Surviving An Out-of-Court Restructuring vs Chapter 11 Reorganization / Distressed Investing

Kim is a producer at Aon specializing in Transaction Liability Insurance. She has been in the insurance business since 1996. Prior to that she had a career at General Motors in Strategic Planning and Finance. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Detroit. She attended Wharton’s executive training courses.  

Kim is on the ACG Detroit Board of Directors, Women's Forum committee and the Program committee. She has been active on the University of Michigan Private Equity Conference Advisory Board since 2010, University of Michigan Women Who Fund Conference advisory Board since 2015, the University of Michigan Alumni Board, Greater Detroit, and is also a board member for the Jalen Rose Academy.

Richardo I. Kilpatrick is the managing partner of Kilpatrick & Associates, P.C. in Auburn Hills, Mich., and specializes in creditors' rights and insolvency law while focusing on corporate, consumer and commercial litigation and bankruptcy, real property remedies for creditors, real property transactions and general corporate counseling. He is a past president of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and has served on the Board of Directors for the American College of Bankruptcy (ACB). Mr. Kilpatrick is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Bankruptcy in March 1999 and appointed to its Board of Directors in July 2001. In October 2008, Mr. Kilpatrick was invited to be a conferee at the National Bankruptcy Conference (NBC). As a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, Mr. Kilpatrick worked with Judge Thomas Small on the NBC’s Small Business Proposal, a portion of which was incorporated into the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019. Mr. Kilpatrick also served as a member of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules from August 2011 to 2017 where he worked to directly craft, tweak, update, and change bankruptcy rules in an ongoing effort to improve the practice of bankruptcy for all involved. He is Board Certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification (ABC), and he received his B.A. in economics in 1973 from Harvard University and his J.D. in 1982 from the University of Michigan Law School.

Mr. Kilpatrick has spoken at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) and is a presenter at numerous seminars focusing on bankruptcy and collections presented by the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, faculty for the Norton Litigation Institute, PESI, ABI, NACTT, and NABT. He is an editor for Norton's Treatise on Bankruptcy and is adjunct professor at St. John’s University Law School where he teaches a course on small business bankruptcies.

Mr. Kothari draws on nearly twenty-five of experience as an investor, a financial advisor, and an entrepreneur.  Mr. Kothari is a founder and Managing Director of Cascade Partners, a private investment and investment banking firm where he assists companies with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate finance activities.  In addition, Cascade Partners makes are variety of control and non-control investment in companies in the business service, high value manufacturing, technology, and healthcare sectors.  Mr. Kothari continues to manage Seneca Health Partners, a healthcare venture capital fund that he co-founded.   Prior to forming Cascade Partners, Mr. Kothari was a co-founder of Seneca Partners, Inc., a similar investment banking and private investment firm where he completed nearly 40 transactions or investments.  

Mr. Kothari is an active member of a variety of trade and community organizations, including past service on boards of TiE Detroit, Michigan Venture Capital Association and the Great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest and former Councilperson for the Village of Wolverine Lake, Michigan and was honored as one of Crain’s Detroit Business’s 40 Under 40 honorees.  Mr. Kothari is a Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer auxiliary of the United States Air Force, in which he has served for over 35 years. He currently serves as the Commander of Michigan Wing for Civil Air Patrol. Additionally, Mr. Kothari is Professor as the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and served as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Notre Dame at the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for nearly 12 years. Mr. Kothari, a Chartered Financial Analyst, earned both a Bachelors of Arts and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.  He currently holds the Series 7, 79, 24, and 28 licenses from FINRA. 

Ed has served in various roles in commercial and asset-based lending for over 30 years. He currently runs the Asset Based Lending division of mBank.  They focus on transactions of $10M and below with a focus on manufacturing and distribution.  Assets used as collateral include accounts receivable, inventory and equipment.   Ed started the division for mBank 7 years ago as a start up operation.  Prior to that he spent over 12 years at Greenfield Commercial Credit a privately held commercial finance company based in Michigan in which he served as President the last several years until it was acquired in 2012.  Prior to that Ed spent 13 years at Michigan National Bank in several positions within the commercial lending and asset-based lending departments of the bank.   He earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Wayne State University and his master’s in finance from Walsh College.

Hon. Daniel S. Opperman is the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Bay City.  Judge Opperman was sworn in on July 13, 2006 and was reappointed in 2020.  Judge Opperman served for six years on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit and was the Chief Judge of the Panel for two years. Prior to taking the bench, he was a partner at Braun Kendrick Finkbeiner, concentrating in litigation, bankruptcy, and real estate. Judge Opperman attended Eastern Michigan University as a Presidential Scholar and graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1978 and graduated magna cum laude with a J.D. degree from Wayne State University Law School in 1981. While at Wayne State University, Judge Opperman was a member of the Wayne Law Review and served as Note and Comment Editor. Judge Opperman currently serves as a Director of the Midland Center for the Arts Board of Directors and is a Trustee of the Eastern Michigan University Foundation.