Kenneth A. Buckfire
Kenneth A. Buckfire is the President and co-Founder of Miller Buckfire & Co. During his 30 year career in restructuring he has advised clients in a broad range of industries including oil & gas, oilfield services, homebuilding and real estate, merchant power, electric utilities, broadcasting, media, telephone and data services, shipping, governments and government agencies. In addition to co-founding Miller Buckf ire in 2002 (acquired by Stifel Financial in 2012), he co-founded Marblegate Asset Management in 2008 which was sold when Stifel Financial acquired Miller Buckfire in 2012.
His notable accomplishments include the first prepackaged Chapter 11 (Edgell Communications, 1990), the largest out of court utility restructuring (Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, 1998), the first convertible DIP loan (ICO Global Communications, 2000), the first public common stock offering by a bankrupt company (General Growth Properties, 2010), the largest successful Chapter 9 reorganization including the first municipal DIP loan (City of Detroit, 2014) and the first restructuring using a SPAC (Faraday Future, 2021).
Mr. Buckfire has been the primary financial advisor in the restructurings of Faraday Furure, Attica Bank, The City of Detroit, General Growth Properties, Calpine Corporation, Level(3) Communications, Exide Technologies, Excel Shipping, Molycorp, Standard Pacific Homes, McLeod USA, ICG Communications, iPayments, PSINet, Sirius Satellite Radio, BTI Telecom, CMS Energy, CenterPoint Energy, Oncor, Optima Steel, Horizon Natural Resources, TECO Energy, Centennial Communications, Readers Digest, Advanstar, Allegheny International, Foamex, Van Camp Seafood, Walter Industries, Burnham Broadcasting, EUA Power Corporation, Dialog Corporation, Imperial Sugar, and CRIIMI MAE. He has been an advisor to the FDIC, the National Bank of Ukraine and the Bank of Greece.
He has received numerous industry awards including the 2015 Harvey R. Miller TMA Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2016 Foreign Policy Association Medal for leading the successful restructuring of the City of Detroit, the 2014 Turnaround Atlas Individual Leadership Award, and the 2014 Mega Transaction of the Year Award for the City of Detroit (from the Turnaround Management Association and Turnaround Atlas).
Many of his transactions have been similarly recognized including Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (Energy Transaction of 1998, IDD), Calpine Corporation (Mega Transaction of 2008, TMA), General Growth Properties (Mega Transaction of 2010, TMA), Horizon Natural Resources (Most Outstanding Transaction of 2005 by TMA), and Molycorp (Most Outstanding Middle Market Restructuring, 2015).
Prior to founding Miller Buckf ire in 2002, Mr. Buckfire was a Managing Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Co-Head of the financial restructuring group. Before joining Wasserstein Perella & Co. (acquired by Dresdner), he was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers Inc.
For The University of Michigan, Mr. Buckfire is on the Board of Advisors of the Zell-Lurie Institute at the Ross Business School, the University Music Society and the Honors College. He is on the Board of Advisors of New Mountain Capital. He is a former Trustee of the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York, UJA-Federation of New York, the Paul & Daisy Soros Fund for New Americans and the Orpheus Orchestra.
Mr. Buckf ire is currently serving on the Boards of Directors of Purdue Pharma (Chairman of the Audit and Strategic Issues Committees), Amyl Therapeutics and ProClara Biosciences. Mr. Buckfire is a Board Observer of and a founding investor in Ambiq Micro. He has been a director of seven other public and private companies.
Mr. Buckfire is a Visiting Professor at Columbia Business School where he teaches a graduate course in Corporate and Government Restructuring. He has been a guest lecturer at The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and at the Ross School of Business, The University of Michigan.
Mr. Buckf ire received his MBA from Columbia University in 1987. He received his B.A. in Economics and Philosophy from The University of Michigan in 1980.