Board of Directors
Officers
Paul Zemsky
Chair
Paul serves as chief investment officer, Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Voya Investment Management. In this role, Zemsky has responsibility for multi-asset investment solutions. Under his leadership, multi-asset products and solutions are supported by asset allocation, manager research, quantitative research, portfolio implementation and multi-manager capabilities.
Paul joined the company in 2005 as head of Derivative Strategies. In this role, he oversaw derivative strategies for credit, interest rate, and equity products, and supported the organization on a number of key areas, including product development and risk management for both proprietary and third-party businesses.
Paul spent 18 years at J.P. Morgan Investment Management, where he held a number of key positions, including head of Investments for over $300 billion of fixed-income assets. Prior to his role at ING, he co-founded CaliberOne Private Funds Management, a macro hedge fund.
Paul is a board member of Pomona Capital. He holds a degree in finance and electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.
Stephen Goldstein
Vice Chair
Stephen Goldstein is a senior managing director at Evercore's Restructuring and Capital Markets Advisory Group.
Mr. Goldstein has advised corporate clients and creditor groups in a broad range of restructuring, reorganization and capital raising transactions. Specifically, Mr. Goldstein has significant experience in Chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings, as well as in raising debt and equity capital in traditional and distressed situations. He has represented clients across a diverse variety of industries, including heavy building materials, real estate, TMT (telecom, media & technology), healthcare, and consumer products. Select client engagements include advisory work for iStar Financial, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Charter Communications, U.S. Concrete, Jacuzzi Brands, WCI Communities, Spanish Broadcasting Systems and White Birch Paper.
Prior to joining Evercore, Mr. Goldstein was a managing director in the financial restructuring group of Lazard Freres & Co., where he had worked since 2002. Before that, he served in several investment banking positions at Thomas Weisel Partners and its predecessor firm, Montgomery Securities. Mr. Goldstein began his career as an attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he specialized in securities law and mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Goldstein earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. with distinction from Cornell University.
Lisa Grushkin
Vice Chair
Lisa is a Managing Director in the Debt Capital Markets group at Macquarie Capital and has over 15 years of experience in leveraged finance investment banking.
Lisa joined Macquarie Capital in 2011, following nearly two years at The PrinceRidge Group in Corporate Finance and seven and a half years at UBS Investment Bank in Leveraged Capital Markets. Lisa's expertise is in structuring and executing leveraged loan and high yield transactions to support private equity-backed leveraged buyouts, corporate mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing. She has experience across a variety of industries with negotiating key documentation and advising on syndication matters.
Lisa earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the Executive Board of The Penn Fund, the University of Pennsylvania's annual giving campaign, and has served on the Board of Directors of Futures and Options since 2016.
Wray Thorn
Vice Chair
Wray Thorn founded Clear Heights Capital, a private investment organization. Wray is deeply involved in building and leading businesses to source, structure, finance and make private investments as well as helping companies, organizations and executives realize their growth and development objectives. With nearly three decades of experience as a CIO, investment lead and lead director, Wray has firsthand knowledge of investment firm leadership, private investing and company value creation. Wray has also been at the forefront of proactive ESG principals putting people first in private investing as well as applying data & technology to innovate private investing. Wray has been involved in ~290 transactions, add-on acquisitions, realizations, corporate financings, fundraisings and other principal transactions with aggregate consideration in excess of $32bn, including direct private equity, venture and 3rd-party managed fund investments representing more than $2.8bn in invested capital. Wray has been a part of driving shareholder value creation and corporate growth as a member of boards and committees of more than 30 companies and investment funds. Wray's long-standing reputation for integrity, entrepreneurial drive and commitment to building formidable partnerships are the guiding principles that form the foundation of Clear Heights Capital.
Erin Murphy
Secretary
Erin is a Managing Director in BlackRock, Inc.'s Legal & Compliance Department. She is currently the Global Head of Alternatives Compliance.
