Cyrus Abbassi is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group and a member of the national Healthcare Team. Cyrus is lead counsel with respect to a wide range of significant transactions with an emphasis on healthcare mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures and financings. Known in the business community for his deal-making ability, Cyrus uses deep industry expertise and sophisticated legal process to meet the complex needs of private equity funds, provider groups and other industry stakeholders.

P: 212.653.8176

E: cabbassi@sheppardmullin.com

David Acharya is the Managing Partner of ACP where he oversees all aspects of the firm’s investing, management, and strategic activities. He brings over 25 years of investing and transacting experience to ACP. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is recognized by his peers for his expertise in private equity, capital markets, and portfolio value creation.

Before establishing ACP, Mr. Acharya was a partner of AGI Partners, LLC, a private equity firm, and played a key role in the development of the firm including strategy, hiring, and fundraising. He served on the board of directors for Impact XM and On Location until its successful exit to a global private equity firm.

Earlier, Mr. Acharya was a Director of an NYC-based private equity firm where he was responsible for investment sourcing and execution. Among other accomplishments, he sourced and executed Revolution Dancewear, co-sponsored with Incline Equity Partners, and was sold to Audax Group.

In 2020, after completing his term as President of the New York Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Mr. Acharya was elected as Chairperson. Additionally, he was recently elected to the ACG Global Board of Directors. In recognition of his years of leadership and volunteerism, he was honored with the ACG Meritorious Award.

Mr. Acharya is a graduate of St. John’s University and holds B.S. and M.B.A. degrees with honors.

As a pioneer in cross-border M&A and private equity – I often note that successful global dealmaking is 1/3 finance, 1/3 diplomacy, and 1/3 social psychology”

Gregory Bedrosian is a Managing Partner & CEO of Drake Star, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the firm on a global basis. Gregory is a seasoned investment banker whose experience spans both domestic and cross-border M&A and private equity transactions across the US, Europe, and emerging markets. Amongst his numerous honors, Gregory received the 2021 Global M&A Leadership Award, the 2016 M&A Advisor Leadership Award and is an M&A Advisor Hall of Fame inductee for his accomplishments in and contribution to international and cross-border mergers & acquisitions.

Mr. Bedrosian is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and a regular speaker and contributor to leading industry and academic forums as well as Bloomberg, Forbes, and other leading financial news media. Gregory is currently an Advisor at the Harvard Innovation Labs, Non-Executive Chairman of the Investment Committee of Da Vinci Capital, a leading tech-focused emerging markets private equity investment firm, Non-Executive Board Member of a prominent emerging markets hedge fund as well as Senior Advisor to MEP Capital, a media & entertainment-focused credit and private equity fund.

Before Drake Star, Gregory co-founded Renaissance Capital, a leading investment bank focused on emerging markets and he was also the co-founder of The Sputnik Funds, a $1 billion private equity investment firm. He began his investment banking career at Credit Suisse First Boston and Salomon Brothers (now part of Citigroup). Throughout his international finance career, he has lived and worked in some of the most dynamic cities in the world – from New York and Boston to London, Moscow, and Miami.

Gregory holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Gordon is a Managing Director and a member of Houlihan Lokey’s Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Group. He has been involved in the execution of $20 billion dollars of public and private real estate advisory assignments, including the privatization of REITS, asset and portfolio sales, joint ventures, restructuring and note sales, and corporate real estate monetization transactions, including sale-leasebacks. Mr. Gordon was responsible for the sale of over 15 million square feet of buildings for J.P. Morgan and participated in the restructuring of General Growth Properties and the NY Times Building. He is based in the firm’s New York office.

Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Gordon had a 25-year career at JPMorgan Chase, where he was a Managing Director in the Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Group. While there, his notable advising assignments included the sale of a joint venture interest in Roseland Properties, the sale of NewsCorp’s 23-acre mixed-use development site in Boston’s financial district, and the sales of 650 Madison Avenue, 75 Wall Street, 522 Fifth Avenue, and Tiffany’s headquarters. Mr. Gordon advised on the privatization of Urban Properties, First Washington Realty Trust, and Lexford for EQR. He served as advisor to the Port Authority of New York on strategic options for the World Trade Center and has worked on transactions in Latin America, Europe, and New Zealand.

