Mr. Geoffrey L. Berman

Geoffrey L. Berman is a senior managing director with Development Specialists, Inc. in LosAngeles, which he joined in 1997. He served as ABI?s president from April 2011 to April 2012and previously served as ABI?s Vice President-Publications, with oversight of the ABI Journal and other publication projects and a member of ABI?s Executive and Management Committees. Mr.Berman chaired the Task Force on General Assignments and wrote the ABI manual on general assignments, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors: The ABCs of ABCs, which is now in its fifth edition. In Addition, he authored an article published in the ABI Law Review. Mr. Berman brings over 40 years experience in the extension of secured and unsecured credit and the liquidation of numerous businesses. He has expertise in all types of insolvency case administrations with a specialty in the area of general assignments for the benefit of creditors (in various businesses and industries including wholesale seafood, retail auto parts, various manufacturing concerns, wholesale nursery operations and high-tech companies), and liquidating and creditor trusts under chapter 11plans of reorganization. Mr. Berman is a certified mediator and serves on the Bankruptcy MediationPanel for the Central District of California, as well as the Register of Mediators for the District ofDelaware, and he has served as a Federal Court Receiver. He served as trustee of the USACM Liquidating Trust, the post-confirmation estate for USA Commercial Mortgage in Las Vegas. He also served as the post-confirmation trustee for the Syntax Brillian Corp. Liquidation and Lender Trusts, as established by the confirmed plan in these District of Delaware cases. Mr. Berman has previous experience with Union Bank (of California) and Mitsui Manufacturers Bank. Prior to joining DSI,Mr. Berman was with Credit Managers Association of California for 11 years, where he was the manager of its Adjustment Bureau and a member of the Association?s senior management. He is a member of the Los Angeles, Orange County and Bay Area Bankruptcy Forums and the Association of Insolvency Accountants, and is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy and insolvency subjects. Mr.Berman received his B.B.A. with honors from the University of the Pacific in 1975 with a degree in business administration (accounting and finance) and his J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.