Stephen Maurice Payne has 23 years of experience in operations management and consulting, working as an industrial engineer, operations director and senior VP of operations/supply chain. As well, Steve has 18 years of consulting-focused experience in working capital improvement. Prior to joining Ernst & Young LLP to lead the Working Capital Advisory Services practice for the Americas, Steve was the CEO of a global firm that specialized in helping companies improve cash flow from working capital via operational improvement, covering all aspects of operating working capital, inventory, payables and receivables.

Steve has dual citizenship in the US and UK and has worked extensively in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific as a business leader and a practitioner leading and delivering client projects. Steve has a B.S. in operations management from Thames Valley University.

Alex Morrison is Senior Vice President of Ernst & Young LLP in Canada. Alex has more than 20 years of experience advising corporations on restructurings and corporate finance matters in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, steel forestry, retail and technology. His major engagements to date include the restructuring of some major organizations in a variety of industries. Alex is a Licensed Trustee in Bankruptcy, a Chartered Insolvency and Restructuring Professional and a Chartered Accountant.

John William Vester is responsible for delivering Transaction Integration services in the Transaction Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP. He has over 20 years of experience gained both in industry and professional services, including over 40 TI relevant deals.

Prior to Ernst & Young, John was the worldwide Head of Corporate Development at Xerox. During his 10-year career at Xerox, he led many high-profile acquisition, divestiture, and restructuring initiatives.  John was an active member of their corporate ethics governance board.

Prior to that, he spent seven years in general management consulting at McKinsey & Co. He holds a MBA from Cornell in finance, a MS in electrical engineering from Yale, and a BS in industrial engineering from Northwestern University.

John R. O'Neill is the Ernst & Young LLP US Leader of Bankruptcy and Restructuring Tax. John has held a number of leadership positions over the course of his long career. He has served on the Ernst & Young LLP Partner Advisory Council and has been the firm's Americas Director of Private Equity for the last four years. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, John spent 24 years with Arthur Andersen where he was the Managing Partner of Andersen's Global Private Equity Practice and the US Transaction Advisory Practice. He also served as the Bankruptcy Tax Practice Leader at Arthur Andersen.

John is the author of the chapter "Tax Aspects of Restructuring Financially Troubled Companies" in the treatise Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions (American Bankruptcy Institute, 2006). John has a B.S. in Accounting from Fairfield University and an M.B.A. in Taxation from the Iona Graduate School of Business. He serves as Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University and Treasurer/Board Member of the Ackerman Institute for the Family.

Paul J Macaluso leads the West Coast Sell-Side Advisory Services Practice and the Global Media and Entertainment Industry Services group of the Ernst & Young LLP Transaction Advisory Services Practice.

Paul has extensive buy and sell-side experience. He has a proven history of providing financial and operational advisory services in turnaround situations to public and private companies as well as equity, bank and bondholder groups on domestic and international levels. Paul?s work also has included distressed liquidations and orderly sales of performing and nonperforming singular and grouped assets and, where necessary, crisis management in both friendly and adversarial environments.

Kerrie D MacPherson is Americas Transaction Support Leader for Ernst & Young's Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) business. A seasoned transaction professional, Kerrie has a strong background in advisory and assurance based services with over twenty-two years experience in Ernst & Young offices in Toronto and New York.

Kerrie has worked with global corporations considering significant investment opportunities in North America and abroad as well as with many private equity groups and major North American and European banks and pension fund organizations.