Mr. Gordon holds a B.A. in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an M.S. in Urban Planning from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the International Council of Shopping Centers and holds the MAI and Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) designations.

As Co-President of A&G Real Estate Partners, Andy Graiser brings nearly 30 years of experience as a go-to resource for a variety of real estate services on behalf of healthy and distressed entities. His key areas of expertise include lease mitigation, real estate dispositions, facilitating growth opportunities, valuations, and acquisitions.

He co-founded A&G in 2012 with Co-President Emilio Amendola. Previously, in 1992, they founded and then later sold DJM Realty.

Mr. Graiser and his team have achieved rent-reduction and occupancy-cost savings approaching $8 billion on behalf of 650+ clients in every real estate sector, while selling more than $12 billion of non-core properties and leases. The clients he is most closely associated with include Mattress Firm, Claire’s, RadioShack, rue21, Dowling College, A&P Supermarkets, Party City, Christmas Tree Shops, Tailored Brands, Chico’s, Ruth’s Chris, GNC, and Tuesday Morning.

Michele Harlan, CPA, MBA, is a Partner at Anchin and the Leader of the Firm’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) Group. She has 20 years of experience in the accounting profession.

Michele has worked on private equity deals, SPACs, and partnership mergers and acquisitions. She built her TAS practice after extensive experience with companies buying and acquiring entities. Her TAS work has also included purchase price accounting, asset and liability valuation, goodwill calculations and related impairment testing. She also has experience with pre-transaction work, GAAP issues and diligence, purchase price allocation, valuation work, and post-deal implementation for middle market clients.

Additionally, Michele possesses high knowledge of ASC 805 and its application in M&A deals. Michele has also conducted extensive Audit work in the retail, distribution, manufacturing, healthcare, and not-for-profit sectors.

In the past, Michele has led internal firm-wide Audit and Assurance trainings. She also served on her prior firm’s first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee after spearheading a number of related initiatives. In addition, Michele contributes to a variety of marketing and business development initiatives.

Michele is active with various organizations across New Jersey and regularly attends events for the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).

Michele is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Brett Hickey has over 20 years of private investing and investment banking experience with over 15 years spent directly in the U.S. lower middle-market. He has completed over 200 private equity, private credit and secondary fund investments.

Mr. Hickey is the Founder & CEO of Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a multi-billion dollar specialized private investment firm, making loans, private equity investments and secondary fund purchases across its Collaborative Ecosystem® in the lower middle-market. Driven by culture and stakeholder alignment, Star Mountain has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by Crain’s and Pensions & Investments in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Previously worked as an Investment Banker at Citigroup Global Markets (formerly known as Salomon Smith Barney) in New York City where he completed $24 billion in transactions for financial institutions.

Graduated with Distinction from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance and Accounting. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Owner / President Manager executive training and management program.

Board positions include Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs and the YMCA of Greenwich. He is also the Founder & Chairman of the Star Mountain Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) focused on job creation (including for veterans, women and athletes), economic development and health & wellness. Mr. Hickey is a member of YPO and is a former Canadian national gold medalist and North American medalist in speed skating.

Helana Robbins Huddleston provides transaction and related advisory services to clients in a range of different industries. She has over 22 years of expertise in financial due diligence, restructuring, cash flow budgeting, financial auditing, internal control evaluation, and business process improvement. In addition to her role in transaction advisory, Helana is the co-leader of CohnReznick’s Manufacturing & Distribution practice and is a member of the Firm’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Practice.

Helana leads buy-side and sell-side financial due diligence engagements with strategic and financial buyers for private and public companies in the middle market. She manages the complexity of carve-out transactions including assisting on synergy cost analyses and transition service agreements. Her diverse industry experience includes manufacturing and distribution, food and beverage, retail, technology, government, construction, hospitality, and business services.