Prior to assuming her current role, from 2012-2014, Erin was the Global Chief Operating Officer for BlackRock's Compliance team. From 2011-2012, Erin was a member of BlackRock's Legal team focusing on regulatory reform matters as well as supporting certain of the firm's broker dealer businesses. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Ms. Murphy was a Vice President, Associate General Counsel of Goldman, Sachs & Co., responsible for legal coverage of a variety of equity sales and trading businesses. From 1999-2005, Ms. Murphy was an associate for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions.
Ms. Murphy earned her LL.B. and B.C.L. from McGill University and her Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Saint Mary's University.
Christopher Snyder
Treasurer
Chris Snyder is VP & Principal at Perspective Equity. Prior to joining Perspective, Mr. Snyder sourced, executed and managed buyout investments for Uni-World Capital. Prior to Uni-World, Mr. Snyder's private equity experience includes Cowen Capital Partners (formerly SG Capital Partners) and ABS Capital Partners.
Additionally, Mr. Snyder worked in the Corporate Finance & Investment Banking Division of Legg Mason Wood Walker where he executed merger & acquisition, capital raising, and advisory mandates for private equity sponsors and corporate clients. Mr. Snyder began his career at American Capital Strategies where he performed due diligence on investments and helped manage a portfolio of debt and equity investments in middle-market companies.
Mr. Snyder has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Finance and a BS in Accounting from the University of Maryland, where he was a UM Scholar. Chris is an active alumnus at Columbia Business School and participates in the school's Private Equity Program as a mentor to current students and as a resource to the Private Equity Program.
Directors
Cathy Bendert
Cathy was a Managing Director at JPMorganChase where she led firmwide control-related initiatives and interfaced with external Regulators. Prior to her role at JPMC, Cathy had various leadership positions in Technology. Responsibilities included the oversight of software development for JPMC's retail divisions. Cathy was an employee of JPMC for over 20 years.
Prior to joining JPMC, Cathy had her own software development consulting company and prior to that Cathy worked in the IT department of a major television network.
Cathy graduated from the State University of New York at Albany, with a B.S. degree and left the university with a passion for Technology.
Cathy and her husband live in downtown Manhattan, she is a life-long New Yorker. Cathy is the proud Mother of two daughters.
Thane Carlston
Thane is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Recapitalization & Restructuring Group at Moelis & Company. He has been in the investment banking industry for over 20 years. From 1998 until joining Moelis & Company in 2008, he was Co-Head of the Recapitalization and Restructuring Group at Jefferies & Company. During his leadership, Jefferies advised on nearly $200 billion of restructuring transactions. Before joining Jefferies, Thane ran the New York office for Chanin and Company, a boutique investment banking firm specialized in providing restructuring advice.
Mr. Carlston has extensive experience advising companies, equity sponsors, bondholders and creditor groups in out-of-court restructurings as well as pre-packaged, pre-arranged and unplanned Chapter 11 reorganizations. He has structured and led numerous exchange offers, consent solicitations and lender negotiations in a variety of industries. In addition to advising clients on recapitalization and restructuring services, he has advised on a number of financing and M&A transactions.
Thane holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Utah and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Kris Hansen
Kris Hansen is Co-Chair of the Financial Restructuring group at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm's New York office. Mr. Hansen is a dealmaker and a consummate tactician renowned for his strong judgment, financial IQ and expansive market knowledge.
Throughout his career, Mr. Hansen has guided clients through proceedings in bankruptcy and appellate courts across the country, as well as through many out-of-court situations.
Mr. Hansen helps sophisticated investors in distressed credit formulate and execute complex strategies involving mergers and acquisitions, financing and litigation in and outside of actual bankruptcy. He represents official creditors' committees in complex corporate chapter 11 cases, and corporate debtors in connection with formal bankruptcy proceedings and informal negotiations to restructure their debt obligations.
