Breakfast Forum: The Current State of the Capital Markets 2012

Michael Ellington, Senior Managing Director
Bernstein

Michael is the Senior Managing Director in the Texas region of Bernstein’s private client practice. He joined the firm in 1998 as a financial advisor in the Dallas office, and in 2000 he began servicing the Houston area remotely. Michael opened the Houston office in 2002 and was appointed its Managing Director. He was named a Senior Vice President in 2008 and Senior Managing Director in 2010. Prior to joining Bernstein, Michael was a partner at Wilson Ellington Capital Management, Inc., a hedge fund manager in Chicago specializing in interest rate derivatives. During this time he was also a professional floor trader in the Euro Dollar pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Michael holds a BBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Cliff Atherton, PhD, CFA, Managing Director
GulfStar Group

Cliff is an investment banker with more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance and more than 30 years of experience in teaching finance at the graduate level. He joined GulfStar in 1995 and since that time has completed numerous corporate finance assignments for business owners. Most of Cliff's clients are entrepreneurs - and family-owned businesses with enterprise values between $25 and $250 million.  His transaction experience is split evenly between sales to strategic buyers and recapitalizations with private equity firms. Cliff's industry experience includes representation of upstream, midstream and downstream energy service companies and related manufacturing and distribution companies. He has served full-time and part-time on the faculty of Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business since 1980 (full-time from 1980 to 1987), where he currently serves as a Professor in the Practice of Entrepreneurship.  Prior to joining GulfStar, Cliff was Managing Director of McKenna & Company (1992 to 1995), the president of Emprise Consulting Group, Inc. (1990 to 1992), and an independent consultant (1978 to 1990).  He was also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Houston from 1993 to 1997. Cliff earned a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University and PhD and MBA degrees from The University of Texas. He also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

John Fenoglio, Executive Vice President 
Jones Lang LaSalle

John joined CBRE Capital Markets of Texas as an executive vice president in March 2012.  Prior to joining CBRE, he served as senior vice president/office manager and member of the board of managers of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital LLC. Grandbridge acquired Live Oak Capital, Ltd., in December of 2008, where John. served as a principal and owner. Prior to forming Live Oak Capital, John co-founded Holliday Fenoglio in 1982 and continued as CEO of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler until his retirement from the firm in June, 1998. Under his direction, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler became the largest commercial mortgage banking firm in the United States with 25 offices nationwide. John has also served as vice president and co-manager of the commercial real estate department of First Mortgage of Texas where he was responsible for the production of mortgage loans, joint ventures and investment sales and maintained client relations with 50 institutional investors.  Prior to his association with First Mortgage, John was an assistant vice president in the real estate investment and mortgage lending department of American General Insurance Company (now AIG).  John holds an MBA from Texas Christian University and a BA in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a licensed real estate broker.

Hank Holmes, Executive Vice President & President, Texas Region
Cadence Bank

Hank joined Cadence Bancorp, LLC in 2010 as an Executive Vice President.  He is currently responsible for managing the Business Services Group across the organization. The group spans from Texas to Florida and encompasses commercial middle market lending, business banking, and specialty lending. Additionally, Hank sits on multiple executive management committees such as Senior Loan Committee and the Asset Liability Committee.

Hank started his career in the officer development/credit training program at Amegy Bank of Texas (formerly Southwest Bank of Texas) in 1993. Upon completion of the program, he joined the commercial real estate department and spent the next seven years as a relationship manager where he closed over $750 million in loans, and serviced one of the largest portfolios in the bank. From 2003 to 2009, Hank served as manager of the private banking department growing the department from $400 to $800 million in total loans, successfully navigated significant regulatory changes, and outperformed industry standards with minimal loan loss and high levels of profitability.  While at Amegy, Hank was a member of the Executive Management Committee, the Asset Liability Committee, Senior Loan Committee, Commercial Loan Committee, Pricing Committee, BSA/AML Committee, and he chaired the Credit Transition Committee.  Hank received a BBA in Managerial Finance from the University of Mississippi.