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John Bittner

Senior Managing Director
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John Bittner

John is a Senior Managing Director with over 25 years of strategic, financial and operational restructuring advisory experience. He has served as a lead restructuring advisor, interim CEO, CFO, CRO and Senior VP in representing numerous companies, creditor groups and  stakeholders facing out-of-court restructurings, Chapter 11 proceedings, disputes, operational improvement projects, and both acquisition and divestiture transactions.

John has successfully guided many clients through challenging periods of transition and change, including complex debt restructurings, business plans and plans of reorganization, liquidity and capital crises, and operational improvement initiatives. He has led turnaround and business transformation initiatives across a wide range of industries including the energy, manufacturing, construction, food and restaurant, retail, distribution, industrial products, agriculture, and consumer products sectors.

John has advised numerous companies and stakeholders in significant out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 proceedings, including Enron Corporation, Metals USA, Texas Petrochemicals, Kaiser Gypsum Company, Parallel Energy Trust, Paul Reinhart Inc. and Idearc/Supermedia.

John served as CRO during the Chapter 11 proceeding of Deep Marine Technology, a privately-held Houston based provider of subsea services to the offshore oil and gas industry. In this role, John was responsible for determining and executing the restructuring strategy for the case, ultimately leading to a successful plan sale of the Company’s assets. As a result of such transaction, secured creditors were paid in full and unsecured creditors received a distribution in excess of 80 percent of their allowed claims.

Serving as a restructuring advisor to Seitel, a publicly-traded provider of seismic data services, John assisted the company in successfully managing through a debt default and a liquidity crisis. With his assistance, the Company was able to quickly increase its liquidity position and was also able to improve its operating results. The company ultimately restructured its debt through a Chapter 11 proceeding, with creditors receiving payment of their claims in full.

John also served as restructuring advisor to Paul Reinhart, Inc. during its Chapter 11 proceeding. In this role, he assisted the Company in obtaining adequate funding for the bankruptcy and advised on negotiations that ultimately led to a consensual plan of reorganization.

As financial advisor to the unsecured creditors committee of TXCO Resources during its Chapter 11 case, John assisted the committee and committee counsel in assessing alternatives and negotiating a favorable plan resolution which led to a full recovery for unsecured creditors.

John has also helped deliver value for many retail and consumer oriented stakeholders – including serving as financial advisor to the secured lender of a 300-location retailer of domestics and home furnishings – where he assessed long-term financial projections, cash flow forecasts, analyzed going concern valuation and liquidation valuation scenarios, assessed restructuring plans, and advised lenders on various optimal recovery scenarios.

John also served as CFO and helped guide AppleTree Markets, Inc., a mid-sized Houston-based supermarket chain, out of Chapter 11. In addition to providing leadership for all financial operations, accounting, treasury, risk management and IT processes, John was integral to the senior management team that developed and implemented strategic and operational plans that helped increase equity value by over 40% in eighteen months after emerging from Chapter 11.

John has considerable risk mitigation and litigation support experience and has provided strategic and financial advisory to companies on key valuation issues, forensic accounting matters, and litigation disputes, for which he has also served as a neutral arbitrator. John also has experience in forensic accounting and litigation support. On the InverWorld engagement, he served as an advisor to the receivers/liquidators in efforts to identify and recover concealed assets of the estate as well as in developing causes of action against third parties. These efforts led to identifying the actual underlying assets as well as supplementing the estate’s assets through recoveries from third parties.

Prior to Accordion, John served as a senior executive for several leading consulting practices, most recently serving as a Partner in the Business Recovery Services practice of PwC and as a Partner in the Corporate Advisory and Restructuring Services practice of Grant Thornton LLP.

John is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, Turnaround Management Association, and the American Bankruptcy Institute (Advisory Board Member for ABI Southwest Conference).

John earned an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and a B.B.A. in Business Administration from Texas A&M University. He is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in Texas, a Certified Insolvency & Restructuring Advisor (AIRA) and a Certified Turnaround Professional (TMA).