Professionals

John E. Luth

Chairman, President and CEO

John Luth is the founding partner and chief executive of the Seabury Group. Mr. Luth leads major aviation and aerospace advisory assignments, and has advised on over $50 billion of new aircraft orders, over $30 billion of debt and equity capital transactions, and led airline restructurings involving over $50 billion of obligations.

Most recently, Mr. Luth led an out-of-court restructuring for Republic Airways’ regional jet subsidiary, Chautauqua Airlines (2012), and Frontier Airlines (2011), assisted a major Middle East carrier with respect to NewGen widebody orders (2011), and completed a highly successful NewGen widebody aircraft campaign for Cathay Pacific Airways (in 2010), the later resulting in Cathay ordering 30 firm A350s and six firm 777s. Mr. Luth led similar efforts for Air Canada leading to an order of 60 firm and option 787s and 18/18 firm/option 777s and assisted US Airways on renegotiating billions of new aircraft orders (2010). In 2009, Mr. Luth led capital raises for Air Canada ($1.0 billion) that was coupled with a $500 million annual cost reduction program organized and directed by Seabury, and raised $1.1 billion that year for US Airways Group Inc. in the midst of a global credit crisis. Mr. Luth also completed in 2009 successful M&A assignments for two smaller US carriers. He led the Northwest Airlines’ financial restructuring (2005-2007), including securing $750 million of new equity, $1.2 billion of exit debt financing and restructuring of over $10 billion of debt and lease obligations.

Michael B. Cox

Vice Chairman, Seabury Group

Mike Cox joined the Seabury Group as a partner in April 1998. He has over 25 years of airline and aviation-related experience. At Seabury, Mr. Cox has advised numerous airline clients on a variety of projects, including airline treasury, corporate finance, and airline restructuring. Recent engagements have included leading the Seabury team in successfully restructuring the aircraft debt/lease restructuring efforts for the successful reorganization efforts at US Airways, Air Canada and Northwest Airlines. Mr. Cox led the successful out-of-court restructuring of South African Airways resulting in a profitable fiscal year ending March 31, 2008 after losing over 1 billion ZAR the year before. Mr. Cox also advised Frontier Airlines in its Chapter 11 reorganization efforts.

Martin R. Kuehne

Chief Operating Officer, Seabury Group

Martin R. Kuehne joined Seabury Group in 2008 as Managing Director, Human Capital and became the Chief Operating Officer for Seabury Group in 2011. Mr. Kuehne has extensive expertise in maximizing the potential of people, business processes and Human Resource programs to produce superior business results. With over 25 years of experience in a variety of human capital fields.

David Turnbull

Chairman of Seabury Asia

David Turnbull joined Seabury Aviation & Aerospace as Chairman of Seabury Asia in November 2008. Mr. Turnbull has been Chairman of Pacific Basin Shipping Limited since January 2008 and became Executive Chairman in July 2008. He was with the Swire Group for 30 years, where he was the immediate past Chairman of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Swire Pacific Ltd. and Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd.

John R. Kuehne

Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director, Seabury Group

John R. Kuehne joined Seabury group as a Managing Principal, specializing in Workforce Analytics in 2008 and added the additional duties of CFO for the Seabury group in 2009. Mr. Kuehne’s analytical background provides meaningful financial metrics that identify the key leverage points necessary to improve the time and precision of the business decision making process. He has extensive expertise in understanding corporate labor cost and business structures.

Bijoy Mechery

Senior Managing Director, Head of Solutions

Bijoy Mechery joined the Seabury Group in January 2002 as a Managing Director as well as Chief Executive Officer of Seabury’s IT software consulting and development firm, Seabury Enterprise Solutions, LLC (SES). SES provides comprehensive IT consulting services to Seabury’s aviation and private equity clients including vendor selection, IT spend analysis and improvement and IT due diligence. SES has also developed a suite of proprietary, cross industry, decision support and analysis applications including what Seabury believes to be the most robust and comprehensive airline enterprise assessment software (Seabury’s Airline Performance Analysis System, or “APAS”).

David Spurlock

Managing Director, Global Head of Consulting

David Spurlock is a Managing Director and Global Head of the Seabury Consulting division. Mr. Spurlock has 10 years of experience in airline senior executive positions. His experience spans corporate strategy and commercial activities with emphasis on fleet, network and revenue management.