Stephen E. Hessler
Stephen Hessler is the global practice leader of Sidley's Restructuring group. Steve's practice involves representing debtors, creditors, and investors in large and complex corporate Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and acquisitions. Steve has counseled clients across a broad range of industries including energy, gaming, hospitality and real estate, telecommunications, financial institutions, and manufacturing.
Steve is recognized by numerous industry publications, including Chambers USA (2015–2022), with sources in the 2022 edition noting he is an "excellent corporate bankruptcy counsel, and a brilliant strategist and tactician." Steve has also been recognized as a leading lawyer in Restructuring and Insolvency by IFLR1000 (2016); a "Key Lawyer" in the area of Restructuring by The Legal 500 (2016); and one of 10 Bankruptcy "MVPs" by Law360 (2015), among other awards and rankings.
Steve is a frequent lecturer and author on various restructuring-related topics. He teaches a restructuring class each fall at the University of Pennsylvania, to its Law School and Wharton students, and he was honored with the Wharton Teaching Excellence Award in 2019 and 2020. He also co-founded the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Restructuring Studies, a multidisciplinary initiative intended to address topical restructuring issues and influence the public policy debate in a manner that has practical application for investors, practitioners, academics, and regulators. He served as the chairman of the Advisory Board on Administrative Claims, Critical Vendors, and Other Pressures on Liquidity for the American Bankruptcy Institute's Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 from 2012–2015.
Colleen Hsia
Colleen Hsia is a Senior Managing Director at Teneo, where she advises senior management and board directors on complex strategic, financial and reputation management situations and leads efforts in Teneo's IPO and capital markets business. Her experience ranges across sectors in IPO/SPAC transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and executive positioning, crisis management, shareholder activism, litigation, and regulatory issues.
Prior to joining Teneo, Colleen was Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, where she was head of the Financial Services sector in the strategic communications segment. A 20-year financial services veteran, Colleen began her career as an investment banker at Citigroup and later joined a hedge fund that she helped build from its early days to a multi-billion dollar firm. She spent a decade in marketing and communications leadership roles at BlackRock and Jane Street.
Colleen holds B.A. degrees in Economics-Political Science and East Asian Studies from Columbia University. She earned M.B.A. degrees from both Columbia Business School and London Business School. She also sits on the New York City Executive Board of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst ("CAIA") Association.
Will Iwaschuk
Will Iwaschuk is the Chief Legal Officer at Cipher Mining Inc.
Prior to joining Cipher Mining in 2021, Will was a partner at Tower Research Capital, where he was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and a member of the Board and the Management Committee. Before joining Tower, Will was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Before Morgan Lewis, he was a lawyer at Goldman Sachs, and he began his career as a derivatives and capital markets lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Will received his LL.B. and B.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia.
David Johnston
David C. Johnston is a Managing Director in AlixPartners' Turnaround and Restructuring Services group. He joined the firm in 1998 and is based in the New York office. He has assisted companies as both a lead restructuring advisor and interim officer; Chief Financial Officer (CFO); Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO); and Treasurer. David has developed and implemented a broad array of improvements to quickly stabilize businesses, including cash and liquidity management programs that monitor and improve working capital; and he has effectively managed numerous client operations, improving productivity, morale, and vision while streamlining costs. David is a skilled negotiator, working with lenders, suppliers, creditors, and other stakeholders to reach mutually beneficial results.
David led the restructuring of BearingPoint, which at its peak was a $3.5-billion global consulting firm with 16,000 employees. His efforts as CFO and his collaborations with others were recognized by the Turnaround Management Association, which named BearingPoint the 2010 Mega Company Turnaround of the Year.
Currently, David is serving as the lead advisor to a technology consulting and software concern guiding its restructuring initiatives, leading a "Whole Company" turnaround for a middle market nutritional supplement company and is the lead advisor to a large Texas energy company undergoing a major business transformation. During his career, David has overseen successful restructurings across a variety of industries, including financial services, real estate, manufacturing, energy, and telecom.
