June/July 2003

President's Letter

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Dear AIRA Members:

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was recapping the successful 2002 Conference and here we are with the 2003 Conference now behind us. The 19th Annual Conference in San Francisco was a resounding success with attendance and program quality at an all time high. We are grateful for the efforts of the program co-chairs, Richard Brooks (CIT Business Credit), Cecily Dumas (Friedman Dumas & Springwater LLP), and Mike Murphy (Deloitte & Touche LLP), and everyone from the AIRA staff to the speakers and volunteers who made the program a success.

The 2004 Conference will be held in Dallas starting June 23rd. If you are interested in working on the program, please contact John Tittle, CIRA with Deloitte and Touche at jtittle@deloitte.com. Congratulations and best wishes for continued success to Cecily Dumas. Cecily and her partners, Ellen Friedman and Jane Springwater, launched their new law firm a mere five weeks before the conference.

This edition of the AIRA News introduces our new format under the editorial leadership of Peter Stenger of Stout Risius Ross, Inc. The success of the AIRA News is largely dependent on the content submitted by our membership and other interested parties. Peter and the section editors welcome content submissions and are looking for greater involvement from our membership. Please contact Peter, or any of the following section editors with your article proposals:

Executive Editor Nancy Ross, CIRA High Ridge Partners, Inc. 312-456-5636 nross@high-ridge.com Editor Peter Stenger, CIRA Stout Risuis Ross, Inc. 248-208-8800 x251 pstenger@gosrr.com Taxation Alan Barton, CIRA KPMG LLP 713-319-2430 abarton@kpmg.com Financing Issues Edward McDonough, CIRA FTI Consulting, Inc. 602-744-7155 edward.mcdonough@fticonsulting.com

Business Valuation Bernard Pump Deloitte & Touche, LLP 312-946-2834 bpump@deloitte.com Chapter 11 Legal Issues Steven Solomon, Esq., CIRA Adorno & Yoss, P.A. 305-860-7020 ssolomon@adorno.com Business Turnaround Issues Miles Stover, CIRA Turnaround, Inc. 253-857-6730 mstover@turnaround-inc.com

At the June meeting of the AIRA Board of Directors, we heard from the planning committee working on enhancements to the CIRA program in the area of business valuation. We are very excited about the committee’s work and will be communicating with you shortly regarding the program.

After much rain and cool weather here in the mid Atlantic, summer arrived this week with sun and heat. I hope everyone has the ability to take some time for relaxation with your family and friends over the next few months.