Mr. Spurlock's most recent assignment has been leading the Seabury team advising a large North American network carrier on its competitive tender for a large order of new widebody and narrowbody aircraft.

James F. Bohlman

Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Advisory, Aviation Investment Banking & Restructuring, Co-Head of Americas Consulting

Jim Bohlman joined Seabury in 2011 as Managing Director. He is responsible for the firm’s Corporate Advisory division, Aviation Investment Banking & Restructuring practice and Consulting activities in the Americas. He brings over 20 years of management consulting and investment banking experience in a variety of industries, with a focus on aviation, aerospace and defense. He has restructured transactions exceeding US$7billion in aviation and A&D-related matters and has led numerous Aviation-related capital raise mandates. Additionally, he has led virtually every aspect of turnaround and performance improvement efforts for clients, and has advised sell-side and buy-side M&A clients on deal structuring, target assessment and post-acquisition matters for significant transactions in the aviation, aircraft leasing and A&D sectors.

Jonathan Sullivan

Managing Director, Head of Europe and Middle East Consulting

Jonathan Sullivan leads Seabury Consulting’s efforts in Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Sullivan joined Seabury in 2002 and while at Seabury Mr. Sullivan has worked on a wide range of issues at airline clients around the world. Since joining Seabury he has participated in several successful airline turn-arounds, as well as a host of consulting engagements covering strategic reviews, commercial performance boosts, cost reduction mandates, mergers & acquisitions advisory, due diligence screenings, aircraft purchase (re)-negotiations, strategic sourcing negotiations, financial advisory, and program office management.

Myles Goeller

Managing Director, Head of Asia-Pacific Consulting

Myles Goeller is a Managing Director and the head of Seabury’s Asia-Pacific consulting practice. Mr. Goeller has 15 years of strategy consulting experience, with over 10 years focused on the aviation and broader transportation industries. He has worked with a wide range of global airlines, MROs, governments and other aviation industry participants on strategic, commercial and operational projects. Mr. Goeller has worked exclusively with airlines and other aviation participants in the Asia-Pacific region for the past 7 years, including leading network and low-cost carriers.

Lorie R. Beers

Managing Director, Co-head of Global Restructuring and Investment Banking

Lorie R. Beers joined Seabury Group in October 2009 as Managing Director, Investment Banking and Restructuring, with responsibility for Seabury’s middle market and aerospace investment banking practice. While at Seabury, she has been involved in numerous buy- and sell- side M&A engagements, private placements of debt and equity and balance sheet recapitalizations across many industry segments, especially aerospace.

Michael Lypka

Managing Director

Michael Lypka recently joined the Seabury Group with over 20 years of airline financing experience. Previously a partner at Babcock & Brown, he has advised numerous airline, leasing company and aerospace manufacturers on a range of transactions including leveraged leases, securitizations, sale-leasebacks and debt restructurings. His clients included Singapore Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Airbus and Cathay Pacific.

Margaret L. Chan

Managing Director and Head of Specialists Funds and Financial Solutions

Margaret Chan joined Seabury in December 2001 as head of Seabury’s office in Los Angeles and is responsible for overseeing the day to day operations of the firm’s Structured Financial products, Specialty Finance and Financial Solutions. Ms. Chan has more than 20 years of experience in diverse public and private transactions. As a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch, and co-founder of Cargill/O'Brien Partners, Ms. Chan structured a wide range of transactions involving innovative financing strategies.

Greg Durst

Executive Director

Greg Durst joined Seabury in October 2011 as Executive Director to deepen the firm’s client relationships in aviation and related sectors and to grow capacity from a human capital perspective.

Mr. Durst has over 20 years of professional experience which includes strategy consulting, private equity investment, general management, corporate finance and entrepreneurship development. Mr. Durst has worked in a broad range of industries, including airlines, energy mining and minerals, technology and financial services.

Gert-Jan Jansen

Executive Director

Mr. Jansen has more than 17 years of experience in the air cargo industry and is currently head of Seabury’s Cargo Advisory practice. He has a proven ability to support clients in achieving change and performance boosts in dozens of projects across the globe. His expertise includes fleet and network strategy, commercial strategy, revenue management, sales & marketing. He is co-founder of WorldACD, a leading data provider to the air cargo business. He was partner of a management consulting firm that specialized in change management and reorganizations, in particular in the air cargo industry. He started his career with KLM Cargo Revenue Management and Network Optimization. He is educated as an M.Sc. in Operations Research & Statistics.