David is a certified public accountant, a certified insolvency and restructuring advisor, and a certified turnaround professional. He received a Bachelor's degree in economics, management, and accounting from Albion College in Michigan. He is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, and the Turnaround Management Association, where he has lectured on successful strategies for cross-border restructurings and "Out of Court" restructuring strategies. He was named to Turnaround & Workouts' 2011 Restructuring Professionals to Watch. In 2012, he was the recipient of Futures and Options' Dream Big award and now is a member of its Board of Directors.
Daniel Magliocco
Daniel leads Patricof Co's Growth & Private Equity investment practice. Before joining PCO, Daniel was a Vice President at Houlihan Lokey, focused on M&A and private placement advisory within the firm's Technology, Media, & Telecom practice. Prior to that, he was an Associate at MESA Global, an investment bank and strategic advisory firm focused on digital and traditional media, marketing and entertainment companies.
Mr. Magliocco holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from Yale School of Management.
Dave Miller
Dave Miller is an Equity Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager, and a member of the Management and Global Situational Investment Committees at Elliott Investment Management L.P. Mr. Miller joined Elliott in 2003 after working in M&A and financing advisory roles at Peter J. Solomon Company.
Mr. Miller received an A.B. degree, magna cum laude with high honors in field, from Harvard University.
Jason New
Prior to founding NovaWulf, Jason was the Chief Executive Officer of Onex Credit Partners, a $23 billion alternative credit manager which is wholly-owned by Onex Corporation (TK: TSX: Onex).
Prior to joining Onex Credit, Jason spent 15 years at Blackstone where he was a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Distressed and Special Situation Investing for GSO Capital Partners ("GSO"). Jason was an original partner of GSO and a member of the GSO Investment Committee. Jason was the portfolio manager of several GSO funds and separately managed accounts including, among others, the GSO Capital Solutions Funds, the GSO Credit Alpha Funds and the GSO Special Situations Fund. Over the course of his career at GSO, Jason represented the firm on the board of multiple public and private companies including Calpeak Energy, Cheniere Energy, Heorot Power, Kodak, Momentive Performance Materials, Rijmond Power, Seneca Mortgage Servicing and Sorenson Communications.
Before joining GSO in 2005 Jason was a senior member of the Distressed Group at Credit Suisse. Jason started his career as an attorney with Sidley Austin. Jason holds a B.A. from Allegheny College and a J.D. from Duke University.
Jennifer O'Neil
Jennifer O'Neil, Managing Director, is a member of BlackRock's Legal and Compliance Group. Ms. O'Neil provides legal advice to various investment strategy groups within fixed income and alternatives with particular focus on credit, restructurings and distressed investments, direct middle market lending, and Mexico infrastructure project finance and equity investments.
Prior to joining BlackRock in 2015, Ms. O'Neil was counsel at Anchorage Capital Group from 2014 to 2015 and an associate in the Business Restructuring & Reorganization group at Jones Day from 2007 to 2014.
Ms. O'Neil earned a BS degree with honors from the University of Washington in Applied Mathematics and received her JD degree cum laude from Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to the New York and California State Bars.
Dan Pombo
Dan Pombo is the head of the Restructuring Group at J.P. Morgan, focusing on advising and raising capital for distressed companies. Dan has led numerous DIP, Exit and distressed financings and prepackaged plans of reorganization, and has advised on several liability management and out-of-court restructuring transactions. Prior to joining Restructuring, Dan was a senior banker in J.P. Morgan's Leveraged Finance team, where he served in Capital Markets and Origination roles and completed over 100 transactions across numerous industry verticals, including energy, power, chemicals, paper and packaging, building materials, real estate, gaming, consumer and retail. Prior to joining the firm, Dan practiced corporate law at White & Case, LLP. Dan holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.
