NYIC Leadership
Executive Committee
Melanie Cyganowski 
NYIC Chairman
Melanie is a Member of the Firm at Otterbourg, P.C. and is a former U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge EDNY (14 years) who returned to private practice in 2007. Before the bench, she was a commercial/securities litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell and Milbank Tweed. She is a Fellow of the Am College of Bankruptcy and Lit Counsel of America.
She is on the MDL Plaintiffs Exec Comm of the GM Ignition Switch Lit. Also on the SDNY, Delaware and NJ Bankruptcy Court mediation registrars and court-appointed mediation panels (Lehman, GM, Metaldyne, Quebecor, BLMIS). Melanie is also an expert witness on US Bankruptcy Law (have appeared in courts in Cayman, BVI, Mexico, Philippines and England); and legal malpractice. She also represents government agencies (Michigan State Workers Comp agencies & the FDIC) and Official Chapter 11 Committees of Creditors.
Cassie Rosenthal
NYIC President
Cassie Rosenthal brings diverse experience and a wealth of expertise to Rosenthal & Rosenthal, Inc. She has dual responsibilities at the firm, managing both business development strategy and marketing efforts. Cassie is highly skilled at sourcing and developing new relationships with management and senior-level executives at a wide range of companies. In addition to her business development responsibilities, she has also been instrumental in creating an integrated marketing strategy for Rosenthal, including its rebranding.
Cassie has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and CNBC. She received a BA from Colgate University and a Masters in Art History from the Sotheby's Institute in London.
Mark Indelicato
NYIC Past Chairman
Mark is the managing partner of Thompson Coburn Hahn & Hessen in New York. Throughout his career, Mark has represented parties in virtually every aspect of insolvencies, bankruptcies, and out-of-court workouts, including secured and unsecured creditors, trustees, debtors and purchasers of assets in Chapter 11 cases. Over the last 15 years, his practice has concentrated primarily on representing the interests of creditor groups in bankruptcy proceedings, particularly Creditors’ Committees in large complex bankruptcies. Mark has a recognized talent in working with all sides to ensure that even in troubled situations, the interests of his clients are maximized.
Mark served as managing partner of Hahn & Hessen from 2010 to July 2021, when the firm combined with the national law firm Thompson Coburn, which has more than 400 attorneys and seven offices nationwide. Admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits, Mark is a member of the New York State and American Bar Associations.
David E. Berliner
NYIC Treasurer/VP Finance
David E. Berliner serves as Treasurer for NYIC. He was previously a partner in BDO USA, LLP, a CPA, CIRA and CTP with more than 25 years of experience in matters involving business restructurings, bankruptcy and insolvency, bankruptcy litigation, forensic investigations, transaction due diligence, accounting and auditing. Mr. Berliner has been involved in many bankruptcies and work-out situations representing unsecured creditors, debtors, and secured lenders. Mr. Berliner also prepares expert reports in bankruptcy litigation matters and has provided testimony at depositions and in bankruptcy court.
Jonathan Bodner
NYIC Secretary
Jonathan Bodner is principal of Bodner Law PLLC located in Carle Place, New York. Bodner Law PLLC represents local, regional and national businesses, as well as individuals, in transactions, litigation and bankruptcy matters throughout Long Island, the boroughs of New York City and New Jersey. Bodner Law PLLC’s practice includes regularly representing debtors, creditors and others in matters involving the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, 7 U.S.C. 499(a) et seq. (PACA), and the food and beverage industries.
Paul H. Shur
NYIC VP Education
Paul H. Shur is a Shareholder in Becker & Poliakoff, LLP’s Corporate Practice. Mr. Shur focuses his practice in all aspects of commercial and financial transactions and related litigation enforcing and defending creditors’ rights. Having 30 years of experience, he has represented a broad array of clients in secured lending, asset based lending, commercial finance, debt restructuring, sales and lease transactions, negotiable instruments, letters of credit, documents of title, real estate secured transactions, and title insurance defense.
Paul has served on the Board of Directors of the New York Institute of Credit for many years and has moderated several educational programs as a member of the Education Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Chapters of the Secured Finance Network and New Jersey Turnaround Management Association. He is currently Education Chair of both the New York and New Jersey Chapters of the Secured Finance Network.
Jeffrey Hampton
NYIC VP Programming
Jeffrey Hampton is Chair of the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice at Saul Ewing LLP. He concentrates his practice on restructuring matters, including Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, out-of-court workouts, loan restructurings, corporate reorganizations and general insolvency law. He also represents the purchasers of assets and business units of troubled or failing companies, both in and out of Chapter 11.