Joshua Howe

Executive Director

Josh rejoined Seabury in 2008. He has extensive expertise integrating business processes and Human Resources to produce exceptional results. For the last 10 years he has worked in a variety of human capital fields, including multinational financial turnarounds, merger and acquisition integration, restructurings and bankruptcy. He has worked as an executive in airport retail and his management consulting experience includes work a wide variety of privately held and publicly traded organizations in industry sectors including transportation, financial services, gaming, and retail.

Frank Martin

Executive Director

Frank Martin is a Principal at Seabury Group. He joined the firm in October 2006 from SR Technics Group in Switzerland where he held the position as Vice President of Marketing. He has more than 10 years of experience within the aviation industry, primarily in asset management, business development, sales and marketing with Airbus, Lufthansa, Iberia and SR Technics.

Michael D. Mason

Executive Director & Co-Head Airline Corporate Advisory

Michael Mason joined the Seabury Group LLC as a vice president in May 2000. He has more than 15 years of airline and aviation-related experience. At Seabury, Mr. Mason has advised numerous airline clients on a variety of projects, including treasury, cash management, working capital management, cash forecasting and balance sheet restructuring. Mr. Mason has served in various interim financial executive roles in support of the client's restructuring.

Ginger Hughes

Executive Director & Co-Head Airline Corporate Advisory

Ginger Hughes has over 20 years of global airline experience covering a wide range of matters including multiple successful airline restructurings, crisis cash management, due diligence, strategic sourcing negotiations, cost reduction programs and mergers & acquisitions advisory. She has a senior role in liquidity management, vendor negotiation and restructuring issues.

Kenneth A. Raff

Executive Director

Kenneth Raff joined the Seabury Group in May 2001. He has a senior role for client fleet evaluation, planning and aircraft analysis, performance and selection. He also has a senior role in managing new aircraft acquisition campaigns, negotiating fleet-wide power plant and component management agreements, aircraft and engine financing transactions.

A. Ross McKenzie

Executive Director

Ross McKenzie rejoined Seabury in July 2006, having previously worked at Seabury as an analyst and associate at the start of his career. Mr. McKenzie has 15 years of experience in airline business planning, financial modeling, aircraft acquisition analysis, and financial restructurings. At Seabury, he has assisted with or led the financial analysis for a variety of assignments, including corporate advisory projects, due diligence reviews, financial restructurings, and business plan development.

Kathy Bonneville

Senior Vice President

Kathy is an Executive Director in Seabury Compensation practice and the in-house expert on executive compensation. Kathy has extensive expertise in the design and implementation of base, annual incentive and equity-based compensation programs, sales incentive programs, supplemental executive benefit programs, executive employment/change in control agreements, and board of directors compensation. Kathy also has expertise in international and expatriate compensation.

Claude-Henri Hereus

Director, Investment Banking

Claude-Henri Hereus joined Seabury in April 2008 after 17+ years with Airbus (Toulouse, France) and EADS (Munich, Germany).

With Seabury, he led several project including buy-side and sell-side engagements, Support to Governments in their A&D development effort, clients support in capital raises, expertise support in litigations, expertise consulting support to clients related to strategic initiatives in the fields of diversification, enhanced airline support, buy-side related due diligences.

Mr. Hereus joined the Aerospace and Defense industry in early 1990 with Aerospatiale, France and held several positions in Finance, Controlling and, since 1994, Procurement at Aerospatiale Headquarters, Airbus and EADS. In his last position with Airbus he was VP in charge of Procurement overall strategy and Supply Chain monitoring.

Mr. Hereus is a French national. He graduated from HEC, Paris in 1981 with a specialty in Corporate Finance.

Brian Karpiel

Director of Aerospace Investment Banking

Brian Karpiel recently re-joined the Seabury Group in 2012 as Director of Aerospace Investment Banking. He brings over 12 years of investment banking experience, having led or participated in over 90 advisory assignments, including consulting, in-court restructuring and investment banking transactions valued at over US$4 billion. During his investment banking career Mr. Karpiel has covered the A&D sector with Lehman Brothers, at CIT/Edgeview Partners and with Janes Capital Partners. His previous aviation clients while at Seabury include Air Canada, Qantas, South African Airways and US Airways.

