Verit Advisors will participate in ESOP Association Trade Show

Verit Advisors announces that Mary Josephs, Peter Abrahamson and Neal Hawkins will participate in sessions of the ESOP Association’s Las Vegas Technical Conference and Trade Show November 8 and 9, 2012

Mary Josephs, founder and CEO of Verit Advisors, will moderate a session on Friday, November 9, titled “Current Financing Conditions.” The session will focus on current structures, trends, M&A activity and an update on the leveraged loan market. Ms. Josephs is a nationally recognized leader with more than 28 years of experience with ESOPs as a specialized solution-oriented succession and liquidity transaction for middle market companies. She has advised, structured and closed more than 200 financings for middle market companies. Ms. Josephs has spoken at hundreds of national conferences and frequently writes articles about succession and liquidity alternatives for closely held businesses, including ESOPs, ESOP financing, ESOP M&A and other corporate finance solutions. She is on the Advisory Board of ESC, a Lifetime Member of the Board of Governors of the ESOP Association and a member of the board of Spinnaker Coating.

Peter Abrahamson will participate in a panel on Thursday afternoon titled “Complex Transaction Structuring Alternatives and the Effect on ESOP.” This session will explain the economic impact of these structures first from the ESOP’s perspective and then from the participants’ perspective. Recent case studies will round out the discussion with some real life examples. Mr. Abrahamson has more than 15 years of valuation and investment banking experience, specializing in the valuation of business enterprises and individual securities, structuring ESOP transactions, and executing public and private market capital raises. At Verit, Mr. Abrahamson leads the technical aspects of ESOP financial modeling, valuation, tax, accounting and human capital topics. He has analyzed and structured multiple large, complex multi-investor ESOP transactions across numerous industries. He serves on the ESOP Association’s valuation advisory committee and has spoken at numerous conferences regarding advanced ESOP valuation and transaction structuring topics.

“Strategic Alternatives for Partially-Owned ESOPs” is the topic of the panel that Neal Hawkins will moderate on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 9. Mr. Hawkins joined Verit Advisors LLC in 2011 and has significant debt capital market and ESOP expertise. Mr. Hawkins works with private business owners on succession and transition alternatives which include the use of ESOPs, management buyouts, private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Verit, Mr. Hawkins was with Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the national ESOP Consultant in the ESOP Solutions Group. He advised business owners and management teams on implementing ESOPs. He was also responsible for providing capital to finance transactions for new and existing ESOP companies. Before the acquisition of LaSalle Bank, Mr. Hawkins was part of LaSalle Corporate Finance.

About Verit Advisors

Verit Advisors unites sophisticated middle-market investment banking capabilities with a client-centric boutique, fluent in ESOPs, debt and equity capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions. Integrity, teamwork, service and innovation are at the heart of the organization, as the Verit Team strives to provide unparalleled advice and custom solutions to its clients. Mary Josephs founded Verit Advisors in 2009 and has nearly three decades of experience in the world of corporate finance. Josephs and her team are considered to be the foremost experts in ESOP transactions and middle market strategic alternatives.

About the ESOP Association

The ESOP Association, founded in 1978, is a national nonprofit membership organization, with 18 local chapters, serving approximately 2,500 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) companies, professionals with a commitment to ESOPs, and companies considering the implementation of an ESOP. It is the only association devoted solely to ESOPs. It focuses on promoting and enhancing laws before Congress and regulatory agencies that govern ESOPs and providing its members with expert educational ESOP programming and information.