Profiles of Board of Directors

Board of Directors
Gary S. Meyers—President, CEO
L. Steven Platt, Esq.—Arnold & Kadjan Legal Counsel
Murray Sprung, CPA—Financial Structures
Howard Levinson, CPA, MBA—Planning and Organization
Feisel Amin Rasoul al-Istrabadi, J.D., S.J.D.—Foreign Trade

Advisors to Board
Jerome Schain, Esq.—Advisor to Board—Land Use and Real Estate
Robert Genetski, Ph.D.—Advisor to Board—Chief Economist
Stephen L. Schwartz, CHA, CPA, MBA—Advisor to Board—Hospitality Projects
Ira Ury—Advisor to Board—Hospitality Projects
Paul M. McGonagle—Advisor to Board—International Finance and Banking
Steven Hovany—Advisor to Board—Research, Feasibility and Planning
Ariel Weissberg, Esq.—Advisor to Board—Defaults, Restructuring and Workouts

Gary S. Meyers

President, CEO, Board of Directors
President, CEO – Gary Meyers Realty, Inc.

     Gary S. Meyers is a businessman/journalist.  He combines a very solid business background of over 30 years in real estate marketing, management and development, research and financial forecasting skills with 20 years of journalism experience as a nationally syndicated columnist to create The Meyers Report.

      Moving to Chicago, Meyers undertook the research and marketing and sales of several major real estate projects, including New Century Town, a 5,000 unit development in Vernon Hills, Illinois and Chicago’s super luxury Water Tower Place condominiums. Meyers formed a research and forecasting company for the housing industry, which he built and eventually sold.  After doing real estate and financial consulting work for major corporations, he created The Meyers Report.

     The Meyers Report has served newspapers from coast to coast and is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate, a division of Scripps-Howard. The business column and data package was syndicated in more than 200 newspapers in the U.S., such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, New York Daily News, Houston Post, Dallas Morning News, Washington Times, Detroit Post, Rocky Mountain News. Mr. Meyers also has published Living in Greater Chicago Magazine, generally considered the finest relocation and community profile magazine in the country.

     As an economic research and forecasting firm, The Meyers Report has served financial institutions, real estate developers and commodities users with analytical interpretation and projections, statistical data on the economy and financial industry. 

     Meyers began his business career in real estate in his native New York City as assistant to the chairman of the board of a major supermarket chain, responsible for real estate management operations. He then went on to do site-analysis and site location work for several other major chain stores, as well as commercial and residential real estate developers. As a sales, research and marketing professional, Mr. Meyers has been instrumental in the planning, sale and development of over $1 billion of diversified real estate projects.
  
     Meyers has been recognized as an accurate source of information by the media for over 20 years.  The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Banking, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), and many of the major broadcast media are among those who have relied on Meyers’ resources over the years.  

     Mr. Meyers is a graduate of the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) in Political Science, where he also studied History and Religion. He has taught real estate classes and been a lecturer in Real Estate at NYU, Roosevelt University, De Paul University, National Association of Home Builders and numerous other schools and national and local trade associations. Mr. Meyers has been active in numerous civic and trade associations.

L. Steven Platt, Esq.

Legal Counsel
Partner—Arnold and Kadjan

     With 30 years experience as a front-line litigator, Platt is thorough and aggressive, which causes comfort to friends and great concern among opponents. Platt also is one of the leading labor lawyers in the U.S. He is one of only 300 lawyers named a "Fellow" in the American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He is past President of the National Employment Lawyers Association and represents labor unions and their ERISA, Taft-Hartley fringe benefits funds.

     Mr. Platt also helped author employment discrimination jury instructions adopted by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. He has handled cases in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and California and before the 3rd, 7th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. Mr. Platt has also been involved with several U.S. Supreme Court and Illinois Supreme Court cases. Though heavily experienced in litigation, Mr. Platt's focus is on resolving problems before the need for a courtroom arises.

     An AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell, Mr. Platt was recently cited as of the top five attorneys in his field by Chambers and Partners, Ltd, an independent rating service, which called him “a consummate trial lawyer.” He was also named one of the “Top Lawyers in Illinois” by Chicago Magazine in its February 2008 Super Lawyers Section.

     Mr. Platt has been widely interviewed and quoted by the national media, has lectured and published articles with the International Employee Benefit Foundation (IEBF), has lectured for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Education (IICLE), and is the co-author of a lawyers’ reference book on age discrimination litigation now in its eighth printing. Mr. Platt received his BA from Northwestern and his J.D. degree from Loyola of Chicago Law School.