Stephan T. Krastev

Senior Vice President

Stephan Krastev joined Seabury in April 2002. During his tenure at Seabury, Mr. Krastev has structured and executed a broad range of transactions, including capital raising, M&A advisory (buy- and sell-side) and restructuring.

Currently, Mr. Krastev is involved in a number of sell-side aerospace banking engagements involving M&A and equity raising. Previously, Mr. Krastev worked on the successful liquidity financing programs for US Airways ($525M) and Air Canada (C$1B) and advised Frontier Airlines in its acquisition by Republic Airways. Other high-profile assignments include US Airways’ liquidity financing program ($1.1B) in 2008; advising Northwest Airlines (2005-2007) during its financial restructuring, including arranging $750 million of new equity and restructuring of debt obligations; and advising Air Canada (2003-2004) and US Airways (2002-2003) during their respective court-supervised proceedings, including restructuring of aircraft debt and lease financings.

Prior to joining Seabury, Mr. Krastev was with Salomon Smith Barney’s Healthcare Investment Banking group, where he performed valuation analyses and assisted in the execution of various transaction types.
Mr. Krastev holds a B.S. degree with a double major in Finance and Computer Applications Information Systems from the University of Bridgeport. He is a FINRA registered representative with Series 7, 63 and 79.

Alain Carcassès

Senior Vice President, Aerospace

Alain Carcasses joined Seabury in 2010.

Alain has been working for 27 years in the Aeronautical Industry in most of the technical functions and disciplines, as well as in executive positions in Airbus Operations and Customer Services and Aeroconseil.

Prior to joining Seabury, Alain was Chief Executive Officer of Aeroconseil (an aeronautics engineering service provider specialized in flight physics, systems engineering modifications, asset management and continuous airworthiness) from 2008 to early 2010 and developed among other a Cabin Turnkey offer for refurbishment and FOQA services.

Marco Bloemen

Senior Vice President

Joined Seabury in January 2007 with 12 years experience in air cargo consulting and 5 years in air cargo management functions. Successfully conducted assignments with leading air cargo carriers, integrators, forwarders, and airports around the world. Former partner with a management consulting firm with dedicated focus on the air cargo industry. Line management experience at KLM Cargo and responsible for revenue management globally. Various commercial functions in marketing, pricing, sales support and alliances. Mr. Bloemen is a frequent speaker at air cargo related conferences on air cargo developments and trends. MBA graduate from Nijenrode University in The Netherlands Mr. Bloemen is fluent in Spanish.

Jesko Neuenburg

Senior Vice President

Dr. Jesko Neuenburg is a Senior Vice President is Seabury’s London office. He joined Seabury Group in January 2008. His consulting experience includes a focus on strategy, business planning, revenue enhancement and operational improvement and Dr. Neuenburg has developed a broad understanding of the competitive dynamics and macroeconomic factors influencing the aviation business.

Alan Sbarra

Senior Vice President

Alan Sbarra joined the Seabury Group in January 2008. He has more than 15 years of aviation and aviation-related experience in the areas of strategy development, business and financial planning, economic analysis, and cost analysis. Mr. Sbarra has developed cost-analysis tools and methodologies that allow airlines to benchmark their cost competiveness and productivity to identify areas for improvement.

Stephen Strange

Senior Vice President

Stephen Strange has over 10 years of aviation operating and advisory experience, and has been with the Seabury Consulting team since August 2006. While at Seabury, Mr. Strange has worked with clients around the world on projects spanning fleet acquisition, commercial strategy, business and financial planning, operational improvement, restructuring, investor due diligence, vendor negotiations, and market forecasting.

James Szymanski

Senior Vice President

James Szymanski joined the Seabury Group in September 2003 and has over 20 years of airline and information technology experience. As an executive within Seabury’s IT software consulting and development firm, Seabury Enterprise Solutions, LLC (SES), Mr Szymanski has assisted clients on a range of projects including technology vendor selection, IT due diligence, business process development and reengineering and development and implementation of proprietary SES applications.