Michael
Locker is founder and President of Locker Associates, Inc., a New
York business consulting firm that specializes in corporate restructuring,
buyouts, feasibility studies, developing business plans and performing
due diligence.
Mr.
Locker is a recognized authority on reorganizing troubled companies,
often representing employees in such efforts. Major clients have
included trade unions (United Steelworkers of America, Machinists,
United Auto Workers and International Brotherhood of Teamsters),
financial institutions (Bank of Boston, Lazard Freres, Congress
Financial, Santander Investment), law firms, bankruptcy trustees
and government agencies.
Mr.
Locker served as Chief Restructuring Officer and Trustee of J&L
Structural, reorganizing that firm under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
As an investment advisor and consultant, Mr. Locker has authored
and directed over 150 company/industry studies on steel, brass,
copper, iron ore, airlines, trucking, textiles, clothing, tires,
energy, warehousing, banking and packaging equipment. Most of these
projects involved in-depth market and financial analysis conducted
in conjunction with management. He has served as the investment
advisor to the employees and investors in several transactions of
small and medium size companies, many of which established employee
stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
Mr.
Locker is also a leading steel industry analyst, publishing and
editing for the last twenty years a monthly newsletter, Steel
Industry Update, which is widely circulated to union
officials, management personnel and financial experts. He has also
conducted over 100 joint labor-management seminars at steel plants
throughout North America and served as an expert witness in legal
cases as well as arbitration proceedings at Inland, Bethlehem, National,
LTV, Wheeling-Pitt and Republic Engineered Steel. He is also a member
of the Iron & Steel Society. Over the last twenty years, Mr.
Locker has founded, directed and served as President of four New
York research, consulting and investment banking firms: Corporate
Data Exchange (1973), Locker/Abrecht Associates (1980), Locker Associates
(1985) & Locker/Livingston Associates (1989).
Mr.
Locker is a founder, director and former chairman of the New York
Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN). He has served on the board
of directors of Pittsburgh Forgings, Meta Software and the Center
for Labor & Community Research. He has been an advisor to Working
Assets Money Fund and New York State Senator Franz Leichter. He
has made major presentations to the United Steelworkers, the Canadian
Steel & Employment Congress, United Auto Workers, the U.S. International
Trade Commission, the American Association of University Professors,
World Steel Dynamics Steel Survival Conference and financial analysts
in the United States and Germany. He has also traveled to Latin
America, the Peoples Republic of China and the former Soviet Union.
Mr.
Locker attended Earlham College and received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in history in 1964. In 1966, he received a Masters of Arts
degree in sociology from the University of Michigan. He has taught
economics and social science at Brooklyn College.
3/11/09
Prior to RNK Capital, Tom was the Vice President
of Research for Green River Energy Partners, LLC, a corporate advisory
and investment management firm. At Green River, he was involved
in implementing all aspects of the corporate finance deal making
process, including buyer identification, valuation analyses, preparing
marketing materials and management presentations, performing due
diligence and client negotiations. While at Green River, he also
created complex financial models and other research tools for quickly
and accurately providing valuations of global energy companies.
Before joining Green River, Tom led valuation
and research efforts for T.A. McKay & Co., a $180 million investment
fund that focuses on companies undergoing restructuring in basic
industries. His duties included identifying and researching distressed
securities and providing investment recommendations. He was responsible
for performing extensive due diligence on investment opportunities,
including the detailed review of restructuring plans. As part of
the monitoring process of portfolio companies, Tom attended bankruptcy
proceedings and creditors’ committee meetings, including that
of Navigator Gas Transport as it reorganized under Chapter 11 of
the U.S. bankruptcy code.
Tom has a M.B.A. from New York University’s
Stern School of Business, and a B.A. in History & Latin American
studies from Northwestern University. He has worked and traveled
extensively in Latin America, speaks and reads Spanish and likes
to spend his time long distance running and playing backgammon.
6/11/09
Since
joining Locker Associates in 1998, Mr. Howlett has worked on projects
related to the competitive prospects of companies and plants in
many industries, including metals, warehousing, tire, transportation,
distribution and food services. Mr. Howlett has also worked on projects
involving trucking for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
as well as Atlantic City musicians for the American Federation of
Musicians. He is particularly knowledgeable on warehousing, and
related industries. His work on these projects has included extensive
industry research, market analysis, labor and management interviews
and development of reports and presentations. Mr. Howlett manages
the production, editing and distribution of the Steel
Industry Update, a monthly newsletter published by
Locker Associates that circulates to decision-makers throughout
the steel industry.
Prior
to joining our firm, Mr. Howlett worked for the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters as the Assistant to the Strategic Campaigns Director
and as a Union Organizer. While working with the IBT's Strategic
Campaign Department, Mr. Howlett worked on various social-justice
projects, and acted as Director of The Long Island Food Distribution
Center. He managed a staff of over twenty volunteers and coordinated
the donation, packaging and distribution of grocery and perishable
items to the recently unemployed in the area. Mr. Howlett's diverse
work experience with the Teamsters included conducting workshops
on sexual harassment in the workplace held at such places as Columbia
University. He also volunteered his time to mentor college student
in conjunction with Teamster Summer. Mr. Howlett also provided consulting
services to AFSCME, involving research related to an organizing
campaign at a Long Island medical center.
Mr.
Howlett has extensive experience in the warehousing industry. Prior
to his work with the Teamsters, Mr. Howlett worked at a major regional
grocery warehouse from 1981-1996. While there, he served as Shop
Steward for six years (elected three times by fellow employees)
and served on numerous union negotiating committees. At another
major national distribution company, Mr. Howlett began as a warehouseman
and rose to Manager of Quality Control, the second highest position
in the company related to quality.
Mr.
Howlett graduated from Howell High School and has earned a Certificate
of Understanding from The Computer Insight Learning Center. He attended
Brookdale Community College. Mr. Howlett has completed many labor-related
and human resource seminars. 3/11/09
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