Wharton Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference 2018

James Dinan

Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Founder
York Capital Management

Jamie founded York Capital Management in September 1991 and is the Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer and a Managing Partner of the Firm. Jamie is a Co-Portfolio Manager of the York Multi-Strategy, York Credit Opportunities, York Event-Driven UCITS funds, York Sub-Advised '40 Act Strategy, and Portfolio Manager of the York Total Return funds and is the Chair of the Firm's Executive Committee. From 1985 to 1991, he worked at Kellner, DiLeo & Co., where he became a General Partner and was responsible for investing in risk arbitrage and special situation investments. From 1981 to 1983, Jamie was a member of the investment banking group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. Jamie is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the City of New York, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hospital for Special Surgery, the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Harvard Business School's Board of Dean's Advisors, the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania. Jamie received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Marc Lasry

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder
Avenue Capital Group

Marc Lasry is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global alternative investment manager focused on distressed and undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 1995, Mr. Lasry formed Avenue with his sister, Sonia Gardner, with less than $10 million in capital from friends and family. Today, Avenue is one of the largest distressed debt investors globally, managing assets of approximately $9.7 billion, with headquarters in New York City, and offices in London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, and five offices throughout Asia.

Mr. Lasry is known as a pioneer in distressed investing which has been the focus of his professional career for over 33 years.

After law school, Mr. Lasry clerked for Edward Ryan, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York. He spent the following year practicing law at Angel & Frankel, which focused on bankruptcies.

Mr. Lasry subsequently became the Director of the private debt department at R.D. Smith, the firm where he first became involved in “trade claims,” the market in purchasing and selling to investors the unsecured claims of vendors and other creditors against a debtor. In 1987, he moved to Cowen & Company where he was Co-Director of the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization department. It was at Cowen that he caught the attention of the Texas investor Robert Bass, who was a client of the firm. When he left Cowen, Mr. Lasry went to manage over $100 million for the Robert Bass Group, Inc., where he invested in bank debt, senior bonds, and trade claims. The Bass fund Mr. Lasry oversaw was called Amroc Investments, L.P., and, at the time, it stood as one of the largest distressed funds in the U.S. In 1990, he co-founded a boutique distressed brokerage firm, keeping the Amroc name and maintaining the affiliation with the Robert Bass Group.

Mr. Lasry is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he has served and will continue to serve on various other boards of advisors/directors of both for-profit and not-for-profit private and public companies. He is also co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team.

Mr. Lasry received a B.A. in History from Clark University (1981) and a J.D. from New York Law School (1984).

Edward Sassower

Partner, Restructuring Group
Kirkland & Ellis

Edward Sassower is a partner in the Restructuring Group of Kirkland & Ellis. His practice focuses on representing debtors, creditors and distressed or special situation investors in bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings and acquisitions. He has extensive restructuring experience across a broad range of industries including energy, retail, transportation, real estate, and media. Edward has consistently been recognized by Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers Global, The World's Leading Lawyers for Business. Most recently, interviewees described Edward as a "master strategist and brilliant technician" who "demonstrates incredible creativity" with "both a brilliant and commanding understanding of the law as well as a complete and thoughtful view of business" noting that his "ability to build consensus and to coalesce the group around important issues was stunning." Each year, Edward teaches two full-semester courses at Wharton (one course to MBA and JD students and one to undergraduate students) titled "Corporate Restructuring."

Bruce Richards

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder
Marathon Asset Management

Bruce Richards is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Marathon Asset Management. Richards is responsible for general oversight of the $12.7 billion the firm manages on behalf of its institutional investors. He also leads the firm’s Executive Committee and is a member of its Investment Committee. Richards’ day-to-day presence is critical in maximizing Marathon’s synergies and leveraging the intellectual capital throughout Marathon.

Richards co-founded Marathon with Louis Hanover in January 1998. The firm focuses on investing in the global credit markets, including corporate debt, bank debt and bonds, special situations and distressed debt, the structured debt markets (RMBS, CMBS, ABS, CLOs, Aircraft Finance and Asset-based Lending), and Emerging Market Debt. Marathon employs 150 professionals and maintains its headquarters in New York, with investment offices in London and Singapore.

Prior to founding Marathon, Richards worked on Wall Street for 15 years, including 10 years as a Managing Director in the fixed income divisions of Smith Barney and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where he was head of a trading desk responsible for principal investments and market making.

In March 2014, Richards was the recipient of Help for Children | Hedge Fund Cares’ Award for Caring for his strong commitment to philanthropy. He has also been honored by the UJA Federation of New York and HELP USA, and was the recipient of the Boomer Esiason Foundation’s Most Valuable Player Award and the R Baby Foundation’s Philanthropic Leadership Award. Richards serves on the boards of The University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation.

Richards received his B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Tulane University (1982) and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.