In addition to being an attorney, Jeffrey is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.
Raffi Azadian
NYIC VP Membership
Raffi Azadian is an investor and entrepreneur with a strong preference for socially impactful businesses and charities. He is most active as the Founder and CEO of Change Capital, an investor and capital provider with an emphasis on businesses that provide innovative, sustainable, and socially responsible products and services.
In 2022, Raffi founded the Make Change Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that applies rigorous analysis and high ROI expectations to its giving decisions. The Foundation deploys capital selectively to those institutions and initiatives that can demonstrate high social impact and that efficiently and effectively utilize capital resources.
Prior to starting Change Capital, Raffi spent over 20 years in technology, venture capital, and investment banking.
Harvey Gross
NYIC Executive Director
Harvey Gross is the founder and president of HSG Services Inc. He was formerly a vice president with NationsBank where he was wholesale credit manager, wholesale team leader, and account executive. He supervised in sales, marketing, and insolvency recoveries. He was the past chairman of the Turnaround Management Association and is currently a board member. Gross is also the executive director of IFA Northeast Chapter and executive director of the New York Institute of Credit.
Board of Directors
Neil Gupta
Neil Gupta is a Managing Director at SSG Capital Advisors. Neil works with investment banking clients on a wide range of special situations transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations and private placements of both senior and subordinated debt and equity. His responsibilities include buyer and investor relationship management, strategic advisory and overall management of the deal process. Prior to joining SSG, he advised the U.S. Treasury on its investment in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as a research analyst at Piedmont Investment Advisors. He also worked as a consulting actuary in the group benefits and health care practice at Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
Julie Acuff
Julie Acuff is Managing Director at Wells Fargo Commercial Services
Adeola Akinrinade
Adeola Akinrinade is a Director in the Financial Advisory Services Group at EisnerAmper LLP and has over 10 years of experience providing financial and strategic advisory services to companies and creditors. Her experience focuses on mergers and acquisitions, financings/refinancings, restructurings, bankruptcies and strategic advisory. Adeola has worked with clients across a wide range of industries including consumer, retail, industrials, energy, power and utilities, and media.
Caryn Alexander
Caryn Alexander is the Head of Portfolio Management for Webster Bank’s Asset Based Lending Division. In this role Caryn oversees a team of 21 colleagues and is leading the strategic initiative and portfolio management effort for ABL accountable for the end-to-end credit process, ensuring credit quality and data integrity but most importantly client service. Caryn joined Webster from HSBC Bank where she held various positions of increasing responsibility over her 20-plus year tenure. Prior to joining Webster, Caryn was the Northeast Region Head of Credit Management where she successfully developed and led a credit management team overseeing the growth and portfolio management of a large diverse portfolio in both sector and structure. Caryn started her career at The CIT Group, where she was introduced to factoring and asset-based lending. Over the years, Caryn has been successful in developing high performing teams and has led the portfolio management effort in the financing and build out of various industry verticals. Caryn’s dedication to empowering others and driving success has recently earned her recognition as one of the Top Women in Specialty Finance.
Charles Berk
Charles Berk, a CPA, CFF and CIRA with more than 35 years of experience, serves as the Co-Practice Leader of CBIZ’s Corporate Recovery & Litigation Support group. Charles specializes in matters involving business restructurings, bankruptcy and insolvency, and litigation support. He provides consulting services to various parties-in-interest in bankruptcy proceedings, primarily serving as financial advisor to numerous creditors’ committees as well as serving as a liquidating trustee and plan administrator on multiple engagements. Charles has provided expert witness testimony in connection with litigation involving financial frauds and fraudulent conveyances. Prior to joining the Corporate Recovery & Litigation Support group in 1999, Charles was a senior manager in the audit practice where he gained retail, manufacturing and wholesale distribution experience. Charles joined CBIZ in September 1984.
Yale Bogen
Yale Bogen is Sr. Managing Director in DSI's Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and New York offices with over 35 years of experience. He has vast expertise in business restructuring and forensic accounting, including management, healthcare, employee benefits, litigation support, asset analysis, merger and acquisition due diligence, and tax compliance among other finance, accounting, and operations experience.
