2020 has been a year of challenges and disruptions for so many; however, we’re proud to have continued to grow our firm this year, adding several new members to our M&A team and to our advisory practice. We’ve also promoted from within, recognizing the talents and accomplishments of our staff.

Get to know the newest members of our team and re-meet some familiar faces with this recap of CMA’s 2020 hires and promotions:

We started the year strong with the announcement of Marye Moran’s promotion to Vice President in January. Marye joined Carl Marks Advisors 2017 and has since held roles of increasing responsibility with clients. Her work extends across the operational/financial consulting and investment banking practices, as well as the healthcare, retail, construction services, and education sectors.

In early 2020 we welcomed two new team members to our M&A team, Christopher Parisi as Managing Director and Michael Gordon as Vice President.

Chris has more than 20 years of investment banking experience and, prior to joining our firm, led M&A advisory engagements for middle market companies at FPG Advisory. Earlier in his career, he was a senior investment banker at Jefferies & Company, where he was instrumental in building the General Industries Group into one of the firm’s largest and most profitable units. He also served as a Vice President with KeyBanc Capital Markets, focusing on middle-market consumer companies, including food & beverage and retail, and worked in the private equity division of The Blackstone Group.

Michael re-joined Carl Marks Advisors after starting his career at the firm as an Analyst and then leaving to pursue an MBA in Finance and Accounting at NYU Stern School of Business. Michael was most recently a Manager in the Deal Advisory Group at KPMG.

This past July, we welcomed back another CMA veteran, Benjiman Godbout, who rejoined the firm as a Director to focus on investment banking and distressed transactions. Ben previously worked at Carl Marks Advisors from 2015 to 2018, providing restructuring and operational advisory services. Before returning to Carl Marks Advisors, Ben worked at Summit Investment Management as a private equity investor in the special situations and underwriting group; earlier in his career, he held roles at Deloitte and Capstone Advisory Group.

In response to the impact the pandemic was exerting on companies across all sectors, CMA leadership began adding additional resources that would better enable us to respond to client demand.  We have been pleased to announce six new hires during 2020 to bolster the Carl Marks Advisors team:

• • Tom Cunningham, Managing Director, is a senior financial and operational executive with over 30 years of financial advisory and interim management experience. Throughout his career, Tom has focused on distressed companies and has served in a number of executive roles, including: CFO of a not-for-profit college; CFO & COO of an alternative investment management company; CFO of a technology company; and CFO of an on-line media publisher.
  • Aidan Black, Associate, brings demonstrated success in both Chapter 11 restructurings as well as mergers & acquisitions to our team. His work spans sectors including energy, food/grocery, healthcare, insurance, media, and retail. Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors, Mr. Black supported corporate bankruptcies and restructurings at Alvarez & Marsal in Dallas, Texas.
  • Garland Gay, Associate, advises clients on debt and equity financings, restructurings, and sell-and buy-side M&A transactions. She was previously an associate at Chiron Financial, where she supported the marketing and execution of financings, M&A transactions, and financial advisory engagements. Earlier, Garland was a Senior Financial Analyst with Signal Funding LLC, a litigation finance startup, where she was responsible for the development and ownership of revenue and cash flow forecasting, product costing models and reports.
  • Charles Hill, Analyst, brings experience working on both public and private company transactions to Carl Marks Advisors. His experience also includes assignments in both healthy and distressed M&A, including corporate mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, leveraged buyouts, and capital raises. Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors, Charles worked as an investment banking analyst at BTIG, where he focused on executing M&A and capital raises across multiple industries.
  • David Mintz, Analyst, focuses on due diligence, analysis, planning and execution. Prior to joining Carl Marks Advisors, David worked at BDO Consulting Group, where he worked on all stages of the restructuring process, performing buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory, crisis management, turnaround and Chapter 11 work.
  • David Orr, Analyst, has worked on leveraged finance and M&A transactions across a broad range of industries, including the industrial, consumer goods, and health & wellness sectors. He was previously an Investment Analyst at Steel Partners Holdings, focusing on public and private sector small- to middle-market companies’ M&A. Mr. Orr also conducted analysis, due diligence, and negotiation of investments for the diversified global investment holding company.