April/May 2004

2004 Annual Conference Speakers

Professor Jack F. Williams
Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta
A frequent lecturer in the areas of bankruptcy, accounting, corporate governance, tax policy and homeland security and terrorism, Williams has served as a commentator on CNN, CNN Radio, Fox News, CSPAN, NBC Nightly News, ABC Evening News, Dateline, The Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC and has been quoted in numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Professor Williams’ teaching and research areas encompass many areas including, Bankruptcy, Corporate Lending, Merger and Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Tax and Terrorism and Homeland Security. He is currently a consultant with BDO Seidman, LLP in Atlanta and New York. Professor Williams has testified before the House and Senate Committees on bankruptcy, corporate and tax legislation. Williams is the author of three books and numerous articles on related topics.

This year, Professor Williams will be the Keynote Speaker for the Preconference Luncheon as well as a panelist for the Bankruptcy Taxation Preconference Seminar.

Craig Hall,
Chairman and Founder, Hall Financial Group
A lifelong entrepreneur, Mr. Hall has been actively involved in the creation and development of a variety of businesses. He founded Hall Financial Group over 35 years ago at the age of 18 with $4,000 saved from small enterprises started at age 10. Today, Hall Financial Group is a diversified finance and investment company with interests in the United States and Europe. Mr. Hall’s entrepreneurial start-up experience is extensive. He is currently developing a unique 162-acre office park in Frisco, Texas, and two state-of-the-art wineries in Napa Valley, California. His structured finance group is actively funding unique real estate projects in the hospitality, multifamily and office market sectors spearheaded by other local entrepreneurs. He recently purchased and renovated two boutique hotels in Paris and the Radisson DFW South in Irving, Texas. Mr. Hall is the author of five books and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards.

Mr. Hall will be the Keynote Speaker for the Luncheon, Friday, June 25.

W. Michael Cox,
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Author of the Bank’s annual report essays on rising American living standards and the New Economy, Mr. Cox advises the Bank president on monetary policy and economic issues and heads the free enterprise research group. His reports have received extensive attention from leading publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week and Investor’s Business Daily. Mr. Cox’s ability to make plain sense out of difficult economic issues has made him a frequent guest on national radio, television and Internet programs, including CNN, Voice of America and National Public Radio.

Mr. Cox will be the Keynote Speaker for the Annual Dinner, Friday, June 25.

Two other distinguished panelists for the Bankruptcy Taxation Preconference Seminar on Wednesday, June 23 are Robert Pope and Matthew Schwartz, CIRA.

Mr. Pope has served as a trial attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, in Nashville, Tennessee, trying tax cases before the United States Tax Court and making recommendations to the Tax Division, Department of Justice, for criminal prosecution, refund litigation and collection matters, including bankruptcy litigation. He has also served on the Regional Counsel’s Tax Shelter Task Force, developing and testing, for nation-wide use, audit and litigation strategies and tactics to attack factually bogus tax shelter transactions.

Mr. Pope’s practice focuses on state and federal tax controversies, ranging from audits and their administrative appeals to criminal investigations and judicial review in addition to resolving business matters and disputes, for individuals and entities, normally arising from serious financial challenges. He currently serves as the first Chair of the ABA Section on Taxation’s Bankruptcy and Workout Committee and as a Trustee of the Tennessee Federal Tax Institute.

A frequent lecturer on tax controversies, including bankruptcy and insolvency tax issues, Mr. Pope has also published Bankruptcy Tax Issues: The Conflict of Codes, describing some of the more serious conceptual collisions between bankruptcy and taxation.

As a Partner in the Insolvency and Litigation Services Department of Bederson & Company LLP, Mr. Schwartz is responsible for all aspects of forensic engagements, including bankruptcy, insolvency, fraud, damages and tax matters and has appeared and testified in Bankruptcy and State Courts in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In this capacity, he has represented Trustees, Secured Creditors, Creditors’ Committees, Debtors, Asbestos Futures Representatives, plaintiffs and defendants and served as Liquidating Agent. He has also investigated and uncovered numerous defalcations, leading to recoveries and arrests.

Mr. Schwartz has lectured on insolvency, fraud and tax matters for AIRA and many other groups and private companies. He has also developed and taught a variety of courses in the areas of accounting, tax, EDP investigations and insolvency matters as well as a wide range of college level courses at Warren County Community College and Kean University, including financial accounting, tax and economics. He has been published in CPA Litigation Counselor, the American Bankruptcy Institute’s “Cracking the Code” section of its website and AIRA News. Mr. Schwartz is the 2002 recipient of the AIRA’s Manny Katten Award for outstanding service to the Association and to the insolvency profession.

An additional Preconference Seminar, Financial Advisor’s Toolbox: Forensic Investigations will also be held Wednesday, June 23. The expert panel includes Ian Ratner and Special Agent Brent McDaniel.