     Bar Admissions: Illinois Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third, Seventh and Ninth Circuits, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

     Organizations: Chicago Bar Association: Chair, Civil Rights Committee 1996-1998, Judicial Screening Committee American Bar Association: EEOC Liaison, American College of Labor and Employment Attorneys: Fellow National Employment Lawyers Association: Past President

     Publications and Speaking Engagements: Co-author of two Illinois Institute of Continuing Education (IICLE) chapters in the labor law field, Co-author of the legal reference book, Age Discrimination Litigation. Published more than 40 articles in industry and legal publications, lectured for the International Employee Benefit Foundation (IEBF), Lectured for the IICLE. Has appeared on CBS Eye on America, local television and radio and has been quoted in the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, AARP Publications as well as in local newspapers.

Murray Sprung, CPA

Board of Directors
Partner—Levinson Simon & Sprung, P.C.
Due Diligence and Accounting for Privately Held Equity Funds

     A CPA for 30 years, Mr. Sprung specializes in merger and acquisitions, capitalization and financing of business and real estate for the hedge fund he and his firms represent. Generally, projects in which he in involved range from $10,000,000+ and include technology to manufacturing to real estate. Sprung approaches every deal with a unique ability to simplify complex deal structures and make acceptable to all parties and get them closed.

     Projects involved with to date include:

• Internet Trading Site – this site was developed by an individual who needed help bringing it to market. Involvement included locating the proper investors, assistance in drafting documents and agreements and negotiating between the 4 involved parties to help finalize the deal. The company was eventually sold for in excess of $250 million.
• Internet Service Provider–involved in establishing an internet service company that provided offsite video for various websites. Assisted in establishing accounting controls, acted as CFO until the company was established enough to bring in an experienced individual.
• Corporate buyout. Negotiated and designed a $7,000,000 management led buyout of a manufactured/mail order company where the owner wanted to sell to certain key employees. Worked with banks and other lenders to put financing in place and have continued to work with management as a consultant and tax advisor.
• Acquisition. Performed due diligence, negotiated terms and assisted in obtaining financing for the $4,000,000 purchase of a window replacement company. Continued involvement have assisted the company in growing from $8 million to $40 million in sales in under 7 years, with plans to reach $100 million by the end of 2010.
• Acquisition. Performed due diligence, negotiated terms and assisted in obtaining financing for the $3 million purchase of a fastener distributor. In addition to assisting the company in financing the debt, was able to arrange in 48 hours an emergency funding source that kept the deal from failing after the primary lender delayed approval so long that the seller was preparing to walk away.
• General due diligence. In several instances, transactions were declined based on information discovered during due diligence performed. For example, recommended against pursuing an electro-generation project on the Wisconsin river after reviews of the contracts indicated that the revenue stream was scheduled to decline. In another case, due diligence revealed that a company with a single large customer was going to face a significant decrease in sales to that customer which made the entire project unfeasible. The need to know a transaction fairly and fully is more important than the need to approve.

     A man of unusual integrity and ability, Sprung was educated at the University of Illinois, where he received his CPA . He is actively involved both professionally and civically in such organizations as The AICPA, The Illinois CPA Society, is a commissioner in his home town of Buffalo Grove, Illinois and active in his synagogue.

     Dr. Istrabadi Represented Iraq at the United Nations as Deputy Permanent Representative. In 2004 he was one of the main drafters of Iraq's the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), the Iraqi provisional constitution in the immediate postwar period, which came into effect on June 28, 2004.

     Prior to his diplomatic appointment, Ambassador Istrabadi served as legal advisor to the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs during the negotiations for U.N. Security Council resolution 1546 of the 8 June 2004, which recognized the reassertion by Iraq of its sovereignty.

     Raised and educated in the United States since the age of 8, Istrabadi received an A.B. (Chem) and J.D. from Indiana University--Bloomington and completed an LL.M. and Doctor of Juridical Science from Northwestern University School of Law. Until his appointment as an Iraqi diplomat, Istrabadi was a leading civil rights and employment-law attorney in the Northwest Indiana/Chicago metro area.

