomat, Oliver had the opportunity to live in nations like India, Zambia and Egypt. "It was a transient life, but one that was as good a prep for this business as you could ever hope for. You had to get know and feel comfortable in, adapt to and operate in a bunch of different environments." Interestingly, Sarkozy as a young man studied not economics but medieval history. He has a master's in medieval history from St. Andrews University in Scotland. "I was fortunate, in a sense, that 20 years ago people were not so dogmatic about academic qualifications," he says. Sarkozy, with
UBS since 2003, credits two early mentors at
Credit Suisse for his success:
Nicholas Paumgarten and
Bill Wyant. "These guys taught me what I needed to understand about investment banking. "When I walk into my office on any given day, I have no idea what I am going to do. I'll have meetings scheduled or what have you, but it's really like a blank canvas. It's hugely creative and often very surprising."
*David Schamis, J.C. Flowers & Co.: Managing Director
David Schamis started at
J.C. Flowers back in 2000, not too long after first meeting his current boss,
Christopher Flowers. The two ran into each other when Schamis was an investment banker at
Salomon Brothers, and the now-33-year-old would go on to become the well-known buyout firm's first employee. It was a good match; Schamis has been a FIG banker his entire career, and that's his current firm's area of expertise. At the moment, Schamis' biggest deal involves Flowers' proposed $25 billion buyout of
Sallie Mae. His signature adorns the merger agreement, and while the two sides are in the midst of a feud surrounding terms of the transaction, there is still a chance the deal will get done. The Flowers-led group also includes
Bank of America and
JPMorgan. Schamis is the chairman of
Crump Insurance and is a board member at
Symetra Financial and
Affirmative Insurance Holdings. The Yale graduate was previously chairman of
Fox-Pitt Kelton, which Flowers bought last year, but he stepped down as part of the merger between FPK and
Cochran Caronia Waller earlier this year, but remains a director.
*David Silver, Robert W. Baird: Managing Director, Industrial and Business Services
David Silver has indeed accomplished much in his 35 years; he ha s the distinction of serving as the youngest European MD within his firm, and he helped found his group. He has also invested more than a decade at the same firm, a rarity among the younger set. Silver was instrumental in building a dedicated European M&A group, fully integrated with
Baird's US operations -- one of the first US mid-market banks to develop such a trans-Atlantic team. Baird's European M&A team represents almost a quarter of the firm's overall investment banking revenue, and the vast majority of that revenue in Europe comes from financial sponsor clients. Silver recently assumed leadership of the firm's business services effort in Europe. His recent deals include the sale of
Financial Dynamics to
FTI Consulting for $260 million, and he led the $260 million sale of
Wyko Holdings to a Dutch concern. Both FTI and Wyko were owned by major European private equity players. Before joining Baird, Silver, an avid golfer who is based in London, served as a finance attorney for
Berwin Leighton.
*Jose Torres-Monllor, Energy Investors Funds: Senior Vice President
When
Jose Torres-Monllor got a call from
Energy Investors Funds managing partner
Terence Darby in late 2005 asking him to join the private equity firm he almost had to think twice. The-38-year-old bilingual finance professional was, after all, living in Denver, where he oversaw
CoBank's structured finance group. Torres-Monllor took the job as a senior vice president in 2006 after learning Darby wanted him to join the firm's Mill Valley, Calif., office. He works on originating and analyzing deals for
EIF, an energy industry-focused firm which also has offices in New York and Boston. EIF was too good an opportunity to pass up, says the Puerto Rican native and 13-year-plus ex-project finance banker. "We're at the forefront of transmission; we're looking at ways to improve the grid. It's extremely exciting to be involved with that." Torres-Monllor cut his Wall Street chops at
ING Barings in 1993 in Santiago, Chile, which was undergoing deregulation. Later, he joined
Societe Generale in 2001 before moving to Denver in 2003 to join CoBank. A married father of two, Torres-Monllor received an international MBA from The American Graduate School of International Management.