Mr. Ratner has extensive experience as a Forensic Accountant and is nationally recognized as an expert in this area. He has been the lead professional on high profile and complex assignments from international money laundering investigations, failed transactions, SEC investigations, countless financial reporting frauds and bankruptcy investigations. Long before it became fashionable, Ian was lecturing, teaching and working on matters relating to financial statement fraud. Cooking the books is nothing new…. to Ian.

Mr. Ratner is a CPA, an ASA (Accredited Senior Appraiser, Business Valuation Section of the American Society of Appraisers), a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) and an accomplished public speaker on a variety of topics such as forensic accounting, due diligence and business valuation. He has been a speaker at several AICPA conferences and Bankruptcy Workshops around the country and is a contributing author to The CPA’s Handbook of Fraud and Commercial Crime Prevention published by the AICPA. He has testified on dozens of occasions at trial and deposition. He has more than 15 years of experience providing detailed hands-on expertise to lenders, national law firms and Fortune 500 companies relating to complex litigation, fraud investigations and bankruptcy matters throughout the United States. His current practice is diverse including creditor committee representations, due diligence assignments, monitoring borrowers on behalf of lenders, mergers and acquisition consulting and serving as a liquidating agent, Special Master, Trustee and Receiver.

Agent McDaniel has been a Special Agent for the IRS, Criminal Investigation since September of 1999. He is responsible for planning, directing, and investigating financial crimes in the greater Dallas area. Most recently, Mr. McDaniel has been involved in the prosecution of individuals for investor fraud resulting in money laundering charges. In addition, through his efforts he has creatively made use of the civil and criminal forfeiture statutes, thus enabling the government to seize assets obtained by the perpetrators with the money they derived from their fraud schemes. The mission of IRS Criminal Investigation is to serve the American public by investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner that fosters confidence in the tax system and compliance with the law.

Ross Gatlin will serve as a panelist on the Thursday, June 24 discussion of Current Developments: The current industry developments that will affect attorneys, bankers, financial advisors and equity holders.

As Chief Restructuring Officer and Managing Director at Insight Equity, Mr. Gatlin is focused on driving increases in equity value by optimizing portfolio and business unit strategy. He also focuses on developing, structuring and closing superior investment acquisition opportunities. His strategic and operational execution for Insight portfolio companies is an integral part of the full potential model at Insight. Mr. Gatlin currently serves as the Chief Financial and Restructuring Officer of Insight Equity’s most recent acquisition, Direct Fuels and is also a member of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Gatlin has extensive corporate finance, strategy, and business management experience across multiple industries including: auto-motive, aerospace, airline, cable, defense, computer hardware & software, manufacturing, satellites, and telecommunications sectors. His assignments have included mergers and post-merger integration, acquisitions, financial restructurings, exchange offers, business valuation, as well as the design and valuation of complex securities.

Friday morning’s session, First Days of Chapter 11: Are the Rules Changing? will be a discussion of recent developments impacting the critical first days of a bankruptcy case. The expert panel will be moderated by Neil P. Olack.

Mr. Olack practices in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and workouts. He has represented clients in the chapter 11 proceedings of many major companies, including debtors, creditors’ committees, financial institutions, franchisors, indenture trustees, parties to executory contracts and unexpired leases, public bodies, purchasers of assets, secured creditors, equity holders, trade creditors and chapter 11 trustees.

Listed in The Best Lawyers in America and The Guide to the Leading US Insolvency Lawyers and was included on the list of Who’s Who in Finance by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the best bankruptcy lawyers in Atlanta by Atlanta Magazine and 2004 Georgia Super Lawyers, he has been quoted and interviewed in a number of publications. He currently serves as a site evaluator for the American Bar Association’s Law School Accreditation Committee.

363 Process: Sourcing, Diligence, Contracts & Auction Strategies will be a discussion with experienced panelists, including; Benjamin Emmons, Philip Arra and Garrett Kanehann.

Mr. Emmons, Vice President at Sun Capital has over 10 years of turnaround and leveraged funding experience. Having been actively involved in over 50 senior financing transactions, he has had extensive experience in both the sourcing and underwriting of leveraged transactions. Prior to joining Sun Capital, Mr. Emmons spent four and half years with CIT Business Credit, most recently as Marketing Manager for the Southeast.

Mr. Arra is a principal with Hunt Investment Group, a member of the Ray L. Hunt family of private equity vehicles focused on private equity investments in distressed, turnaround and special situations in the middle market. Prior to joining Hunt, he was with JP Morgan’s New York Mergers and Acquisitions practice. While at JP Morgan, he advised clients across a diverse set of industries including consumer products, business services and distribution. In addition, Phil was also a member of JP Morgan’s Financial Sponsors and Consumer Products groups. He advised clients on a variety of transactions including domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions, divestiture alternatives, buyouts/recaps and IPOs.