Ryan Schneider
Ryan is a tax partner in PwC's Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) practice in New York, where he provides tax compliance and consulting services to asset managers such as hedge funds and private equity funds. Ryan works with start-ups as well as large established funds and advises clients across a broad range of trading strategies, including long/ short, global macro, and private equity, while specializing in credit and direct lending.
Ryan regularly advises clients with respect to federal, international, and state and local tax issues as they relate to the structuring of the fund, its advisors, and special purpose vehicles utilized for certain transactions. He helps clients implement strategies and structures to manage effective tax rates and risk.
Ryan has a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Western Michigan University and a MBA in Finance from Fordham University. He is a CPA licensed in New York State and an adjunct professor of accounting at New York University Stern School of Business.
Benjamin Schrag
Benjamin (Ben) Schrag is managing director of Kroll Business Services. With more than 15 years of substantive industry experience, he has direct oversight of the firm's global business development and marketing functions with a keen focus on exceptional client service delivery to support firm-wide growth initiatives.
Prior to the formation of Kroll Business Services, Ben served as chief business development officer of Prime Clerk, a business he co-founded. He began his career as an associate in the Restructuring Group at Kirkland & Ellis, where he represented debtors involved in large, complex Chapter 11 restructurings, including Solutia, Inc., Wellman, Inc. and Masonite Corporation.
Before joining Prime Clerk, Ben was Vice President of Restructuring Services at KCC, a claims and noticing agent, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of strategic marketing initiatives.
Ben graduated from Colgate University and holds a J.D. from Fordham Law School.
Matt Settle
Matt Settle is a Principal on the Credit Opportunities Team, focused on illiquid credit opportunities. He is based in New York.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Settle was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners where he worked for nine years. Most recently, Mr. Settle focused on sourcing, evaluating, and structuring junior capital and opportunistic credit investments across all industry verticals. Previously, he oversaw the tech, media, telecom, and industrials industry verticals. Before joining Guggenheim in 2010, Mr. Settle was an Analyst at MJX Asset Management where he focused on investing in broadly syndicated leveraged loans.
Mr. Settle received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern School of Business.
Roopesh Shah
Roopesh Shah is a Senior Managing Director in Evercore's Restructuring & Debt Advisory Group, based in New York. Mr. Shah joined Evercore in 2017, prior to which he held roles with Goldman Sachs, Miller Buckfire & Co. and Wasserstein Perella & Co.
Mr. Shah specializes in complex distressed financing, M&A and advisory situations, both in-court and out-of-court. Mr. Shah is a frequent speaker on restructuring, M&A and related topics. Mr. Shah is also a Board member of Her Justice, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services for low-income women and children who are victims of domestic abuse.
Mr. Shah received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in finance, marketing and information technology. In 2013, he was a recipient of the Futures and Options Dream Big award, and he joined the Board of Directors in 2014.
Efrem Sigel
Efrem Sigel grew up in Staten Island, NY, earned his BA from Harvard College and was a Peace Corps teacher in the Ivory Coast for two years. After receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School, he was awarded a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship from Harvard University for travel to Iran, Israel, West Africa and South America. Upon completion of this fellowship, he began a 30-year career in business journalism and business publishing, a career that included starting (and later selling) two companies that published newsletters and magazines and ran industry conferences and seminars. During this period he wrote four nonfiction books about communications media and electronic publishing.
Since 2000, he has devoted much of his time to writing (he has published two novels and 35 short stories and essays) and volunteering. He has taught English and math to adults through NY Cares and has taught memoir writing to adults in Pittsfield, MA. As a project coordinator for the Education Committee of HBS Community Partners, he supervises pro bono consulting projects to nonprofits in the field of education in the New York City area. All the projects are performed by HBS alumni at no cost to the nonprofits. He joined the board of Futures and Options in 2016.
Daniel Tannebaum
Daniel Tannebaum is a Partner in Oliver Wyman's Risk and Public Policy Practice, where he leads the Anti-Financial Crime Practice for the Americas and serves as the firm's global lead on sanctions.
