Seabury Group - Investment Banking & Advisory Services

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Seabury Group Announces Seven Promotions - Christopher Chaput Named Managing Director, Head of Structured Finance Group

NEW YORK, February 9, 2004 - Seabury Group today announced that it has promoted seven professionals in its investment banking/financial advisory practice.

Christopher J. Chaput was named managing director and head of the firm’s Structured Finance Group.
Kieran O’Keefe, based in Dublin, Ireland, was named senior vice president.
Brian Karpiel was named vice president.

The following were named associates:

Stephan T. Krastev
Ben Reynolds
Alex W. Williamson
Elizabeth Willkomm

“I am very pleased to recognize these individuals for their outstanding contributions to the firm through their excellent service to Seabury clients,” said John Luth, chairman, president and CEO of Seabury Holdings LLC.

Mr. Chaput joined Seabury in 2002, coming from Morgan Stanley’s Equipment Finance Group. At Seabury, he has worked on the restructuring of more than $3 billion of obligations to a major industrial financial company and also negotiated more than $2.5 billion in financing commitments for new aircraft deliveries. He previously served as managing director of Corporate Finance at Northwest Airlines, Inc. Mr. Chaput earned his B.A. from Creighton University, magna cum laude, and his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota. He is a NASD Registered Representative and is Series 7, 24 and 63 qualified.

Mr. O’Keefe joined Seabury in 2003 with responsibility for marketing Seabury’s aviation-related services in Europe. He formerly was a vice president in Morgan Stanley’s Aircraft Group and also worked at Babcock & Brown, GECAS and GPA Group plc, specializing in securitization, leasing and asset-backed financings. Since joining Seabury, he has advised on Alternative Risk Transfer (ART) transactions for two regional aircraft lessors and on the financial restructuring of a European charter carrier and a low cost airline. Mr. O’Keefe is a graduate of University College Dublin and holds a Master’s degree in finance from Cambridge University.

Mr. Karpiel joined Seabury in 2003 and has been involved with financial analysis and corporate finance advisory, as well as transaction structuring and execution. He formerly was as associate at Lehman Brothers in the Chemicals, Industrials, and Financial Institutions Groups and worked at General Electric as an operations and process engineer. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is a NASD Registered Representative and is Series 7 and 63 qualified.

Mr. Krastev joined Seabury in 2002 and formerly was with Salomon Smith Barney’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group. He holds a B.S. with a double major in finance and computer applications information systems from the University of Bridgeport. He is a NASD Registered Representative and is Series 7 qualified. Mr. Reynolds joined Seabury in 2001, coming from the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of J.P. Morgan. He holds a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.

Mr. Williamson joined Seabury in 2002 and was with Merrill Lynch’s Technology Investment Banking Group before that. He graduated from Yale University, where he double-majored in economics and political science. He is a NASD Registered Representative and is Series 7 qualified. Ms. Willkomm joined Seabury in 2002 and was with Deutsche Bank Securities in its Global Transportation Group before that. She holds a B.S. in economics from Vanderbilt University. She is a NASD Registered Representative and is Series 7 qualified.

Founded in 1995, the Seabury Group provides investment banking, financial advisory, restructuring and consulting services for business services, insurance, real estate, transportation, travel, and technology industries. Seabury currently serves as principal restructuring advisor to Air Canada in its restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), which is similar to Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

Previous engagements include successful corporate restructuring and recapitalization assignments for US Airways Group, America West Airlines, Inc., Continental Airlines, Inc., and Kitty Hawk Air Cargo; M&A and financial advisory work for such investment funds as Blackstone Capital L.P., Oaktree Capital L.P., and Texas Pacific Group L.P.; creditor assignments for such financial institutions as US Eximbank, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers; and insurance advisory work for Liberty Mutual and Fortis. Today, Seabury has arguably the largest group of investment banking and restructuring professionals in the world dedicated to the transportation sector. Recent transactions include structuring and placement in Europe of $100 million of bonds securitized by life insurance settlement policies and a private equity placement for US Airways Group.

Seabury Group principals have structured over $75 billion in debt, equity, M&A transactions and strategic affiliations. Seabury employs more than 75 professionals worldwide who have a wide variety of senior executive expertise in structured lease and debt financing structures for transportation and real estate concerns, enterprise risk assessments, insurance, technology, airline fleet and network planning, airport advisory services and IT management information systems. For more information, please see http://www.seaburygroup.com/.