CMD Global PartnersCMD Global PartnersCMD Global Partners
John Adams
John is a Founding Partner of CMD Global Partners. Like each of the other Founding Partners of the firm, John previously was a Managing Director at XMS Capital Partners. Prior to his time at XMS, John spent 14 years at Lazard where he ran the Chicago Office / Midwest Investment Banking business, Global Private Equity and the Global Automotive group. He has extensive experience in China beginning in 2006 with the opening of Lazard’s Beijing office. Earlier, during 1986-1999, he was with Morgan Stanley in New York, Chicago and London where he ran the firm’s European M&A Business Development effort. Recently, he represented Icahn Enterprises in the $5.4 billion merger of Federal Mogul and Tenneco. John has over 30+ years of experience in investment banking working across a number of industries in M&A, public and private financing, as well as restructuring (has completed 15 successful restructuring assignments).
John holds a B.S. from Truman State University (Summa Cum Laude) and an MBA from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania (Director’s List). He is a US citizen with EU residency.
John Balfe
John is a Managing Director at CMD Global Partners and leads the firm’s Aerospace & Defense practice. Prior to the formation of CMD Global, John served as a Senior Advisor and Head of the Aerospace & Defense Practice at XMS Capital Partners. Prior to XMS, John founded and led Lazard Frères Anglo-American defense and aerospace practice. Through the late 1990s, John headed the investment banking departments at Troika Dialog and UFG in Russia. He began his investment banking career managing the Asia and financial products investment banking practice of the New York office of Robert Fleming, a leading UK investment bank focused on emerging markets.
Within the defense sector, John has advised leading defense players including General Dynamics,Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, DRS, General Atomics, Goodrich, Herley, Logistics Management Institute, Thales, and Triple Canopy. Outside of defense, he has advised Clondalkin, Collagen, DuPont, GL Ohrstrom and Co., Norsk Hydro, Philip Morris, Popkin Software, and Toshiba. He has also advised the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other government agencies on economics and national security for over a decade.
John received his A.M. from Princeton University and his A.B. with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley. He has a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.
Conor Barry
Conor is a Managing Director and co-founder of CMD Global Partners. Conor has spent the entirety of his 20+year career in capital markets. Conor runs the European practice of CMD from Dublin where his main focus is on enabling clients to complete Trans-Atlantic transactions through superior execution and support. In addition, Conor has enormous experience dealing with entrepreneur or family-owned entities that are looking to transition to a new phase of growth via some form of PE or growth equity funding. Conor has a particular emphasis on the business services, healthcare and packaging sectors.
Conor began his career in the Equity Capital Markets division at Deutsche Bank in London, where he worked with Pan-European Hedge Funds and Institutions from 2001-2005. After Deutsche Bank and before joining the investment banking world with XMS Capital Partners, Conor was a co-founder of a private equity business in Ireland having raised and invested €350m of equity predominantly in property related transactions.
Conor holds a BSc degree in Finance from University College Cork and an MBS degree in Strategic Management from The Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin.
Alex Chenesseau
Alex is a Managing Director at CMD Global Partners and based in New York. He advises corporate and private equity clients on M&A and strategic matters in the interactive media, consumer and technology sectors.
Alex was formerly a Managing Director at Evercore, where he executed a wide range of transactions with North American and European clients in Asia, as well as Asian private equity firms and corporations on cross-border acquisitions. Prior to Evercore, Alex spent the first decade of his investment banking career at Lazard in Paris, Beijing and New York, where he was a Vice President in the TMT group.
Alex’s select transaction experience includes Level 3’s merger with CenturyLink for $34 billion, Tribune Publishing on its unsolicited offer of $815 million from Gannett, SeaWorld on the sale of Blackstone’s remaining 21% stake, Bridgepoint’s sale of Infront to Wanda for $1.2 billion, IK Investments’ sale of a majority stake in Vistra Group to Baring Private Equity Asia, Carrefour on its €2.3 billion spin-off of hard discounter DIA on the Madrid stock exchange and the strategic review of its China business, Dongfeng Motor’s €800 million investment in Peugeot SA alongside the French state, COSCO on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Piraeus Port, etc.
Alex was recognized as a Young Leader of the French-American Foundation, and as an Asia 21 Fellow by the Asia Society in New York. He currently is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Alex is a citizen of the U.S. and France. Alex graduated from Sciences Po Paris with a Master’s in Finance, and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.
