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Airline & Transportation

Kiwi International Airlines - Interim CEO and Strategic Consultant responsible for repositioning this $100 million airline.  Negotiated funding with Pan Am Airlines and placing Kiwi Chapter 11 to effect the reorganization.  Dealt closely with the financial press and rules, regulations and regulators in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board when the FAA balked.  The New York Times reported "Kiwi Bankruptcy sets stage for Link with Pan American."  Possible solution is a union of 2 airlines that have known trouble.

Fine Air Miami, Florida - At the request of Warburg Dillon Reed, its investment bankers and holders of $185 million of Fine Air's bonds, we undertook a length and detailed analysis of its markets, customers and choice of airports.  This included visiting and/or speaking with over a dozen airports in Florida.  Fine Air is a cargo airline primarily serving South America and the Islands, its competition included all of the passenger airlines serving those markets who utilized excess cargo space in the bellies of all commercial flights.  Our work also included a detailed review of expansion plans, particularly at Miami Airport for the nationwide and worldwide package delivery airlines including Federal Express, DHL and others.  Our conclusion was that there was far too much competition on the horizon, particularly for the southern bound routes, to allow Fine Air to gain sufficient market share to be able to dictate pricing and therefore achieve profitability.

Florida Air Holdings, Inc. – Served as CEO and President to start up a new commuter airline with a dozen destinations inside Florida and in the Caribbean Islands.  Secured necessary FAA and Department of Transportation approvals including the key DOT Letter to Show Cause.  Acquired six aircraft, recruited all necessary staff including pilots, the 5 key so-called "Wiseman", spare parts and facilities.  The company eventually merged with a larger aviation company.

Baltia Airlines - At the request of the airline and its investment bankers, we undertook a review of the business plan and management personnel for Baltia Airlines in relation to Baltia having secured a semi-exclusive license from the U.S. Government to fly to St. Petersburg, Russia and possibly other Soviet Union cities provided it could provide service by a fixed date.

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Education & Training

Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers, Inc.  – The owners of this firm, The Post recruited Gene Gillespie to grow and re-energize this company making it the dominant test preparation company worldwide by expanding its geographic coverage to 400 locations and its course offerings to 33 different disciplines including; SAT, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, Physician Licensure, CPA and Bar Review and English as a Second Language.  The company was restructured to reduce operating costs, expand market penetration and deliver record sales growth and profits that have not been matched since.

Gene also implemented sound business management practices for marketing, sales, pricing, compensation, and advertising and developed and directed strategic expansion plans.  Realigned field management team to expand penetration in key markets nationwide.  Resulted in a 40 percent increase in annual enrollments and dominant market positioning.  During his tenure, annual revenue increased from $35 million to $60 million in 4 years with profits growing form $5 million to over $12 million.

College Bound, Inc. / The Ronkin Educational Centers (NASDAQ) - At the request of the SEC and Bankruptcy Trustee, we assumed the role of CEO to aid in the crisis management of this $100 million educational services business with 175 branch offices and 3000 employees.

Restructured the businesses which included compute training and testing facilities, professional review courses and college and graduate school test preparation programs.

Successfully negotiated profitable sale of all three divisions while helping direct a major securities fraud investigation resulting in convictions and incarcerations. The New York Times referred to prior management as having perpetrated "one of the two major securities frauds of the year."

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Healthcare

Examination Management Services, Inc. - Appointed to Board of Directors by major shareholders including New York Life, ING, Pacific Life Insurance and various hedge funds to be one of three independent directors for this $200 million healthcare services company which provides nationwide and international health related services to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Diagnostic Health Services, Inc. - Appointed to the Board of Directors by Prudential Life Insurance Company and General Electric Corp., its majority shareholders in October 2000 and elected Chairman in November 2000.  DHS provides radiology, cardiology and other diagnostic services to hospitals, clinics and doctors in both a mobile and facility based environment including all on-site technicians and tele-medical monitoring services in more than a dozen states.

Assisted Living Facilities & Nursing Homes - Represented potential buyers and management in a variety of ALF' and nursing homes for over 100 facilities in the Northeast and nationwide, including Chapter 11 proceedings, restructurings and selling these facilities.

Greenbrier Hospital, Florida - Appointed CEO to take charge of this hospital that had been in Chapter 11 proceedings for 2 1/2 years and was unable to confirm a plan of reorganization based on a complete restructured that kept the hospital open, filling most of its beds profitably and selling it for twice its estimated value.

Taro Pharmaceutical – Engaged as Advisor and Consultant to develop strategic growth plan.  Company began with $6 million in sales and a stock price of $0.25 per share and now has over $280 million in sales with a current stock price of $13.00.

Life Extension Institute - Responsible for helping to expand this health services organization originally founded by a former president of the United States.  Our work focused on organic growth.  Also found and negotiated 10 acquisitions of medical clinics, practices and data bases related to preventive medicine, executive health services (physical exams, monitoring, etc.) and industrial medicine in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

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Real Estate

Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. - VP and General Counsel.  With a staff of 4 lawyers we were responsible for the purchase, sale and leasing of several hundred corporate facilities throughout the United States and abroad.  This included both buying and selling several 300,000 sf office buildings, 3 office complexes and the leasing and subleasing of office space in more than 1,000 locations.

College Bound Inc. - As acting CEO on behalf of the Chapter 11 Trustee we took over the company which had 175 permanent locations with over 3,000 employees.  As divisions were sold off, determinations were made with respect to which locations to close and which locations needed to remain open.

Gillespie & Associates, Inc. - Consulted and provided strategic evaluations for one of the largest  national developers and management companies of low and moderate income housing for HUD  and Farmers Home Loan Association with properties located in more than 30 states.

We have represented numerous partnerships for both commercial and residential property in negotiations with lenders both in and out of Chapter 11 proceedings.  These included a 500 unit residential co-op conversion, a 460 unit residential property and a dozen strip malls.

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