Prior to joining DSI, Mr. Bogen held a number of senior-level positions including CFO of Furniture.com, Inc. Prior to this, he was Senior Manager of EY’s internal audit outsourcing service line where he managed internal audit departments, oversaw mergers and acquisition due diligence projects, developed business and financial operating policies and procedures, and directed forensic accounting projects. Mr. Bogen worked at Federal Mogul Corporation, where he was an Internal Audit Manager overseeing the internal audit of over 30 world-wide distribution centers and over 100 retail stores located in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and South Africa and in charge of creating internal controls for the retail stores. Mr. Bogen began his career at Burger King Corporation, including Controller of the Latin America Division, where he oversaw the company’s entry into a number of new countries including Mexico.
Beth Brownstein
Beth represents committees of unsecured creditors and retired employees, secured creditors, indenture trustees, bondholder and noteholder groups, and other entities in bankruptcy reorganization and liquidation proceedings.
Immediately prior to joining ArentFox Schiff LLP, Beth served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allan L. Gropper, US Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York, where she gained experience working on large complex Chapter 11 cases such as General Growth Properties Inc., Lenox Sales Inc., and Lear Corp.
Beth also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Prudence Carter Beatty, US Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York, where she gained experience working on Chapter 11 cases.
Kim Desmarais
Kim Desmarais has successfully acted as lead counsel on complex U.S. and cross-border financings across a broad range of industries for two decades. She has a strong leveraged lending background and represents borrowers, banks, private debt funds, commercial finance companies, and other institutional lenders in a variety of secured and unsecured transactions, with a particular focus on acquisition finance, asset-based loans, and alternative lending transactions in the funds and fintech sectors. Kim is regularly asked to advise on lending arrangements involving crypto assets and companies in the digital assets industry and is actively involved in Jones Day's global Fintech Working Group.
John DePledge
John DePledge has a banking career spanning over 35 years in the Asset Based Lending field. He currently leads the ABL practice at Valley Bank where his responsibilities include new client acquisition, loan approval, portfolio management, P&L, capital allocation, ABL policy and procedures as well as controls and compliance, talent and resources decisions.
Previously, John worked for Citibank as the Business Head and National Sales Manager of the ABL business., TD Bank as National Head of Business Development – ABL, and LaSalle Business Credit and Mellon Business Credit in a variety of underwriting, portfolio management, and asset recovery roles.
He is active in various international trade associations and has held leadership and board positions in the Secured Finance Network at the National and Philadelphia Chapter levels and the Turnaround Management Association at the Philadelphia Chapter level.
John is also an active Registered Representative and holds Series 63, 79 and 24 securities licenses.
Sean Beach
Sean is the Co-Chair, Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group and Partner at Young Conaway. To Sean Beach any corporate restructuring situation is an opportunity to dive deeply, and usually quickly, into the inner workings of a business and the concerns of its key stakeholders. Each industry poses its own set of challenges, and the various companies within that industry present both broad contrasts and subtle nuances, all of which must be absorbed in the course of a well thought-out restructuring. He has steered distressed companies and their creditors to optimal outcomes in a wide range of industries, including energy, retail, mortgage lending and servicing, healthcare, manufacturing and technology.
Elena Goynatsky
Elena Goynatsky is the Business Development Director at CIT / Fist Citizens Bank. With more than 25 years of experience, Elena has help roles as a relationship manager and business development officer at Bank Leumi, Gerber Finance, and Webster Bank, focusing on asset-based lending (ABL) and factoring. Additionally, Elena is a founder and Board Member of WHOW of NY (Women Helping Other Women) and serves on the Board of the Needlers Foundation.
Frank Grimaldi
Frank Grimaldi is Senior Managing Director, North American Sales Manager, Valuations at Gordon Brothers responsible for developing and maintaining client relationships throughout North America.
Additionally, Frank manages the firm’s regional business development officers and oversees the Mid-Atlantic region, working closely with asset-based lenders, private equity sponsors and corporate management teams in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. to help them understand the underlying value of assets including inventory, machinery and equipment, and intellectual property.
He has 35 years of experience in asset valuation and commercial lending.
Prior to joining Gordon Brothers, Frank was a vice president at Brevet Capital responsible for managing assets and originating investment opportunities. He was previously a vice president at CIT Group where he managed the commercial services workout group.
Frank has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Hofstra University. He is a board member of New York Institute of Credit and Secured Finance Network where he is an executive board member of the Secured Finance Foundation. Additionally, Frank is a board member of Turnaround Management Association (TMA) New York City and serves on the executive board of TMA Global. He is based in New York.