Helana has provided accounting and consulting services to financially troubled companies with sales ranging from $80 million to $350 million. In this role, she has advised clients in multiple areas including cash management, financial projections and modeling, operational cost improvement and cost reductions, and implementing internal control processes. She has also advised senior secured creditors in and out of bankruptcy proceedings.

Helana began her career with a Big 4 firm where, among other things, she led a buy-side transaction with an enterprise value of $10 billion.

John W. Jones is a partner in the Private Equity group at Goodwin Procter LLP and a Co-Leader of the Firm’s Healthcare Private Equity practice. John focuses his practice on healthcare private equity and strategic M&A and complex federal and state health care regulatory matters. He represents financial sponsors and strategics on a wide range of corporate, M&A, regulatory, structure, governance and compliance matters. Clients with a stake in the health care industry rely on John to navigate their most important deals and complex issues. Recognized for his significant expertise and 20+ years of experience in the health care M&A industry, John was named Health Care M&A lawyer of the year by America M&A Atlas Awards in 2019.

Steven is the managing partner of the firm’s New York office. With more than two decades of experience in corporate finance and securities law, in addition to mergers and acquisitions, Steven focuses on counseling public and private companies on complex securities matters. He regularly advises boards of directors and special committees on issues of corporate governance and fiduciary duties.

Steven has substantial experience advising underwriters and issuers in a wide range of debt and equity financing transactions, including SEC-registered offerings, private placements, debt tender offers, consent solicitations, and exchange offers. He also counsels’ investment banks serving as financial advisors to deliver fairness and solvency opinions. Steven represents clients in the U.S. and abroad in various sectors, including energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, health care, and consumer products. He also advises Israeli clients operating in the U.S., as well as companies and investors doing business in Israel.

Jordan S. Lewis represents clients with respect to the acquisition, development, financing, leasing and disposition of commercial properties throughout the United States. His practice includes the representation of lenders and borrowers in connection with various types of secured financings, as well as the representation of developers/sponsors, investors, and their partners in the formation and negotiation of private real estate funds, joint ventures, and partnerships. Jordan also has deep experience representing purchasers and lenders with respect to the acquisition and financing of manufacturing and distribution facilities and other economic development projects throughout the State of Georgia that are subject to tax-exempt bond financing structures.

Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, Jordan was in-house counsel for a Manhattan-based real estate investment company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Samuel R. Maizel is a partner in Dentons US LLP’s Los Angeles office. Sam’s practice focuses on restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy, in- and out-of-court in all industries, but he leads the firm’s healthcare industry restructuring efforts nationwide. He has served as lead bankruptcy counsel to healthcare industry debtors, including in the recently completed chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Verity Health System of California, Inc., and 15 related companies, the second largest hospital bankruptcy in American history, and in the Astria Health bankruptcy cases in Yakima, Washington.

Before joining Dentons, Sam was a partner at a national bankruptcy boutique firm (1997-2015), and previous to that he represented the federal government nationwide as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Commercial Litigation Branch (1991-1996). He has also served in U.S. Army’s The Judge Advocate General’s Corps (1985-1991), including service in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, as well as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army (1977-1985).

Sam has lectured extensively, is widely published, and been interviewed on television and radio on topics related to the healthcare industry and bankruptcy. Among many other honors, he is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, is ranked in Chambers in both Bankruptcy and Healthcare, and has regularly been named a “Super Lawyer” in an annual region-wide peer survey. Sam has his J.D. from George Washington University National Law Center (1985); an M.A. from Georgetown University (1983); and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point (1977).

Al founded MelCap Partners in 2000, and is responsible for managing all aspects of client engagements from proposal through closing, developing business, reviewing offering memorandums and financial models, negotiating purchase agreements, and interacting with buyers and investors. Al resides in Medina, Ohio with his wife and has four adult children and two grandchildren.

BSBA in both Finance and Marketing from The Ohio State University. Registered FINRA Representative: Series 7 – General Securities, Series 24 – General Securities Principal, Series 63 – Uniform Securities Agent, and Series 79 – Limited Representative-Investment Banking. Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor through the Alliance for Merger and Acquisition Advisors.

