The current financial crisis has created a wealth of opportunities, as well as significant pitfalls, for banking institutions. With the Federal Reserve recently granting unprecedented access to the discount window, many are asking whether they have become the overseer of the financial system. Uncertainty in these challenging times has altered the regulatory and legal climate for insured financial institutions, and increased instability and risk in real estate investments. What regulatory issues are banking institutions facing in the midst of the current economy? How will troubled assets be handled in the days and months to come? What are the best practices for managing litigation support services?

Please join The Deal and Alvarez & Marsal for this complimentary event.

Date: Thursday, October 30, 2008
Time: 2 P.M. (EST) / 11 A.M. (PST)
Location: Your desk

Click Here to Register!

Explore how to successfully navigate the challenges affecting financial institutions as industry experts provide insight on topics such as:

• Overview of the current regulatory environment
• Developing and implementing a successful regulatory strategy
• Managing the examination process and outcomes
• Valuation challenges: mark to market issues
• Managing troubled assets to maximize recovery: loans and REO
• Considerations: issues surrounding the litigation decision

Ken Burd
Managing Director
Alvarez & Marsal

Ken Burd is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services in Dallas. With more than 26 years of experience as a real estate and financial professional, Mr. Burd focuses on real estate asset strategies in restructuring environments.

Mr. Burd's real estate and business experience and expertise includes management and leadership; financial analysis; market and feasibility analysis; valuation; risk assessment; transaction due diligence and support; asset management and portfolio strategy; capital structure analysis; non-performing loan analysis, evaluation and pricing; loan underwriting, servicing and workouts; and real estate and mortgage-backed securitization. He has served in senior management positions in the U.S. and throughout Asia, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and China.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Burd was Head of Asset Management, Asia with Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners in Hong Kong. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Consultant with Capital Services Group, Lehman's special, primary and master servicer throughout Asia. Before that, he was a Managing Director and Leader of the North Asia Real Estate Advisory Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He began his career as one of three principals in a Denver-based real estate valuation and consulting firm in the early 1980s. The firm later merged with Laventhol & Horwath, where Mr. Burd served as a partner and led the Denver region real estate valuation practice until he started his own firm in 1988.

Samuel P. Golden
Managing Director
Alvarez & Marsal

Samuel P. Golden, a Managing Director based in Houston, serves as head of Alvarez & Marsal Financial Industry Advisory Services. With nearly 34 years of executive leadership experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Golden focuses on guiding financial institutions through complex and challenging economic periods.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Golden served with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the regulator and administrator of the National Banking Industry, in a variety of leadership roles, including the Ombudsman and Senior Deputy Comptroller, Member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Audit Subcommittee. As OCC's first Ombudsman, he pioneered and provided leadership of OCC's National Bank Appeals process, and essentially served as a binding arbitrator for examination conclusions that were appealed or challenged. He also established and headed OCC's Customer Assistance Group, which provides assistance to thousands of bank customers on questions and complaints against national banks.

Mr. Golden earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, with concentrations in banking and finance, from the University of North Texas. He earned a certificate from the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University (LSU). Mr. Golden has been a frequent speaker on banking, bank supervision and regulatory issues at industry conferences, trade associations meetings and outreach sessions.

Richard K. Hollowell
Managing Director
Alvarez & Marsal

Richard K. Hollowell is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services in Los Angeles. Mr. Hollowell, who brings more than 35 years of experience, is nationally known for evaluating, managing and disposing of underperforming real estate assets. His range of experience includes portfolio asset management, real estate development, capital formation, loan workouts, receiverships, and real estate-related expert testimony.

Mr. Hollowell has worked with an extensive client base, including land developers, homebuilders, commercial property investors, banks, investment banks, law firms and federal regulators. He brings expertise in various property types such as single family homes, condominiums, commercial office buildings, shopping centers and industrial complexes.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Hollowell has represented and served as an adviser to pension funds, financial institutions, developers, owners and debtors in distressed real estate situations. Some of his notable recent assignments include advising one of America's largest pension funds on the performance and integrity of their real estate related investments; directing several restructuring assignments involving troubled condominium, single family residential, hotel condominium, and land development projects; and, participating in the process of establishing loan loss reserves for an $8 billion underperforming construction loan portfolio held by an FDIC insured bank.

Randy Lemer
Managing Director
Alvarez & Marsal

Randy Lemer, a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Dispute Analysis & Forensic Services, specializes in dispute resolution, including mediations, arbitrations and litigation. His primary focus is valuations and lost profits calculations. He has also served as an arbitrator on multiple occasions.  

With more than 20 years of experience in providing auditing, consulting and litigation services, Mr. Lemer has advised clients on numerous disputes. Recent assignments include valuation of forward contracts and analysis of trading operations, breach of contract damage estimates, calculation of royalty underpayments, calculation of working interest overcharges, franchise fee audits, and joint venture audits. He has also valued service stations, underground salt domes, gas plant and gathering systems, and cogeneration plants. Mr. Lemer has extensive experience in environmental liability calculations, including superfund site analysis, OPA claims and PRP issues. Additionally, he has consulted with clients regarding SOP 96-1 accounting requirements. Representative clients include Chevron, Texaco, BP, Shell, Dynegy, El Paso Energy and Reliant Energy.  

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Lemer spent more than 10 years in Houston with the Financial Advisory Services Groups of two Big Four firms. Prior to that, he was with the Internal Audit groups of Fortune 100 companies.  

Mr. Lemer earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, with a concentration in accounting, from the University of Texas at Austin and a juris doctor from South Texas College of Law. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a licensed attorney. He is a member of the Texas Society of CPAs, Texas Bar Association, and Houston Bar Association.