Prior to Oliver Wyman, Dan was a Partner at a global consulting firm and specialized in anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance. Previously Dan served as the Head of Compliance for the Americas and Global Sanctions Champion at Travelex. In this capacity he directed a staff of over 30 Compliance professionals in the U.S., Canada and Brazil. Before joining Travelex, Dan was the OFAC Compliance Coordinator for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he advised on OFAC issues.
Dan began his career in Compliance when he served as a Compliance Officer with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, US Department of the Treasury. Dan received the FBI Director's Certificate for Exceptional Service in the Public Interest in May 2007.
Dan is a highly sought-after speaker on financial crime issues and is often quoted in print publications and is a regular guest on business television and radio. He holds a BA from The George Washington University in Political Science.
Paul Teske
Paul Teske is a Principal of ATL Partners. Prior to the formation of ATL, Paul was a Vice President at MidOcean Partners focusing on investments in the Industrials sector. Previously, Mr. Teske was a member of the Industrials & Transportation group at Deutsche Bank Securities.
Mr. Teske serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Sky Aviation Leasing International Limited and Sky Aviation Leasing US LLC for SKY Leasing, a new aircraft leasing platform focused on early mid-life assets. Mr. Teske previously served as a Board Observer of Noranco Inc., a Tier I/II supplier of aerospace components and assemblies.
Mr. Teske received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, double majoring in Economics and Political Science.
John Thompson
John Thompson is a Partner at Oliver Wyman in their Financial Services industry group. John is a leader in the Finance and Digital practices – supporting large FS organizations. Prior to this, John was a partner at Accenture for more than 25 years.
He has global experience working with clients to define strategic direction and directing transformation across multiple risk management and finance disciplines. Serving as a strong business partner, John has an established record in implementing process improvements, operating model change, and delivering large scale technology / business solutions within the Private Equity, Insurance, Investment Banking and Retail Banking industry sectors.
John graduated with honors from the University of Richmond with a Bachelors of Science in Finance and Marketing, and a minor in Physics and currently lives in Manhattan.
Greg Thonsen
Greg is a Vice President in Direct Lending at Golub Capital, a credit asset manager with over $30 billion of capital under management, where he is responsible for underwriting, executing, and monitoring private debt investments. Greg primarily works with companies backed by private equity sponsors in the consumer, restaurant, and retail industries.
Prior to Golub, Greg spent five years at GE Capital where he held roles in corporate lending and risk, beginning his career in the Investment Analyst Program. Greg holds a B.A. in Finance and Business Administration from Gordon College and was previously a member of the Futures and Options Young Professionals Committee.
David Trucano
David Trucano, Managing Director, leads BlackRock's Opportunistic Credit platform comprised of direct hedge funds and private equity-style credit strategies. Mr. Trucano is the Lead Portfolio Manager and Chairman of the Investment Committee of BlackRock's Global Credit Opportunities fund and is the Lead Portfolio Manager responsible for BlackRock Credit Alpha and managing the credit allocation within The Obsidian Fund, two BlackRock hedge funds across its Global Credit and Global Fixed Income businesses, respectively. In addition, Mr. Trucano assists in managing special situations and distressed investing positions across the BlackRock Alternative Investors platform. Mr. Trucano currently serves as a director of KCA Deutag GmbH and formerly served as a director of General Maritime Corp.
Prior to joining BlackRock in 2012, Mr. Trucano was a Managing Director at Centerbridge Partners, a private investment firm managing $20 billion in credit and private equity strategies. During his tenure at Centerbridge, Mr. Trucano served as a director of Dana Holdings Corp. (NYSE: DAN). From 2004 to 2007, he was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Special Situations Group within its Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities division in both New York and London. Prior thereto, Mr. Trucano spent nine years working in private equity, financial restructuring advisory, and general investment banking.
Mr. Trucano earned a joint BA degree in Economics and History from Emory University and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago.
