SCG_team_ind_lederman

Michael G. Lederman, Managing Partner

As an investment banker, entrepreneur and investor, Mike Lederman has focused his
career on discerning value in a variety of corporate contexts and then executing
transactions that unlock and realize the value.

Mike is perhaps best known for the key role he played in the acquisition of Allegheny
International while the company was mired in chapter 11. In short, as one of the two
general partners of Japonica Partners, Mike conducted the first-ever unsolicited takeover
of a billion dollar company while in chapter 11. With his partner, Mike raised over a billion
dollars to effect the acquisition, purchased several hundred million dollars (at face) of
creditor claims at a significant discount, defeated the company’s plan of reorganization,
and took the company out of the proceedings as a private entity he renamed Sunbeam
Corporation. Less than two years later Mike took Sunbeam public in a well-regarded IPO
and subsequently sold his interest in the company. While working with Sunbeam as the
company’s second ranking executive, Mike executed several fold-in acquisitions,
including the purchase of the Charmglow Grill Company, and disposed of more than
$100 million of non-core assets. His work in this context has been reported in two books,
a Harvard Business School case study, other case studies, several court cases, and
numerous other publications. One of Mike’s strategic financial advisory clients at
Japonica Partners was PacifiCare, the large California-based HMO.

Mike came to Sunbeam as an experienced lawyer and investment banker. As a
Shearman & Sterling attorney, Mike represented financial institutions and borrowers in
dozens of financing transactions. Among his institutional clients were Citibank and Merrill
Lynch whom he represented in cases such as the multi-billion dollar Kaiser Aluminum
workout and the Clint Murchison bankruptcy. His corporate clients included a number of
Fortune 500 companies as well as foreign-based companies such as the Mexico City-
based brewer of Dos Equis beer, Petro-Canada, the Canadian national oil Company, and
Zurich-based Alusuisse in a variety of capacities involving financial distress.

When Goldman Sachs decided to start a restructuring advisory practice, the firm
conducted an extensive search process to identify and recruit a single vice president.
Virtually every young partner and senior associate practicing in the restructuring arena in
the United States was considered for the position. Mike was fortunate enough to be
selected. Once there, he focused his practice on mergers and acquisitions. Among the
matters he was involved in were Contel’s acquisition of Equitorial Communications, the
PBGC’s claims as the largest creditor of LTV Corp., Algoma Steel’s debt buy-back, and
the sale of the Federated Group to Atari Corporation.

Mike's success at Goldman Sachs was significant enough to allow him to realize his life-
long dream of starting the first of his own businesses. Together with the fellow who
recruited him to Goldman Sachs, Mike raised $3 million, principally from Silicon Valley
venture capital firms, to start his own strategic financial advisory firm, which continues to
this day as the Gordian Group. Among Mike's clients at this venture were Dylex Ltd., a
major Toronto-based apparel retailer, a British-based investment firm that owned the
controlling interest in the Liquor Barn chain in California, Cardis Corp., a major public
automotive parts distributor, and Japonica Partners, which was conducting an unsolicited
bid for the troubled Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Mike's entrepreneurial legacy also
include founding Fulcrum Direct, Inc. and arranging more than $80 million of financing for
this venture. Fulcrum Direct eventually became the largest cataloger of children's apparel
in the United States.

Mike received his MBA and JD degrees from the University of Virginia in 1980. He
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Summa Cum Laude, and having been
elected to Phi Beta Kappa, in 1976. Mike has lectured extensively at various university
graduate schools, bar and other professional associations, conferences, seminars and
workshops. His board memberships include The Bosque School, a private independent
day school, and Thaggard Partners, LLC, an international shrimp aquaculture concern
financed by The Spectrum Capital Group.


	Direct Contact Information 401-396-9777 ext. 101 mgl@spectrumcapitalgroup.com


				© Spectrum Capital Group, LLC. 2005. All Rights Reserved.