*Jane Wheeler, Evercore Partners: Senior Managing Director, Corporate Advisory
As the senior managing director in charge of
Evercore's financial services advisory business,
Jane Wheeler advised
E-Trade Financial on its receipt of a $2.5 billion capital infusion from a consortium of
Citadel Investment Group affiliates. The infusion, announced on Nov. 29, lets E-Trade focus on its core retail operations and manage credit risk more effectively. The Citadel affiliates also bought all of E-Trade's asset-backed securities portfolio. Her other deals at Evercore include
InterContinentalExchange's $1.05 billion acquisition of the
New York Board of Trade,
Nomura's buyout of
Instinet and
TA Associates' purchase of
eSeclending. Wheeler has also worked on the formation of joint ventures such as BNY ConvergEx (by the Bank of New York,
Eze Castle and
GTCR) and FXMarketspace (by
Reuters and the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange). Before Evercore, Wheeler spent more than 12 years at
Morgan Stanley, where she was the managing director in charge of the financial technology and securities industry investment banking team.
*David Wierman, Robert W. Baird: Managing Director, Financial Sponsors Group
Among his many career highlights,
David Wierman cites one of his more recent achievements as his most rewarding. Along with two other senior bankers, Wierman founded
Robert W. Baird's financial sponsor group a few years back, and the group has shown remarkable growth of late. When the group was started back in 2004, private equity firms accounted for just 5% of Baird's revenue; today, that number stands at better than 50%. Wierman's early years at Baird spanned a broad range of sectors, including business services, healthcare and industrial, a diverse group which provided him a solid foundation in investment banking. Wierman, who previously worked at
Coopers & Lybrand, is also credited with steering plenty of repeat business to Baird. After the firm served as an advisor on the $245 million IPO for
Williams Scotsman, for example, his group was tapped to co-lead the company's $228 million follow-on offering soon after. Wierman also led the sourcing in the sale of field-service vehicle manufacturer
Iowa Mold Tooling, to
Oshkosh Truck for $131 million.
*Mike Wyatt, Morgan Stanley: Head of West Coast Technology M&A
Mike Wyatt, 39, is
Morgan Stanley's head of West coast technology M&A. He joined the firm directly after graduating with an MBA from Stanford Business School, and has been involved in the M&A sector since. "I came to Morgan Stanley because M&A has always been a flagship product, and I believe we do it better than anybody else," Wyatt says. For the past nine years, he has been focusing on tech M&A, a sector he finds interesting given the changes the industry has recently undergone, namely telecom and media deregulation, and innovation. In 2007, Wyatt represented
aQuantive in its $6.4 billion sale to
Microsoft in a landmark tech transaction, as he obtained one of the highest premiums ever paid in a large tech transaction. The deal was also the largest acquisition ever by Microsoft. "The aQuantive deal was a great one because it was very competitive, and it ended up being a very attractive outcome for shareholders," Wyatt says. Other 2007 deals include representing
Hyperion in its $3.3 billion sale to
Oracle and advising
Tellme Networks in its sale to Microsoft.
*Edward Zimmerman, Lowenstein Sandler: Chairman of the Technology Group
Edward Zimmerman is a busy man between his successful law practice, charities, and involvement as a board member. Growing up he wanted to be a lawyer and practice in the public service sector, so it took him by surprise when he ended up in corporate law. New Jersey-based Zimmerman does plenty of work in the Silicon Valley area, representing venture funds and tech-based businesses with transactions such as M&A, securities offerings, and management buyouts. His clients include
Charles River Ventures and
Bessemer Venture Partners. In between advising clients, Zimmerman, 39, is an active angel investor; he founded and co-chaired
AngelVine VC, which is a network of angels and more than 300 venture funds dedicated to helping early stage ventures. Zimmerman is also still involved with the public sector. He founded Hoop-A-Paluzza, which started as a basketball tournament in his driveway amongst 200 friends and their families in 2002, and has now has grown to an annual fundraising event. Thus far, the charity has raised $1.5 million with all the money benefiting children causes such as cancer and diabetes.
Find out more information about people mentioned in this article from our People Database:
Justin Abelow
Jay Bernstein
Jonathan Biele
Mike Bingle
Robert Brown
Peter Falvey
Jonathan Gray
Kenneth Hao
Scott Humphrey
Anna Pinedo
Brian Roberts
P. Oliver Sarkozy
Jane Wheeler
Mark Angelo
Drew Chapman
David Feldman
Brent Gledhill
Mitchell Nussbaum
Jeffrey Perlman
Tiff Armstrong
Paige Daly
Simon Fludgate
Jonathan Pruzan
Patrick Ramsey
David Schamis
Michael Wyatt
Edward Zimmerman
Christopher Forrester
Cathy Leonhardt
Michael Santini
