Breakfast Forum: The Current State of the Capital Markets 2014

Rusty Guinn – Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Salient Partners

Rusty oversees the teams responsible for Salient’s outsourced CIO relationships, multi-alternative fund of funds and systematic investment strategies. He brings a variety of perspectives, having previously served as an institutional asset allocator, private equity investor in asset management companies and as a strategic advisor to large investment institutions. Most recently, Rusty worked with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a $100 billion+ pension fund, as the head of Strategic Partnerships and Opportunistic Investments. There he was directly responsible for more than $11 billion of Trust capital and commitments across a multi-asset portfolio consisting of equity, xed income, credit, private equity, real estate, and commodity investments. Prior roles included a stint with the Asset Management Finance affiliate of Credit Suisse and with de Guardiola Advisors, an investment bank advising the asset management industry. Rusty holds a Bachelor
of Science in Economics from the Wharton School.

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 entrepreneur- 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. His industry experience includes representation of upstream, midstream and downstream energy service companies and related manufacturing and distribution companies. Cliff 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, he 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.

Paul B. Murphy, Jr. – CEO and President, Cadence Bancorp, LLC

In 2010, Cadence Bancorp raised $1.0 billion to invest in the distressed banking industry.  To date, the company has made three acquisitions bringing the combined company to $6.5 billion in assets with 100 branches across six states.  Cadence is privately held by major pension plans, university endowments and institutional investors.  Previously, Paul spent nearly 20 years at Amegy Bank of Texas as the Chief Executive Officer and a Director.  Amegy started with little more than $50 million in assets and one location in 1990 and grew to $11 billion in assets and more than 85 banking centers throughout the greater Houston, Dallas and San Antonio metropolitan areas at the time of his departure in 2009.  During his tenure, Amegy completed several successful acquisitions and sold to Zions Bancorporation for $1.7 billion in 2005 with original investors realizing 36 times their investment.  Paul is an advocate of the community. He is a board member of the Houston Endowment, Inc., the largest endowment in Texas with over $1.5 billion in assets.  In addition, he is a board member of the Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., Oceaneering International, Inc., the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas - Houston Branch, Kinkaid School, and the Children’s Museum of Houston.  He is active in both the Young Presidents and the World Presidents Organizations. Prior to joining Amegy Bank of Texas, Paul spent nine years at Allied Bank of Texas/First Interstate Bank.  Paul holds a Bachelor of Finance from Mississippi State University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.