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Due Diligence: Background Bios
Lance West is a retired Chairman and CEO at Centerbridge Partners, Matthew Kabaker co-heads the global private equity investing activities at Centerbridge, John Kansas currently serves as a non-executive Chairman of BankUnited, and Felix Scherzer currently works at a managing director at Credit Suisse.
MATTHEW KABAKER
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
- Matthew Kabaker currently co-heads the global private equity investing activities at Centerbridge. He also serves as a member of the company’s Management Committee, focusing on investments in the United States and Europe.
- Before joining Centerbrigde, he worked as a senior advisor to Timothy Geithner, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Capital Markets at the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C.
- He also worked as a managing director at Blackstone Group L.P. and was at the company for 10-years.
- Matthew Kabaker serves as the Chairman on the Board of Directors of Versant Health, Inc and also serves on the board of directors of Bluestem Group Inc.
- Kabaker also serves on the Board of Directors of Visionworks of America and boards affiliated with Canopius AG.
- Kabaker serves on the Boards of Directors of Aktua Soluciones Financieras, S.L, Focus Financial Partners, LLC, and Bluestem Group Inc.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- Matthew Kabaker graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
RECENT PRESS
- He was mentioned among the top business people in retail on the Business People article by TwinCities Pioneer Press.
- He was also mentioned in a press release by MarketWatch as one of the members of Bluestem Group in their board of directors announcement.
INTERESTING FACTS
- He is one of the speakers scheduled to speak at The Clearing House Association, Bank Policy Institute 2019 annual conference.
- Between 2007 and 2008 he donated $7,300 to Obama’s political campaign.
JOHN KANSAS
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
- John Kansas currently serves as a non-executive Chairman of BankUnited.
- John Kansas is a Senior Advisor to Carlyle Group and Vice Chairman of Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners.
- He was the President and CEO of BankUnited from 2009 to 2016.
- John Kansas started working at North Folk Bank in 1971 and became its President in 1977 to 2006. He previously held the position of a branch manager at the bank.
- He was the President of the New York State Bankers Association.
- Kanas is a member of the board of trustees of Weill Cornell Medical College.
- He spent four years teaching at a middle school in the Medford school district.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- John Kansas has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from Long Island University’ s (LIU) Southampton campus.
RECENT PRESS COVERAGE
- John Kanas announced his intentions to retire as Chairman of the board of directors for BankUnited.
- INTERESTING FACTS
- He once partook in a student demonstration protesting tuition hikes when he was the President of his class at LIU.
- According to Wallmine, he has an estimated net worth of $53.1 million as of 15 March 2018.
- He was recognized as the best regional bank CEO in America by Institutional Investor in 2005.
- In 2007, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.
FELIX SCHERZER
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
- Felix Scherzer currently works as a managing director at Credit Suisse. A position he has been holding since 2015.
- Before joining Credit Suisse, he was a managing director at Morgan Stanley from 2010 to 2015, and managing director at Citigroup from 2006 to 2010.
- He was also the Vice President, New York and Europe at Lazard from 1999 to 2006.
- He had previously worked at BMW Group from 1997 to 1999.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- He has a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Economics from Universita Bocconi. He studied at the institution from 1994 to 1999.
- Felix Scherzer got his Abitur (university preparatory exam) from Maximiliansgymnasium, Muenchen in 1994.
RECENT NEWS
- There’s no recent news coverage on Felix Scherzer. His last mention in the press was in 2015.
INTERTESTING FACTS
LANCE WEST
- Lance West is a retired Chairman and CEO at Centerbridge Partners. He also worked as a senior managing director and partner at Centerbridge Partners.
- Before joining Centerbridge, he served as a partner and managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
- West worked as the Director of Triad Financial Corporation until 2006.
- In 2001, he was the head of the Principal Finance Group within Goldman’s Special Situations Group, Fixed Income Division.
- Lance West was the founder and the CEO of Greenthal Realty Partners from 1992 to 1999 and Resolution Trust Corporation. He also served as executive vice president and principal of The Charles H. Greenthal Group, Inc. from 1984 to 1992.
- West was a member of Technical Staff of AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1982 to 1984.
- West served as Chairman of Green Tree Investment Holdings LLC and is a member of the board at Bank United.
- He is also a member of the Board of Overseers of Tufts University, and Chair’s Council for the HSS division at Caltech.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- In 1983, he got his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
- Lance West graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University in 1982.
RECENT NEWS
- There is no recent press coverage on Lance West.
INTERESTING FACTS
- West is an avid donor to various political figures and nonprofit organizations like The Global Fund for Children, Lift, Inc., and Right to Rise USA. He donated a total of $11,500 to Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Mark Steven Kirk, and Joe Lieberman political campaigns.
- Lance West is married to Lisa West, a Trustee at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Your research team was not able to provide information on any publications or books by Matthew Kabaker, Lance West, John A. Kanas, and Felix Scherzer. We searched for interviews with the mentioned individuals. We were hoping to find an interview in which they talked about their interests and any publications they had. The information found using this strategy was limited with no recent interviews on Matthew Kabaker, Lance West, and Felix Scherzer.
Next, we searched through online bookstores and databases like Amazon Books, Google Books, Open Library, ResearchGates, among others. We were hoping to find publications by any of the mentioned individuals; either as an editor, co-author or for works written entirely by them. Despite a thorough search, there were no books or publications written or edited by the individuals, although they were quoted or used as case studies in some publications.
Additionally, we searched media sites like Forbes, BusinessInsider, TwinCities, Reuters, Bloomberg, Bizjournal, among others. We were hoping to find mentions of these individuals in recent press releases. Unfortunately, Felix Scherzer and Lance West have not been featured in any recent media coverage, and there were no mentions of books or publications by any of the individuals. We couldn’t provide the requested information on publications or books by Matthew Kabaker, Lance West, John A. Kanas, and Felix Scherzer and we believe that none of the individuals have any published materials.