     Beginning in the fall of 2007, Istrabadi became a visiting professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, and also is involved in teaching at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

     Al-Istrabadi was born in Virginia, in the United States of America, into a distinguished Iraqi family that had fled Iraq in the aftermath of the 1958 coup. He holds dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship. Those who know him well consider Istrabadi to be ethical, competent and an extraordinarily brave American.

     Dr. Istrabadi advises CCF on matters of international diplomacy, Mideast private investment.

Evaluation/workout team:
Project review, transactional and land use issues

Jerome Schain, Esq.

Land Use and Real Estate—Advisor to Board of Directors
Managing Partner, Schain, Burney, Banks & Kenny, Ltd.

     Considered one of the Midwest’s finest land use and real estate transactional attorneys, Jerry Schain works with municipalities and developers to make large or small projects acceptable to a community.  Schain is the Managing Partner in the law firm of Schain, Burney, Ross, and Citron, Ltd., which he helped found in 1986. Since then the firm has grown to 40 attorneys, most of them partners.

     He and his firm work on new and redevelopment projects ranging from suburban planned unit developments to urban high rises and properties consisting of thousands of acres. In dealing with municipalities, Schain uses his experience of over two decades of private practice, and before that 16 years in the State Attorney’s office, for his clients to navigate the often times difficult waters of zoning and land use regulation.

     While working in the State Attorney’s office, Schain represented Cook County in matters of Zoning, Condemnation, and Health. During that period, he helped to write a new Zoning ordinance and a comprehensive plan for Cook County, Illinois.

     The clients of Schain and his law firm include virtually every major commercial and home builder in the Chicago metro area, major banks and financial institution and dozens of municipalities, other law firms, major accounting and consulting firms, labor unions, major retailers and many others.

     Schain received his JD from DePaul University College of Law in 1967. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

     Schain’s experience, determination, and enthusiasm make him the ideal advocate to ensure that a project will not only survive, but succeed.

Evaluation/workout team:
Project review, hospitality and resort properties

Paul M. McGonagle

Advisor to Board of Directors—Commercial Corp Finance
 
     Mr. McGonagle has over 25 years of experience in the financial and international credit sector in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and the emerging nations of the former Soviet Union. Mr. McGonagle served as CEO of Exporters International until his selling for the firm in January of 2009. The firm specializes in trade reinsurance with clients in 22 countries.

     Previously, he served as Head of International Credit at Bank One in Chicago. He also held a number of senior international management positions at Bank One, including Korea Country Manager, Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore, and Head of Country Risk.

     Mr. McGonagle began his career as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Washington D.C., France and Canada. As Director of Monetary Affairs at the Department of State, Mr. McGonagle was the U.S. government representative to the Paris Club, the forum in which foreign country debt to the US and other governments is restructured.

Robert Genetski, Ph.D.

Chief Economist/Investment Advisor
Advisor to the Board of Directors

     One of the nation’s leading economists, premier interest rate forecasters and investment advisors, Dr. Genetski is a popular speaker to thousands of people at conferences and investor meetings around the world each year. He is recognized routinely by the media and his clients for his insights to economic, financial and investment matters on a micro and macro perspective.

     Genetski is well known for his research and advocacy of classical economic principles. These principles provide a reliable guide to creating both a healthy economy and profitable investment opportunities. Dr. Genetski has conducted pioneering research into the role of taxes and their impact on economic prosperity.

     In the early 1980s, he correctly forecast that tax cuts would end the nation’s economic malaise by boosting productivity and helping to reduce both inflation and interest rates. In 1989, Dr. Genetski correctly referred to the Japanese stock market as “a classic case of a speculative bubble waiting to burst.”

     As a member of Blue Chip forecasters, Dr. Genetski has been commended on his ability to out-forecast the pack.  He was listed on two separate occasions as the number one interest rate forecaster in the country, according to Institutional Investor Magazine and Blue Chip Financial Forecasts.

     During the 1990s he gained a reputation as one of the most optimistic investment advisors in the nation, if not the world, for forecasting rapid growth, low inflation and record-breaking stock prices.  During the course of his career Genetski has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for a major Midwest Bank and has headed asset management, investment research, and investment banking operations.
 Dr. Genetski has authored several books and numerous articles. He authored Taking the Voodoo Out of Economics, an influential book that anticipated and shaped many of the major policy changes that are now occurring throughout the world.  In his latest book, A Nation of Millionaires, Dr. Genetski provides his vision of the changes in government policies that will shape the economic and financial landscape in the 21st century.

