Kenneth
Funsten has over 20 years of experience with restructuring, recapitalizing and turning around companies in distress. Ken gained his broad financial and management expertise with The Foothill Group, Trust Company of the
West, Security Pacific Investment Managers, Wedbush Morgan Securities,
Financial Management Advisors and Wertheim Schroder Investment Services, before forming Funsten Asset Management Company (FamCo) in 1993. FamCo's advisory business specializes in helping companies become profitable again -- in consulting, interim turnaround management, business workouts and restructurings. FamCo Capital and its partners continue to invest in and finance recoveries of all types.
Ken
practices a hands-on approach, accepting appointments as the chairman or a member of corporate boards, as well as serving on official
and unofficial creditors' committees. His past assignments have included
Buffalo Color Corporation (where he was Chapter 11 CEO), New Millennium Homes, American Rice, Capital
Gaming and CalFed and many others. He has appeared before the U.S. Dept of
Commerce, the International Trade Commission, the U.S. Office of Thrift
Supervision, and various federal bankruptcy courts on behalf of his
clients and investments.
Ken
received his MBA in 1988 in Finance and Real Estate Investment from the University of Southern California's Marshall
School of Business. He has held the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
designation since 1990, and is a member of the CFA Institute, the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) and the California Receivers
Forum.
Paul's extensive
consulting experience includes Manager at Deloitte & Touche, as well as
manufacturing consulting experience with capital equipment, medical
devices, electronic, aerospace & defense in a wide variety of
operational scales from small/mid-sized companies to large corporations. He
has also led numerous ERP implementation projects.
Paul received his
MBA from CaliforniaStateUniversity,
Northridge, and his BA in biology from the University
of Texas, Austin. He is the author
of "Production & Inventory Management in the Technological
Age" originally published by Prentice-Hall, as well as dozens of
papers and articles. His work style has been described as
"non-stop."
Bill Pavony, CPA
Bill Pavony has
over 40 years of experience. He began his career with 13 years at a “Big 8”
accounting firm in New York City (known today as Accenture), primarily
engaged in business/financial systems consulting in a broad range of
companies and industries with a focus on manufacturing cost accounting
systems and hospital industry cost finding.
Bill subsequently
held corporate financial and administrative officer positions (generally as
Chief Financial and Administrative Officer) over 16 years with 5 different
publicly and privately held corporations with revenues ranging from $175
million to in excess of $1 billion, in retail and manufacturing businesses
as diverse as Zale Corporation (jewelry retail and manufacturing), Color
Tile (retail, manufacturing and franchising), The Kobacker Company (retail
shoe chain), Alexanders Department Stores (regional retail) and Purolator
(auto parts manufacturing, courier and armored car services). During this
period Bill accomplished over $400 million in financings for his companies,
made numerous SEC filings and upgraded and modernized the systems in all
his companies.
Bill has held
personal responsibility for direction of the controllership, information
systems, human resources, treasury, tax, retail credit, insurance and risk
management, warehousing and distribution, real estate and legal functions
at various times in his corporate management career. Bill received his BA
in Accounting from HofstraUniversity.
Marc Serrio
Marc Serrio has over 28 years of senior corporate
finance and operations management experience. He is a specialist in
business planning and analysis, cash management, mergers and acquisitions,
and accounting operations, with significant experience in debt and equity
financing.
Marc served as CFO/COO at Kate Somerville Holdings,
Detection Logic, and TriTech Software Systems. He previously served as EVP
Finance at El Torito restaurants and Controller for Disney Sports
Enterprises. Marc earned both his MBA and BS degrees in Finance from the
University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
Toly Novik
Toly Novik has over 17 years of experience managing companies in consumer goods, industrial manufacturing and distribution industries. Additionally, over the last four years he has successfully completed two operational turnarounds for a reverse logistics company and a private equity-owned manufacturing company. Toly gained broad operational, consulting and IT experience with PriceWaterhouse LLP, Avnet, SAP AG, and Bertelsmann AG. At Bertelsmann AG (a global conglomerate), he was responsible for operational performance and profitability improvements across multiple businesses in North America totaling $1 billion in revenue.
Over the last two years, Toly was actively engaged with Penta Investments, a private equity company focusing on Eastern Europe and Russia, particularly in the area of acquisitions and reorganizing large retail chains. Toly has an MBA in Marketing and Operations from California State University, Long Beach, and a BS in Material Science from Polytechnic Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia (magna cum laude). He holds a number of professional certifications including major enterprise resource planning systems SAP and American Production and Inventory Control Society.
Benjamin Cole is a graduate of the University of California
at Berkeley and of the Lyndon B. Johnson
School of Public Affairs at the University
of Texas at Austin. A financial journalist with more
than two decades of experience, Benjamin has published two books, "The
Pied Pipers of Wall Street: How Analysts Sell You Down the River"
(Bloomberg Press, 2001) and "The New Investor Relations: Expert
Perspectives on the State of the Art" (Bloomberg Press, 2003).
Benjamin has testified before the U.S.
Congress House Committee on Banking on the conflicts of interest faced by
brokerage analysts. He has been a staff reporter for U.S. News &
World Report, Investor's Business Daily, and The Los Angeles
Business Journal.
FamCo Advisory's Special Operations Team
(All members of the ProVisors' Distributors & Manufacturers Group: "Collaborating for Excellence")
Lisa Anderson strives to accelerate cash flow through operational improvement. She has expertise in the areas of process control, mergers & acquisitions and project management. Using a pragmatic, results-driven approach partnering with executive, supply chain and operations teams, she has delivered bottom-line business improvements to clients ranging in size from start-ups to Coca-Cola Enterprises. Lisa has been awarded Board Approval in Supply Chain Strategy by the Society for Advancement of Consulting and she serves as an Advisory Board Member for Advanced Topics in Supply Chain Management at California State University Fullerton.
Brian Lorber specializes in reducing middle-market companies' operating expenses. He has experience in manufacturing, distribution, health care, construction, banking, legal and accounting industries. He is able to target freight costs, property and casualty insurance, workers’ comp, packaging, telecommunications costs, merchant card processing, office supplies, print services, temporary labor, waste management, janitorial contracts, leased equipment, lab supplies, payroll, document storage and fleet management, to achieve reductions in costs and improvements in the bottom line.
Bob Michlin, a systems consultant, specializes in software-based solutions for operational control, accounting and management reporting. Bob concentrates on distribution and manufacturing companies that want to streamline, upgrade, automate, or integrate management systems and business processes. Companies seeking more practical, cost-effective software to achieve competitive advantage are prime candidates for Bob’s expertise.
Lynda Roth’s Information Technology (IT) know-how is of value to companies large and small. She provides IT Assessments, IT strategies, IT due diligence and IT transition plans. She takes an integrated approach, assuring that business process, technology and financial systems all effectively and synergistically serve a client's goals. Her work is especially critical when a company is experiencing an ownership or other significant transition.
Bruce Winston helps mid-sized distribution companies avoid costly mistakes in the import/export process by analyzing and advising on all stages of operations, including overall planning and assessment, sourcing, production process, quality control and logistics. Typical companies for Bruce are importers, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers with annual sales of $3 million and above.
