Debt Market Update: Liquidity, Optimism, and the Rise of Resilience
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Frank H. “Bo” Briggs, Croft & Bender Mr. Briggs’ investment banking practice is focused on merger & acquisition and private debt and equity advisory services. Since joining Croft & Bender in 1998, he has completed numerous M&A and private capital transactions for middle market companies. Mr. Briggs’ primary banking focus is on the industrial, business service industries, and consumer, and his clients include private equity funds, public and private companies and family-owned businesses. As a member of the General Partner of C&B Capital, the private equity affiliate of Croft & Bender, Mr. Briggs also has experience on the principal investing side of the business, including serving on the board or as a board observer for multiple C&B Capital portfolio companies. Prior to joining Croft & Bender, Mr. Briggs worked in the corporate banking division of SunTrust Banks, Inc. and at the Breckenridge Group, Inc., an Atlanta-based M&A boutique. Mr. Briggs received a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance from the University of Virginia.
Hazen Dempster, Troutman Pepper Hazen Dempster has more than 30 years’ experience in structuring, negotiating and closing corporate financing transactions in a broad range of matters, including asset-based financings and multinational syndicated financings. Hazen’s finance experience includes asset-based loans, factoring facilities, crossborder financing, loan restructurings and workouts, debtor-in-possession loans, mezzanine loans, syndicated loans, and term and revolving loans, among others. He has represented banks and other financial institutions, as well as borrowers and issuers across diverse industries, including energy and natural gas, manufacturing, paper, telecommunications, restaurant and food, retail, and media. His lender representations focus on asset-based lending while his borrower representations focus on broadly syndicated revolving credit and term loans. His understanding of financings from both the lender and borrower perspectives enables him to find practical solutions to issues that result in favorable outcomes for all parties to the transaction. Hazen received his B.A and Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia.
Reese Henson, Cadence Bank Reese Henson is a Senior Vice president with Cadence Bank. He has 10 years of banking experience, the majority of which have been spent working with companies in the lower middle market. His primary focus at Cadence Bank is provide working capital and/or growth capital to companies with $50-500 million in revenue in a variety of industries. Reese has extensive experience with private equity sponsored transactions, cash flow lending, and acquisition financing.
Kenneth Saffold, Blackrock Kenneth Saffold is a Director and South Region Head of the U.S. Private Capital Group at BlackRock, the largest institutional asset management firm in the United States. In this role Kenneth provides private equity and debt to middle-market companies for M&A transactions throughout the region. He was part of the team at Tennenbaum Capital Partners that sold to BlackRock in 2018. Prior to his current role Kenneth spent 8 years as a Senior Vice President at GE Capital and prior to that worked in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup where he started his career. Kenneth currently serves as a Member of the Atlanta Zoo Council and serves on the Board of Directors for Northside Youth Organization (NYO). He has formerly served on the Emory Board of Visitors (Chair) and a Member of Leadership Atlanta. Kenneth is a frequent speaker and panelists for various finance organizations including the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Health South Connect, and Capital Roundtable of New York. Kenneth received his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from Morehouse College. Kenneth lives in Atlanta with his wife Akilah and two kids, Kenneth (KJ) and Eva, age 10 and 6.
Moderator: Mary Beth Coke, Truist Securities Mary Beth Coke is the head of the Commercial Community Bank Syndicated & Leveraged Finance (SLF) Team. Mary Beth joined Truist Securities in 2004 and was most recently a Director in AFES where she focused on underwriting leveraged finance transactions for healthcare clients. Prior to joining AFES, Mary Beth was in Portfolio Management, and she also worked with the predecessor team to AFES which supported middle market, sponsor-backed companies and covered multiple industries including Consumer Retail, Financial Services, Post-Secondary Education, Transportation and Business Services. She brings 16 years of deep experience in credit analysis, along with existing knowledge of the leveraged finance market. Mary Beth is a Georgia Tech graduate where she received a B.S. in Management with a concentration in International Affairs. As a Georgia native, Mary Beth likes being active, playing guitar and spending time on two wheels when she’s not enjoying time with her family.
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