Kyle is a Director in Cherry Bekaert’s Transaction Tax practice. He serves PE firms and corporate entities in transactions across a variety of industries, focusing on buy- and sell-side tax diligence, structuring and modeling. Prior to joining Cherry Bekaert, Kyle practiced M&A tax advisory at a Big Four accounting firm.

Since co-founding Gordian Group in 1988, Henry Owsley has led many of the firm’s financing, advisory and merger transactions, as well as expert witness engagements. He was the expert witness in the 2009 precedent-setting Heilig-Meyers litigation. In 2016, Mr. Owsley co-founded, Expert Witness Consulting Services, LLC (“EWCS”) to provide a range of services to independent professionals and law firms engaged in expert witness and related activities. Gordian Acquisition Corporation, the parent of Gordian Group, is the majority owner of EWCS.

Mr. Owsley co-authored the leading book in his field, he is the co-author of the definitive works in the field, the recently published Distressed Investment Banking: To the Abyss and Back – 2nd Edition, (Beard Books, 2015), Equity Holders Under Siege: Strategies and Tactics for Distressed Businesses (Beard Books, 2014) and Distressed Investment Banking: To the Abyss and Back (Beard Books, 2005). All books are “must-read” for boards of directors, management teams and shareholders and/or owners of financially stressed situations, as well as for buyers and professionals. He is consistently named one of the 10 leading investment bankers in the field of bankruptcy and financial restructuring by The Deal where he has also been profiled. Prior to co-founding Gordian Group, Mr. Owsley was at Goldman Sachs, where he founded the firm’s Workout Group. While at Goldman Sachs, he was also a founding member of its Technology Group.

Mr. Palumbo joined G4 in 2013. He is integrally involved in all aspects of G4’s operations, fund structuring, legal procedures and business origination. Mr. Palumbo also spearheads G4’s construction lending platform, leveraging his legal background to support G4’s analytics and acts as the primary counterpart to the construction field team. Mr. Palumbo also focuses on complex transactions involving environmental tax credits and associated regulatory programs.

Prior to joining G4, Robert Palumbo was an associate at the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, where he was a member of the finance and real estate practice groups.

Mr. Palumbo graduated cum laude from The George Washington University Honors Program with a Bachelors of Business Administration. He received his law degree from the Yeshiva University Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Palumbo continued his post juris doctorate education at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.

Charles (“Chuck”) Salvo is a Managing Director who has spent 25 years working for healthcare organizations in advisory services and in health system leadership. Most recently, Chuck served as Senior Vice President for a large urban based health system. During his tenure, the system executed a merger with two other safety net providers, converting one organization to an ambulatory campus and deploying the EPIC electronic medical record to the new system members. Chuck successfully created an integrated physician organization that aligned more than 400 physicians on a common practice management system and instituted a system-wide quality and productivity-based compensation model.

Chuck spent much of his career in advisory roles with firms including Ernst & Young, Arthur Andersen and Grant Thornton, specializing in strategic and financial planning. In his roles, he managed multiple debt restructuring and credit enhancement engagements generating more than $1b in new financing for hospitals and health systems.

In addition to strategy and financial improvement, Chuck is skilled at physician integration, service line development, mergers, acquisitions and clinical affiliations. He spent nearly four years rebuilding clinical relationships between two competing systems to improve access and care in Central Brooklyn. This relationship is critical to a $650 million investment by the State of New York to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for underserved communities.

Chuck started his career at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and credits CHOP’s culture, integrity and relentless focus on taking care of children as a key foundation for his core values.

Chuck is a Certified Healthcare Finance Professional and is a member of the Healthcare Finance Management Association, where he also served as a Committee Chair and Board Member. He is also a member of the Turnaround Management Association.

He holds an M.B.A from LaSalle University in Finance/Healthcare and a BS in Finance from Saint Joseph’s University.