Steven Hovany

Research, Feasibility and Planning—Advisor to Board of Directors
President—Strategy Planning Associates

      Trained as a war planner, Mr. Hovany understands research and strategies and the need for it to be done properly. Hovany executes Commercial Corp Finance market research and feasibility studies and reviews those presented to us. The research work goes beyond listings of competition; it examines the capacity and timing for geographic markets to absorb the products being offered. In short, the concern is if Commercial Corp Finance provides the financing and the client builds it, "will they come?"
      Steve Hovany is the founder and president of Strategy Planning Associates, Inc. His experience spans both the public and private sectors of the land development industry for over 30 years. Hovany has been actively analyzing and shaping the growth and development of the Chicagoland region, including managing and producing the weekly Home Builders Activity and Sale Report, covering over 350 subdivisions. The report is the longest running report of its kind in the nation, begun in 1976 by Gary Meyers.
      Hovany's public sector involvement offered exposure to a complete range of planning issues, including his serving as Director of Planning for the Village of Schaumburg and Chief Planner for City of Naperville, the second largest city in Illinois.
      Hovany has applied his wealth of public sector experience to development proposals and strategies, consulting on innumerable projects throughout the country. Hovany's site-oriented approach to market research, direct access to exclusive primary and detailed understanding of political and social nuances make his work uniquely valuable to developers and municipalities alike.
      In addition to his consulting and expert testimony activities, Hovany is very active in the areas of public policy, business development, and housing. He is a founding member of the Schaumburg Business Association, and serves as a commissioner of the Schaumburg Business Development Commission appointed by the Mayor. He is one of the founders, and continues to be a board member of the North West Housing Partnership, a non-profit organization focused on developing affordable housing in the northwest Illinois.
      Hovany is a regular speaker at industry forums and cited frequently in regional business publications, including Crain's Chicago Business, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Times, and the Daily Herald.
      Hovany received a B.A. in Psychology from Marquette University and a M.A. in Urban Studies from Loyola University. He is a Member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Certifications and Professional Memberships   • American Institute of Certified Planners(A.I.C.P.)
• American Planning Association (A.P.A.)    • Urban Land Institute (U.L.I.)    • Homebuilders Association of Greater Chicago (H.B.A.G.C.)    • Illinois Development Council (I.D.C.)    • National Association of Homebuilders (N.A.H.B.)    • North West Housing Partnership     • Greater Chicago Housing Foundation
    •  Schaumburg Business Development Commission   •  Metropolitan Planning Council  

Advisor to Board of Directors
Managing Partner, Weissberg and Associates, Ltd.

     Mr. Weissberg is widely respected for integrity and thoroughness and generally considered one of the most aggressive and effective bankruptcy and litigation attorneys in Chicago and the Midwest. He functions within his area of practice both proactively and as a strategic planner in business organizations—before they get into difficulty.

     Typical of the CCF professional team, Weissberg takes a global approach to problems. And, unlike many lawyers who take a narrow "legalistic" view of business matters—Weissberg is widely known and respected for his grasp of the complex interplay between legal issues and broader business concerns and challenges. Beyond problem solving, Ariel proactively practices "problem-avoidance", and enables his clients to advance more efficiently and with greater vision.

     Weissberg began practicing law in 1979 at a small Chicago law firm where, as the only associate, he promptly gained solid foundations in both business litigation and a wide-range of transactional work. Later, he built upon this foundation at a top medium-sized firm, further broadening his apprenticeship by representing Chapter 11 debtors and middle-market banks.

     Since 1984, when Weissberg and Associates was founded, Ariel has built a varied and loyal clientele, comprised of small to medium-sized to publicly traded businesses, and individuals, who appreciate his aggressive, yet deliberate hands-on style and his dedication to achieving positive results for his clients. 

     Weissberg is a "quick study" especially in financial matters, and he is sought out for complex business planning, especially relating to credit facilities and crisis-management.

     Weissberg has deep roots in the Chicago community. The son of Rabbi Victor H. Weissberg, Ariel graduated from Washington University (B.A. 1976) and received his J.D. from St. Louis University Law School (1979). He returned to Chicago, where, besides practicing law, he involved himself in charitable and community-based activities.

     Married for over 25 years, Ariel is the father of three children including Ilan S. Weissberg, who, until recently, was on active duty as a United States Marine. Ariel is an avid student of military history and an outdoors man. He speaks frequently in the Chicago area concerning real estate, financial distress, and litigation.