Mr. Peter S. Kaufman

Peter S. Kaufman is president of Gordian Group, LLC in New York and head of its Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, and has been ranked as the number one investment banker in financial restruc- turing by The Deal. He is also a co-founder and managing partner of Bacchus Capital Management, a private-equity fund that provides strategic capital in the wine industry. Previously, Mr. Kaufman was at First Boston Corp., where he was a founding member of its Distressed Securities Group. He has a long history advising banking and insurance institution regulators, state governments and federal agencies over Gordian's more than 25 years as a firm. Gordian Group has had over 275 engagements on behalf of companies, boards of directors and shareholders (including entrepreneurs and private-equity firms). Mr. Kaufman co-authored Distressed Investment Banking: To the Abyss and Back, published in 2005 by Beard Books LLC and available through ABI's Bookstore. He is also co-author of "The Role of the Investment Banker" chapter in ABI's Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions (LexMed Publishing, 1998), which details various strategies and tactics used in distressed situations, and "Trading in the Distressed Market," Investing in Bankruptcies and Turnarounds (Harper Collins Publishers 1991). Mr. Kaufman is a founding co-chair of ABI's Investment Banking Committee and is NASD-licensed in Series 7, 24 and 63. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty/lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law on restructurings and distressed M&A, and he assists in teaching courses at Darden Business School at University of Virginia. In November 2015, Mr. Kaufman was inducted into the M&A Advisor Hall of Fame at the 14th Annual M&A Advisor Awards Gala in New York City. He received his B.A. with honors in history and art history from Yale College and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated in the top 25 percent of his class.