Alan Tantleff is the leader of the Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure industry practice and specializes in real estate. Mr. Tantleff has more than 30 years of experience in lodging, gaming and real estate investment and development.

Mr. Tantleff applies his broad background and experience in hospitality to a wide variety of engagements, with a particular focus on strategy, business process improvement, initial public offering preparedness, investment banking and transactional support, and workouts and financial restructurings. Mr. Tantleff has advised boards of directors, Chief Executive Officers, lenders, borrowers and other stakeholders on numerous high-profile hospitality matters.

Most recently, he served as Chief Restructuring Officer to Eagle Hospitality Group, a Singapore-based REIT that owned 18 hotel properties throughout the United States, including such prominent properties as the Queen Mary Long Beach, the Westin Sacramento and the Renaissance Denver Hotel.

Mr. Tantleff began his career at the Sands Casino Hotel in Atlantic City as the Senior Operations Analyst responsible for the profitable operation of the casino-hotel. Shortly after that, he was recruited to manage the $2 billion hospitality portfolio of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, the nation’s largest institutional owner of hotels. In this capacity, he oversaw all phases of Prudential’s investment strategy, including liaising with managers, partners and investors; acquisitions, dispositions and due diligence; and asset management.

After executing a number of private and public market transactions for the insurer, Mr. Tantleff joined Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels as the leader of the New York office, where he led the brokerage group’s most active practice and initiated the company’s foray into asset management. At JLL, he was a founding member of the International Capital Committee, which matched international capital with opportunities globally. At the onset of the financial crisis, he joined BlackRock Financial Services, leading the efforts in restructuring the hospitality component of the financial manager’s $6 billion sub-debt portfolio. He also held senior management positions at Hotel Asset Value Enhancement and Granite Partners (Savilles).

Mr. Tantleff is a former advisory board member of Checked-In, an app to assist travelers connect with their network when traveling. He serves on the Board of Directors of Cornell University’s Center for Real Estate Finance. Mr. Tantleff is a former representative and board member of the Cornell Alumni Federation, where he represented the School of Hotel Administration in university affairs.

Awards & Recognition
Notable Leaders in Real Estate, Crain’s New York Business (2023)
The Top 25 Travel and Hospitality Consultants

Jacob is from a small dairy farm in Iowa, the son of hippie runaways, who both were the first in their families to go to college. By the age of five years old, he was waking up at 4 AM to milk and feed cows before school and again after school from 3-8 PM. Consequently, the values of a good education, independence, responsibility, work ethic, and the importance of family were repetitively taught from a very young age. Much to his parents’ chagrin, he enrolled at Cornell University to become a large animal veterinarian or a college professor but got sidetracked with finance classes resulting in an unpaid internship with Rabobank, a Dutch multinational bank in New York City. He worked on mergers and acquisitions in South and Latin America, specifically focusing on dairy and agriculture.

A couple of years later, in a moment of brilliance and foresight, he moved to Boston and accepted a job with Arthur Andersen in their M&A technology practice as the tech bubble was bursting and Andersen was being brought down by Enron. Realizing that corporate America wasn’t the best place for an individual with an independent streak, in 2003, he co-founded Capstone Partners. From the onset, he founded, led, and developed the Education and Training practice at Capstone.

Over the next 20 years, he was instrumental in growing the firm from two to over 200 people, successfully helping lead the Company through its sale to Huntington Bank in June 2022. During his tenure at Capstone, he was nominated for over 50 M&A deal of the year awards, winning 20 of them, and being named an Emerging Leader in his early 30s and Investment Banker of the Year in 2021 at age 44. However, the entrepreneurial bug bit again, and in early 2023, he and the rest of the Education and Training practice left Huntington to found Navagant Advisors, a boutique sell-side M&A firm dedicated to the Education and Training industry.

In his limited free time, he and his husband JJ love going on nature hikes, traveling the world, becoming “master” home improvement experts, and golfing poorly. He barely tolerates a massive inter-family Boston vs. Pittsburgh sports rivalry and tries to get to Cape Cod to visit his folks as much as possible.