Mr. Arra is actively involved with and sponsor of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Turnaround Management Association, Association for Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors and the Association for Corporate Growth.

Mr. Kanehann is a Vice President of Questor Management Company, LLC and has been with Questor since 1996. Questor Management Company, LLC is a private equity firm with over $1 billion in investment capital focused on turnarounds and special situations. At Questor, he took a leading role in both the acquisition and the sale of Ryder TRS, Inc., as well as the operational and financial restructuring of Schwinn/GT Corp, where he led the sale of non-core subsidiaries. In 2002, he led the senior and subordinated debt financing and subsequent acquisition of two industrial companies, Aetna Industries and Zenith Industrial Corporation, simultaneously out of bankruptcy. Last year, he took a leading role in a transaction that received “Deal of the Year” honors from Buyouts Magazine, the acquisition of two metallurgical coalmines and related assets from U.S. Steel. He is a former director of Hebb Industries, AZ Automotive Corporation and PinnOak Resources LLC and is the co-founder of the Greater Detroit Private Equity Association.

Another interesting Friday session will be, Who’s Lending Now? Tranche B Lenders Fill the Funding Gap, where a distinguished panel including Theodore Koenig and Cecily Dumas will discuss this new breed of aggressive and creative lenders.

Mr. Koenig, President, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Hilco Capital LP has over 20 years of experience in asset-based lending and corporate finance transactions.

A frequent lecturer to various business and financial organizations on topics such as the current environment for senior and junior debt, tranche B debt, structuring successful highly-leveraged loan transactions and acquiring troubled companies, he has also published numerous articles in these areas and has appeared on several occasions as a featured business finance expert in news media articles and televised business programs.

Ms. Dumas is a partner with Friedman Dumas & Springwater LLP. Ms. Dumas specializes in representing lenders in commercial finance, restructurings and corporate reorganization cases. She was the 2002 Chair of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, California. 

She has represented secured creditors, lessors, vendor-financiers and acquirers in Chapter 11 cases. She represented General Electric Capital Corporation as agent for the senior secured lenders in Software Logistics Corporation. Ms. Dumas has represented Cisco Systems Capital Corporation in Advanced Radio Telecom, Pathnet Telecommunications, Winstar, Netvoice, Cable & Wireless and other national telecommunications bankruptcy cases. Prior to founding Friedman Dumas & Springwater, she represented Comdisco, Inc. in numerous venture lease transactions, restructurings and asset liquidations.

Ms. Dumas has particular expertise in leasing of technology equipment, including purchase options, software licenses and treatment in bankruptcy and significant expertise in commercial litigation in federal and state courts. She has handled matters involving lender liability claims, insurance coverage disputes, contract disputes, business torts, real estate judicial foreclosures, claims against surety bonds, title insurance coverage issues, and all aspects of bankruptcy litigation.

International Business Issues will be addressed by a panel that includes William H. Schrag in a session on Friday, June 25.

Mr. Schrag is a partner in the Financial Restructuring Group of the Business and Finance Practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in its New York office. He has experience in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and commercial litigation. In bankruptcy cases, he has represented major manufacturers and institutional creditors, individually and as members of a group, as well as official creditors’ committee, Chapter 11 trustees and a court-appointed examiner. Mr. Schrag has also represented commercial lenders in state and federal courts, including actions to enforce creditors’ rights and to defend against lender liability claims.

Mr. Schrag is a member of the American Bar Association (Sections of Litigation and Business Law), the New York State Bar Association (Creditors’ Rights Section), the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (where he served as a member of its Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization) and the International Bar Association (Committee on Insolvency and Creditors’ Rights). He has written several papers on issues of transnational bankruptcies and is the co-author of “Use of U.S. Bankruptcy Law in Multinational Insolvencies: The Axon Litigation – Issues, Tactics and Implications for the Future,” which was published in the Bankruptcy Developments Journal.

Also on Friday, a panel including Mitchell Drucker will discuss current DIP Financing market trends.

Mr. Drucker is a Senior Vice President and National Marketing Manager of CIT Business Credit, a unit of CIT Group, Inc (NYSE:CIT). Founded in 1908, CIT is one of the nation’s largest asset-based lenders and is one of the leading providers of turnaround and debtor-in-possession financing. He has worked with hundreds of companies to develop financial solutions to meet their needs. Mr. Drucker specializes in developing asset-based lending solutions for companies seeking debt restructuring, turnaround financing, debtor-in-possession financing, and confirmation plan financing.

Mr. Drucker has played a role in many recent high profile transactions. He has been with CIT for 18 years and has held a number of positions with the company.

Mr. Drucker is a board member of the Turnaround Management Association, a national board member of Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor at the NYU School of Continuing Education, where he teaches a course entitled Management’s Use of Financial Statements.

Further information on these and other panels, social activities, full conference details and easy on-line registration please visit the Online 2004 Conference Information section of the AIRA website.