PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

GLOBAL CONSUMER FINANCE ADVISORY 2006-Present

Founder and CEO of an independent M&A advisory practice specialized in credit cards and other consumer finance.  Provide acquisition and sale advisory, as well as consulting in strategy, M&A and other related areas.  GCFA has operated in conjunction with The Kessler Group (2011-2012) and AHP Partners (2013-Present).  Disclosable transactions include:

• Advisor to SAV Credit on the £1 billion acquisition of the former GE Capitial retailer co-brand / point-of-sale finance business from Santander (in conjunction with AHP Partners, May 2013)
• Advisor to Capital One on the acquisition of HSBC's $30 billion US credit card business (in conjunction with the Kessler Group, May 2012)
• Advisor to SAV Credit on the UK acquisition (with Värde Partners) of £835 million of credit card receivables from Citigroup (March 2010)
• Advisor to SAV Credit on the acquisition of the Marbles and Beneficial credit cards from HSBC (October 2007)
• Advisor to Capital One on the disposition of its joint venture in Spain (July 2007)
• Consultant to Citigroup on the advisory assignment to Cemex in Mexico to sell its interest in Cemex Capital to form a joint venture with a private equity group (December 2008)
• Assistance to Maxeda, a Dutch retail group owned by KKR, on the renewal of its program with Fortis's International Credit Service (September 2008)

CITIGROUP, NEW YORK 1983-2006

Managing Director, Financial Institutions Mergers & Acquisitions 

Financial Institutions M&A – Global Credit Cards & Consumer Finance (1996-2006)

• Spearheaded the #1 franchise with 75% market share in global credit card merger and acquisition advisory

• Generated and led 59 transactions totaling over $136 billion in credit card outstandings – notable transactions include AT&T, PNC, Saks, Abbey National (UK), Alliance & Leicester (UK), Sears, Federated and Providian

• Traveled world-wide to successfully export US expertise into a highly successful international business that includes 8 of 11 transactions in the UK as well as advisory assignments in Europe, Latin America and Australia

• Extensive relationships with the leaders of consumer finance businesses worldwide

• Part of a team that built Smith Barney’s Financial Institutions group virtually from scratch using a strategy that augmented a traditional calling effort by developing value-added expertise in various banking business lines such as mortgage banking, student loans, asset management, merchant processing and credit cards

• Acted as a one-man think tank responsible for analytics, product development, and execution of the group’s most challenging transactions, including some extremely difficult, one-of-a-kind transactions such as:

• Leveraged lease of credit card intangibles sold to private equity to facilitate acquisition

• Mortgage banking LBO and subsequent sale

• Auctioned and sold the AFL-CIO credit card, despite its being controlled by BoNY

• Developed a number of innovative products, including:

• An equity derivative product designed capitalize on the undervaluation of bank stocks while avoiding issues created by pooling-of-interests transactions

• Bonds indexed to real estate values, designed to hedge banks’ underwater portfolios

Collateralized Mortgage Obligation Bond Structuring (1987-1989)

• Led a team of five people who were charged with starting up Smith Barney’s CMO arbitrage effort on the mortgage desk

• Structured arbitrage opportunities, marketing of residual equity, documentation of successful CMOs

• Developed a successful program that leveraged Smith Barney’s retail franchise, while still protecting the interests of retail investors

Public Finance Division (1983-1987)

• As an Associate and Vice President, structured and supported the new business effort on single-family housing and student loan municipal bond offerings

 

DEAN WITTER REYNOLDS, New York, NY  1982

Summer Associate in Public Finance was book-ended by work as a computer consultant for the M&A group and Public Finance group during business school

ADP NETWORK SERVICES, New York, NY  1977-1981

Worked as a Technical Consultant for ADP’s time-sharing group.  Wrote computer programs for several major Wall Street firms in investment banking (M&A models, spread sheets) and research departments (various regression projects) in an era prior to personal PCs on desktops 

EDUCATION

Columbia University, New York, NY

M.B.A., Finance and Accounting, May, 1983

B.A., Mathematics, June, 1977

OTHER

Avid bicyclist, featured in NY Times “Frequent Traveler,” August 2004

Play the electric guitar (prefer old British rock)

Enjoy skiing and golf

Public speaking engagements include Lafferty International’s credit card & banking conferences