Charvi Gupta
Terry Keating
Terry is Managing Partner at Donald J. Keating & Sons. He has more than 40 years of leadership and senior management experience in the financial services industry. His expertise encompasses leading asset-based lending and factoring businesses and serving as a lender to the asset-based lending industry for 15 years, a decade spent as a consultant and investment banker. In addition, he currently serves on the board of an aerospace parts manufacturer/distribution/MRO company, and an early-stage fintech capital platform.
Terry is active in various industry associations, the Secured Finance Network, where he serves as Vice Chair of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, Chairs the Mentorship Program and is a member of its Data/Advocacy Committee. Additionally, he is active in the New York Institute of Credit, International Factoring Association, Association for Corporate Growth, and Turnaround Management Association.
Terry is a frequent speaker on various industry topics, has written numerous articles, and has contributed to books on topics such as middle market mergers and acquisitions.
Morgan Luchs
Morgan (Grossman) Luchs is an Associate of the firm Platzer, Swergold, Goldberg, Katz & Jaslow, LLP. Ms. Grossman represents clients in various commercial matters, including Breach of Contract Actions, Collection matters, specifically collections for merchant cash advances to small businesses, Equipment Leasing Transactions, Litigation/Trial Practice, Business Litigation, and General Commercial Litigation.
Ms. Luchs graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and received her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law in 2015. Ms. Luchs is admitted to practice law in the State of New York. She has worked closely with retained local counsel, representing clients across the United States and in foreign nations. Ms. Luchs is a New York Institute of Credit Future Leader and member, she serves as Membership chair and is a member of the Contemporary Credit Club, she serves on the Associate Committee of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City and member, and is a member of the National Equipment Finance Association.
Jennifer Palmer
Jennifer Palmer is the CEO and Founder of JPalmer Collective. Jennifer has 16 years of commercial finance experience and is the former CEO of Gerber Finance - one of the leading asset-based lenders - where she grew its portfolio by more than 140%. Jennifer also serves as president of the Secured Finance Network ("SFNet"), the leading trade organization to the commercial finance industry. She has been recognized by the ABF as a Top Woman in ABL.
Marc Ross
Marc Ross is Senior Managing Director at KCP/HBM. Marc has over 25 years of experience as an advisor, bankruptcy and turnaround specialist, crisis manager, forensic accountant and auditor. Additionally, Marc has worked with clients in a broad range of industries including manufacturing and distribution, foodservice and food processing, temporary and permanent placement services, service providers, retail, commercial lending, construction, telecommunications, hospitality, public utilities and other regulated entities and not for profit companies.
Prior to joining HBM, Marc worked at boutique consulting firms providing turnaround and crisis management services. Earlier in his career he worked for public accounting firms including a Big Four firm.
Marc won, along with a team of professionals, the Turnaround Management Association’s Turnaround of the Year Award for work on Agriprocessors, Inc.
Stephanie Sweeney
Stephanie Sweeney is a Partner at Klestadt Winters Jureller Southard & Stevens, LLP. Sweeney represents clients across a wide range of industries in bankruptcy and restructuring matters, bankruptcy litigations, financings and other corporate business transactions.
Before joining the firm, Ms. Sweeney was an associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where she handled large-scale bankruptcy cases and represented secured lenders in complex commercial lending transactions.
Glenn Schwartz
Mr. Schwartz serves White Oak Commercial Finance as a Managing Director of Underwriting in ABL and Factoring, responsible for underwriting and servicing WOCF ABL portfolio loans. He has over 20 years of experience in the commercial finance industry having held positions in business development, underwriting, portfolio management and special assets. Prior to joining WOCF, Mr. Schwartz served a Belgian bank providing asset based loans to the U.S. diamond and jewelry industry. He has also worked for GMAC Commercial Finance, BNY Financial Corp. and Congress Financial Corp. in both factoring and asset based lending capacities. Mr. Schwartz is the President of the Commercial Finance League, past President and current Board member of the 475 Esquire Toppers business networking group and an active member of the Commercial Finance Association. Mr. Schwartz holds a B.A. from Vassar College where he majored in Political Science and minored in Economics.
Kevin Zuzolo
Kevin Zuzolo is a lawyer with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Kevin focuses on chapter 11 and out-of-court complex financial restructurings and represents various parties in interest, including debtors, secured lenders, bondholders, creditors’ committees, and liquidating trustees. Kevin counsels clients in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, technology, retail, and energy.