James Cassel Co-Founder and Chairman CASSEL SALPETER & CO

James Cassel, chairman and co-founder of Cassel Salpeter & Co., is an investment banker who uses his unique experience as a dealmaker and attorney to guide clients and help them achieve their goals.

Focused on representing middle-market companies, Jim has successfully negotiated, structured, and executed a broad spectrum of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, corporate and transactional financings, and public offerings for clients nationwide and worldwide. Having developed a keen understanding of the issues faced and alternatives available for distressed companies, he has particular experience in developing financial restructuring plans, negotiating with creditors, and guiding debtors through bankruptcy proceedings.

Nationally recognized for his investment banking expertise, Jim frequently lectures on timely issues related to middle-market investment banking.

Before founding Cassel Salpeter & Co., Jim was co-founder and chairman of Capitalink, an investment banking firm that was acquired by Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., a New York Stock Exchange member firm, where Jim continued and served as vice chairman, senior managing director, and head of investment banking. He also was chairman of a significant company that owned hospitals.

Jim serves as Honorary Consul of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Miami for the State of Florida. He is also on the American University’s College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board.

Jim is also the Liquidating Trustee of 1 GC Collections Creditors Liquidating Trust, the successor to 1 Global Capital, LLC debtors-in-possession. At 1 GC, he was the independent manager and oversaw the collection of over $140,000,000 that was distributed to creditors.

He presently serves as a Board Member and Finance Chairperson of the Miami Parking Authority and served as an independent director of the board of Equity One (NYSE:EQY). He also served on their Compensation Committee, Audit Committee, and Governance and Nominating Committee.

Jim is a former board member and president of the South Florida Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. He is also a former advisory board member of the University of Miami’s “The Launch Pad” business incubator program for entrepreneurs. He has served on the executive committee of Broad and Cassel, one of Florida’s largest law firms. He has been a member of the American Association of Arbitrators, National Investment Banking Association, and the NASD Board of Arbitrators. He was also a longtime columnist for The Miami Herald writing about emerging trends and strategies and tactics for middle-market business owners.

Jim received a bachelor’s degree in 1976 from American University, in Washington, D.C., and a law degree in 1979 from the University of Miami School of Law, in Miami. He is a member of the New York and Florida Bar Associations.

Eric Hirschfield Partner ROTHSCHILD & CO

Eric Hirschfield is a Partner and Head of the Chicago and Miami offices for Rothschild & Co. Eric joined Rothschild & Co from the Goldman Sachs Chicago office where he ran the global paper and packaging group and covered a variety of other clients across industries. He has been in investment banking for over 34 years, working in Chicago, New York and Paris.

Eric sits on the Board of the Lyric Opera of Chicago (emeritus) and The Dean’s Advisory Council for the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Peter Moses Senior Managing Director GUGGENHEIM SECURITIES

PJ Moses is a Senior Managing Director of the Consumer and Retail Group of Guggenheim Securities. Prior to joining Guggenheim, PJ served as a Global Partner and Head of North America Consumer & Retail at Rothschild. Previously, PJ spent 15 years at Barclays/Lehman Brothers as Managing Director in the Consumer and Retail Investment Banking Group. PJ has over 30 years of investment banking and advisory experience, having advised on over $100B of M&A transactions and completed over $200B in Financings actively working with both corporate and financial sponsor clients. PJ has extensive experience in the Food and Beverage, Auto Aftermarket, Pet and Snacking sectors as well as Food Retailing and Distribution. PJ holds a B.S. in English and Economics from Amherst College and a M.B.A from the University of Chicago School of Business with High Honors.

Some notable transactions:

• Albertsons, $17B advised a consortium led by Cerberus on the LBO of Albertsons
• Pinnacle Foods, $11B advised on the sale to ConAgra
• Campbells, $5.6B advised on the acquisition of Snyders Lance
• Del Monte Foods, $5.3B advised on the sale to KKR
• Carlyle, $3.6B advised on the acquisition of NBTY

Euan Rellie Managing Partner BDA Partners

Euan Rellie is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BDA, based in New York. He is also President of BDA Advisors Inc, the firm’s SEC/FINRA registered broker-dealer.

Since founding BDA in 1996, he has lived in New York and London, and Singapore, and has worked in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India and across the Middle East. 1990-1996, he worked for Schroders, the UK investment bank now part of Citigroup, in New York, London and Singapore. He was Head of SE Asia Execution for Schroders Asia-Pacific Regional Advisory Group. His clients include AgFeed, Ardian, Bain Capital, CITIC Capital, Dainippon Ink & Chemical, DuPont, Ecolab, Flex, Hanjin, Happy Socks, ICICI, Intel, Investcorp, Kraft Foods, Life Technologies, Lubrizol, Materion, Nalco, One Equity Partners, OpenGate Capital, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Platinum Equity, Sara Lee, Sigma-Aldrich, Tenneco, Terex, ThomsonReuters, Wockhardt and Yucaipa. He was named Dealmaker of the Year in 2016 and 2012 (by The M&A Advisor), 2014 North American Investment Banker of the Year, and one of the Top 50 Global M&A Dealmakers (by The Global M&A Network). He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Patrick Turner Managing Director VSS CAPITAL PARTNERS

Patrick N.W. Turner is a Managing Director of VSS and is responsible for developing investment opportunities, structuring investments, conducting due diligence, executing transactions, and monitoring portfolio companies. Mr. Turner joined VSS in 2014. Mr. Turner is currently a member of the board of the following VSS portfolio companies – Quatrro and Barrier Companies. He previously served on the board of IT-Ernity and MRG. Prior to joining VSS, Mr. Turner was a Managing Director and a member of the Management Committee of Crescent Capital Group LP, a below investment grade alternative credit investment manager that was formerly part of Trust Company of the West, of which he also was a Managing Director. After his service with Crescent, he joined Crimson Capital, a private equity firm based in China, on whose investment committee he served. Prior to joining Trust Company of the West and Crescent in 2005, Mr. Turner was a Managing Partner and co-founder of Canterbury Capital Partners, where he was responsible for the firm’s mezzanine investing activities. Before that, Mr. Turner was a Director at Barclays Mezzanine Group for six years after serving as a Vice President in the leverage buyout group of Marine Midland Bank and as an Associate with Bankers Trust Company, which he joined in 1981. He has had substantial involvement in investments in over 190 companies in the United States and internationally.

Josh Armstrong Deputy Managing Editor MERGERMARKET

Josh Armstrong is deputy managing editor for Mergermarket in North America. He founded the Southeast US editorial bureau in 2018, building out Mergermarket's coverage in the region from a home base in Charlottesville, Virginia. He previously oversaw financial services coverage at S&P Global Market Intelligence and did a little bit of every job at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.