CHRIS WILSON
FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL
Christopher D. Wilson has been in the professional world of investment banking, capital raising, structured financing, corporate advisory and principal investing for over 20 years. Chris worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in New York for ten years in multiple divisions, including high yield financing, mergers & acquisitions, restructuring and merchant banking/principal investing. Chris was recruited to join Bear Stearns where he worked as a senior banker in their leveraged finance group as well as in their media, entertainment, technology and telecommunications groups. While at Bear Stearns, Chris was one of the youngest bankers promoted to Senior Managing Director.
Throughout his career, Chris has worked with noteworthy clients and on unique and complicated transactions, such as: raising construction capital for Donald J. Trump to build the Trump Taj Mahal, the largest and most expensive casino built to that time; various financings for Ronald Perelman, MacAndrews & Forbes and entities related to Marvel Entertainment, the comic book, live action movie, baseball card and toy company; Coleman, the outdoor living products and equipment company, and Revlon – the cosmetics company; Best Buy – the national electronics retailer; DR Horton and Kaufman and Broad – two of the nations leading homebuilders; KKR in its acquisition of American RE – which was the largest leveraged buyout in the history of the reinsurance business; Sheldon Adelson and his financing for the construction of the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas; acquisition financing for the Fox Kids Worldwide; several financings and advisory assignments for Cabelevision Systems – the New York based cable system operator, owner of several cable programming channels, and owner of the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden and the Radio City Music Hall; a structured financing supporting the purchase by Larry Dolan of the Cleveland Indians; and the public company X-Rite and its acquisition and related financing to acquire Switzerland based Amayzis Holdings to effect a dramatic industry consolidation of the top two players in the color measurement, monitoring and services industry. For his role and work on the X-Rite acquisition of Amazys, Chris was awarded International Cross Border Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor Magazine.
Chris has worked over time in traditional corporate finance industries and situations, as well as with unique assets and special situations, such as real estate, warehouse financings, insurance company financings, water rights acquisitions and financings, and acquisitions of and financings backed by accumulated unique asset portfolios, including life settlement policies, student loans, performing and non-performing residential and commercial mortgages, among others.
Chris has had a high degree of success on every platform he has been a part of, and an impressive track record of successfully getting challenging and demanding transactions completed. He has completed more than 130 transactions totaling over $30 billion in value over the course of his career.
Chris is a registered representative with Colorado Financial Service Corporation. Member FINRA/SIPC.