John offers a unique combination of strategic, financial and operating skills. He specializes in designing and implementing business turnarounds and in providing crisis interim management. He has extensive experience in strategic restructuring and hands-on implementation in the energy industry, consumer products and manufacturing industries. John has been with AlixPartners since 1998, serving in interim management roles and in an advisory capacity to his clients. His experiences in treasury operations, liquidity management including cash flow modeling and business plan development, as well as cost reduction initiatives provides a complement of services to assist companies with financial and operational turnarounds. He also has had a tremendous amount of experience with large, complex restructurings and organizations.
For example, John has extensive experience in the energy industry having worked with Calpine Corporation and Mirant Corporation during the restructuring of those companies. He is currently advising Calpine Corporation, a $10 billion company that generates and sells electricity-related products to wholesale and industrial customers in North America. Calpine is comprised of over 400 legal entities, and John led a team to develop and implement a weekly short term liquidity management forecasting process for the entire corporation. He is currently leading an effort to analyze a complex array of intercompany transactions within the Calpine restructuring. John also served as an advisor to Mirant Corporation, a $3 billion competitive energy company that produces and sells electricity in North America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. While advising Mirant on its restructuring alternatives, John was responsible for developing cash flow models and intercompany claim recovery models that were instrumental in the development of the company’s Plan of Reorganization.
John has had interim management roles, serving as Chief Financial Officer of New World Pasta, a $400 million consumer packaged goods company, leading the finance and IT departments and guiding the restructuring from a financial perspective. He led the New World Pasta team in negotiating a $240 million exit financing package. Additionally, he served as Director of Finance and Administration for Peregrine Inc., a $400 million Tier 1 automotive manufacturer of steel and plastic parts. In this role, John implemented a variety of operational and financial improvements, including production and scrap reporting to improve inventory management, and revamping the company’s entire financial reporting, improving month-end closing to 4 days from 20 days. John also was responsible for working with the local union management to lead an effort to improve manufacturing efficiencies within the plant.
John has also had operational experience leading the AlixPartners Turnaround Team process for an international car rental company. The process consisted of 8 cross-functional teams with more than 100 members. They focused on marketing, operations, financial reporting, cost reductions, and reservation center operations. He also implemented a new budgeting and forecasting process that has proved vastly more efficient for the client.
Prior to joining AlixPartners, John was a manager of strategic advisory services for Ernst & Young. Prior to this, he was a manager of financial reporting and internal audit for the Sweetheart Cup Co. He started his professional career as a staff accountant with Ernst & Young.
He earned an MBA from Kellogg Management School at Northwestern University, with an emphasis in finance and strategy management, and a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce and accounting from DePaul University. He earned his CPA certification in 1988 and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as the Association for Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association.