Al has held senior positions at both commercial and investment banks, where he played a prominent role in the creation of financial engineering innovations (e.g., securitization of credit and asset-based finance) and he also spent many years as a private investor and business entrepreneur.
He was credit-trained at the former National Westminster Bank in the U.S., which took him into areas of insurance, financial guarantees, and both venture and arbitrage funds. Then, at Credit Suisse USA he served as a key member of the small team that "very delicately" forged the foundation for the first true universal bank in the U.S. with its First Boston Corp. investment banking affiliate - twenty years before the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act.
His direct area of responsibility at Credit Suisse was first in the New England market and then heading up CSNY's newly-formed Middle Market Group. Notable achievements in that posting included the initial capitalization of Xerox Credit Corp., the first ever match-funded intermediate term credit facility created for Avco Financial, and the initial facility for UPS for its entry into Germany.
In that position at CSNY he also funded the first credit-enhanced financial guarantee bond facility in the U.S., as well as the first participating in the first credit-enhanced Eurobond issue (Niagara Mohawk Power & Light).
He went on to become Vice President and Treasurer at EF Hutton Credit Corp/Chrysler Capital, where he was the financial executive responsible for increasing total capitalization of that firm from $600 million to over $1.5 billion in just a year and a half. At EF Hutton, he managed and initiated financial programs relating to private placements, commercial paper, swaps, and maintained relationships with 34 line banks.
In 1986 he headed the Private Placement group at JW Charles Capital Corp as VP-Managing Director as one of five professionals bringing this retail investment banking group into full corporate investment banking. There, his experience included expanding a credit facility for General Development Corp., an acquisition of an S&L by the Collier Family Trust, and an IPO for Tucker National Bank.
Prior to JWCC, Al spent a short time as an internal consultant to Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, where he helped develop an asset-based swap program. He also spent a year at Allied Corporation, whereby he reviewed all of their capital expenditures and managed two $300 million commercial paper programs (designated to forecast interest rate movements during the most volatile year in US history - the year Fed Chairman Volker instituted monetarism into the Federal Reserve). As an assignment, Al was tasked with increasing Allied’s revolving credit from $2 billion to $7 billion (and did so while relaxing the capital restraint covenants).
After his time at Allied Corporation and the aforementioned other corporate assignments, Al spent 15 years in his own investment banking and advisory service, prior to joining The Riderwood Group, a national securities firm, as SVP, and later Dolan Corporate Services LLC as a Partner.
During that time, Al was involved in the purchase and finance of numerous media enterprises (including three television stations), recapitalization of a $10 million manufacturing company, financing the growth of an equipment leasing company from a start-up to a $50 million level, and the purchase of a high-performance boat company.
Al was also a Senior Managing Director at a national M&A firm (supervising 30 professionals), and an independent contractor for the largest business brokerage firm in Florida. In the shipping sector, he negotiated and structured a “double-dip” international sale/leaseback in a $340 million management buyout of Royal Cruise Lines.
For the last 15 years Al has concentrated on the corporate finance requirements of a few Capital Corporations by providing a variety of financial services, including; a) structuring capital raises; b) negotiating acquisitions and client contracts; c) performing final due diligence; and d) reviewing all proposals.
More recently he serves as chief economic advisor to a major firm in the construction and hospitality sectors where he assisted in the development and funding of a $350 million blind pool for acquisitions.
Over the course of these many and varied positions Al has analyzed and rewritten (some from scratch) over five dozen business plans and funded/negotiated over $10 billion in fundings both on the sell side (i.e., provider of funds) and the buyside (buyer); and executed the initial background and due diligence on at least five separate verticals.
These verticals encompassed a wide range of industry sectors including minor league baseball, Obamacare, scrap metal ship demolition, shipping (bulk carriers and cruise lines), LED/smart cities, electrical contracting, medical tourism, and general and special-purpose hospitality projects. The specialty hospitality project refers to a Tequila Valley project, which can best be described as a distillery coupled with hotel and luxury homes. It is currently drafting legal documents for funding $160 million in two phases. The site is located 40 miles east of Guadalajara, Mexico, overlooking Tequila Valley on top of a mountain.
His current active assignments include negotiating and funding proposals for the acquisition and development of four major hospitality properties in the Caribbean, including two involving CBI units.
Most recently Al has been asked to join a team of professionals pursuing an acquisition roll-up program of US based medical properties.
