Max Holmes has over 40 years of experience as a portfolio manager, research analyst, board member, lawyer, NYU Professor and expert witness.
Since 1993, Max Holmes has been an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Stern Graduate School of Business at New York University, teaching “Bankruptcy and Reorganization.”
Max Holmes has been the Chief Investment Officer / Lead Portfolio Manager for two large hedge funds ($2.7 billion and $5.4 billion of peak assets under management) as well as a small insurance company portfolio and a small mutual fund portfolio. The funds invested in credit, capital structure arbitrage, distressed debt, rescue finance, direct lending, specialty finance, event stocks and special situations securities, including long and short positions. The funds invested across the capital structure: bank debt, DIP loans, second lien debt, secured and unsecured bonds, floating rate and fixed rate notes, trade claims, preferred stock, common stock, put and call options and credit default swaps (CDS). Investments were made in a wide variety of businesses, large and small, public and private, through the full corporate lifecycle: startups, venture capital, infrastructure, leveraged buyouts, private equity, turnarounds, restructurings, bankruptcies and liquidations. Direct lending was conducted through a Business Development Company (BDC) ($1 billion assets under management). As Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Holmes was primarily focused on financial analysis, risk management and industry research in order to construct portfolios, analyzing thousands of companies and investment opportunities.
Mr. Holmes has been the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of a life, health and annuity insurer and reinsurer.
In February 2024, Mr. Holmes was appointed by the Creditors Committee of Celsius Network LLC, a large cryptocurrency platform, as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of Ionic Digital Inc., a bitcoin mining company which has emerged from the Celsius bankruptcy.
Prior to investment management, Mr. Holmes worked in investment banking, research, trading and capital markets at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Salomon Brothers, NatWest Markets and Royal Bank of Canada. Since 2015, Max Holmes has been a Senior Advisor to American Industrial Partners LLC, a private equity firm with $16 billion of assets under management.
Max Holmes is a lawyer (member of the New York and Texas bar), has served on numerous boards of directors, and has held FINRA licenses for securities (Series 3, 7, 9, 19, 16, 24, 56 and 63), RIA, ERISA QPAM, Federal Reserve, FDIC, insurance, mortgage origination and servicing, municipal waste, FERC, ISO, and gaming in Nevada, New York and Canada.
Mr. Holmes is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School.
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