Bill Fox
Bill is a Managing Director of CMD Global Partners. Bill is based in Chicago and focused on the packaging and broader industrial sector. Bill was formerly COO of the Restructuring and Liability Management Group at Lazard, advising clients on complex mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and corporate finance transactions across a wide range of industries.
While Bill has predominantly lead transactions as an advisor, he has spent time in both private equity and corporate positions, including as the CFO of a leading corrugated packaging operator in the Midwest. As CFO, Bill successfully led the acquisition of multiple corrugated convertors and related packaging players.
Representative restructuring transactions include: 24 Hour Fitness on its Chapter 11, the ad hoc group of DISH Network DBS/spectrum note cross-holders, the convertible noteholders in the Chapter 11 of Intelsat SA, FirstEnergy Solutions on its Chapter 11, Dynegy on the Chapter 11 of its subsidiary Illinois Power Holdings, J.Crew on its comprehensive liability management transaction (2017), and the first lien lenders in the Chapter 11 of Walter Energy.
Representative merger & acquisition transactions include: Welch Packaging’s acquisitions of Pierce Box & Paper, Heritage Packaging, KnoxBox and Excel Display & Packaging, as well as FirstEnergy Solutions on the Section 363 sale of its retail energy business and Warrior Met Coal on its Section 363 stalking horse bid for certain assets of Walter Energy, among others.
Bill graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance with honors.
Scott George
Scott is a Founding Partner of CMD Global Partners. Scott previously served as a Managing Director at XMS Capital Partners, where he originated and executed a wide variety of transactions for publicly-traded and privately-owned clients. Prior to joining XMS, Scott served as Senior Vice President – Corporate Development at Hillenbrand, Inc., a global diversified industrial company based in Indiana. During his tenure at Hillenbrand (first as its outside investment banker and then as a member of management), Scott built a highly successful buy-side capability that resulted in Hillenbrand investing over $1.6 billion in the first five acquisitions in its corporate history.
In addition to his corporate development role, Scott spent 35 years as a senior investment banker at Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust and Ernst & Young, as well as at two smaller firms focused on serving private equity and mid-size public and private companies. During that time, Scott advised on more than 250 transactions involving mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, fairness opinions, going private transactions and various types of public and private financing transactions. Scott also has extensive experience with IPOs including those involving Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).
Scott holds a BA degree in Economics from Northwestern University and an MBA degree from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Chris Salamasick
Chris is a Founding Partner of CMD Global Partners. Chris was formerly a Managing Director at XMS Capital Partners, where he executed several successful strategic transactions and financial advisory assignments for a diverse range of clients, including Accuride, Industrea Acquisition Corporation, CLARCOR, CNH Industrial, Exide Technologies, Federal-Mogul, Johnson Controls, Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corporation and LiveWatch Technologies.
Chris began his investment banking career at Lazard Frères in the Global Automotive Group in 2008, executing a range of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring assignments. During his time at Lazard, he was among a small group of analysts directly promoted to post-MBA associate roles and worked across a variety of groups in the Chicago and New York offices. He executed several successful transactions while at Lazard, with clients including Cooper-Standard, Dayco, Delphi, Exide Technologies, Federal-Mogul, Tenneco, TI Automotive and Tower International.
Chris graduated cum laude from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Geography, as well as a minor in Music Performance (double bass). While at Northwestern, he also studied at New Zealand’s oldest university, University of Otago, in Dunedin.
Stella Su
Stella is a Managing Director with CMD Global Partners and has 25 years of experience in investment banking, management consulting, business valuation, and financial due diligence across the globe in a broad range of industries. Stella has experience advising clients across North America, Asia and Europe ranging from Chinese state-owned enterprises, Fortune 500 companies, private equity portfolio companies and privately-owned businesses.
Stella co-founded Centauri Capital Partners, LLC, a cross-border M&A advisor and business broker assisting Asian investors in overseas expansions via acquisitions and financial investments, as well as helping U.S. middle market businesses grow globally. Stella has also held roles at KPMG Corporate Finance and CNA Financial Corporation where she advised clients on capital planning, M&A and divestitures.
Stella earned her M.B.A. and M.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago with concentrations in Finance and Economics. Her undergraduate degree is a B.S. in International Finance from Renmin University of China. Stella is a CPA and Accredited in Business Valuation.
