Management |
Steven T. Kargman | Founder and President

Steven T. Kargman, a leading expert on international restructurings, is the Founder and President of KARGMAN ASSOCIATES, a New York City-based strategic advisory firm specializing in international restructurings. The firm provides strategic advice to clients involved in complex and challenging International restructuring, distressed debt, non-performing loan (NPL) and cross-border insolvency/ restructuring situations.

Mr. Kargman has had extensive front-line experience and played a leadership role in many of the largest and most complex restructurings in the emerging markets. He is frequently invited to speak at major professional, industry and academic conferences around the world and holds leadership positions in prominent professional organizations dedicated to international restructuring and international insolvency.

He was formerly Lead Attorney and the senior restructuring lawyer with the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the official export credit agency of the US government, in Washington, D.C. and represented the US Government in many of its largest corporate debt restructurings in the emerging markets. At Ex-Im Bank, he specialized in restructuring and project finance transactions in the emerging markets and served as the principal attorney for the Bank's Asset Management Division (the Bank's Division responsible for restructurings and workouts).

He has worked on major restructuring and project finance transactions throughout Latin America and Asia in such countries as Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Turkey and Venezuela. Among other major transactions, he worked on the $13.9 billion Asia Pulp & Paper restructuring as well as two of the most significant project finance restructurings in Indonesia, the Paiton and Jawa power project restructurings. He was also involved with the Dabhol power project restructuring in India, and he worked on some of the largest restructuring matters in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. [> go to Representative Transactions]

He has interacted with senior officials in the private and public sectors throughout Latin America and Asia, and he has worked closely with officials in the US Treasury Department, the US State Department (both at main State as well as with embassies overseas), and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). He has also worked closely with senior officers of other creditor institutions, both public and private, in the US and abroad  (e.g., Europe, Asia, etc.) and has played a leadership role on several creditor steering committees and organized and led several export credit agency working groups.

He previously served as General Counsel of the New York State Financial Control Board, New York State's chief financial oversight agency for New York City, practiced corporate finance with the international law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, and served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

He has appeared on panels and lectured widely around the world—in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America—on international restructuring and project finance topics. He has testified before the United States Senate and has addressed the United Nations General Assembly's Second Committee (Economic and Financial Committee). In August 2004, he served as a visiting lecturer for a course on international law in Rio de Janeiro sponsored by the Organization of American States and he is a regular lecturer on international restructuring topics at the International Law Institute in Washington, DC.

He has lectured in major cities throughout the United States, and he has also lectured in numerous foreign cities, including Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Cartagena (Colombia), Chandigarh (India), Dublin, Entebbe (Uganda), Frankfurt, Geneva, Guanajuato (Mexico), Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kampala (Uganda), Kuala Lumpur, Lagos (Nigeria), London, Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Naples, New Delhi, Ottawa, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Salzburg, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Tokyo, Vancouver, and Warsaw.

In addition, among other speaking engagements, he has lectured and appeared on panels before the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American Bar Association, the Asian Institute of International Financial Law, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (Committee on Project Finance), the Asan Plenum (Asan Institute for Policy Studies), the Business Recovery & Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), the Center for American and International Law (formerly known as the Southwestern Legal Foundation), the Center for Law for Law and Globalization (affiliated with the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law), Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Forum on Asian Insolvency Reform (FAIR), Harvard Asia Business Conference, INSOL Europe, INSOL India, INSOL International, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Instituto Colombiano de Derecho Concursal (Colombia), Instituto Federal de Especialistas de Concursos Mercantiles (IFECOM-Mexico), the International Bar Association, the International Insolvency Institute, the Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law, the International Law Association (American Branch), the International Project Finance Association, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association, the National University of Singapore Centre for the Study of Commercial Law, the New York State Bar Association, the United States-Mexico Law Institute, the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on Private International Law, the Wharton Restructuring Conference, and the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. [> go to Speaking Engagements]

He has published numerous articles on topics concerning international finance and international restructuring/insolvency, and emerging markets in leading professional publications, including Annual Review of International Insolvency, Business Law International (a publication of the International Bar Association), China Business Review, Financier Worldwide, International Corporate Rescue, The International Economy, INSOL World (a publication of INSOL International), Insolvency and Restructuring International (a publication of the International Bar Association), International Financial Law Review, The Journal of Private Equity, The Journal of Structured and Project Finance, and Marine Money. His publications include a three-part series in International Financial Law Review on the major challenges of emerging market restructurings, an article in the Spring 2005 issue of The Journal of Private Equity-Special Turnaround Management Issue entitled "Opportunities and Pitfalls in Emerging Market Restructurings: A Strategic Perspective," and major articles analyzing and commenting on newly adopted insolvency laws in Brazil and China. [> go to Publications]

He served as a member of the official United States delegation to the Working Group on Insolvency of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for the Working Group's project on the development of a legislative guide for insolvency law and has been a member of the American Bar Association delegation for the UNCITRAL Working Group's project on the treatment of corporate groups in insolvency and subsequent projects. He has also been an advisor to the World Bank, the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State on international insolvency and restructuring issues.

He has served as Professor from Practice and as a Member, Affiliated Transnational Faculty at Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) in Shenzhen, China which is the only law school in China offering a US JD-style legal education. Since 2010, he has taught courses to graduate Chinese law students at STL on “International Debt Restructuring in a Global Economy,” “Advanced Topics in International Debt Restructuring and Cross-Border Insolvency,” “Sovereign Debt Restructuring,” and “International Finance.” In addition, from 2001-2004 he served as an Adjunct Professor at American University's Washington College of Law for a course on international project finance.

He is a Founding Member and served as a two-term member of the Board of Directors of the International Insolvency Institute, a leading invitation-only international insolvency organization of prominent insolvency professionals from around the world. He has served as Co-Chair of the Institute's Committee on Sovereign Insolvencies and has served as Rapporteur for the Institute's Committee on Extraordinary Restructuring Solutions. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the UNCITRAL Coordinating Committee and formerly served as Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on International Bankruptcy of the American Bar Association's Business Bankruptcy Committee. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, an invitation-only honorary association of leading bankruptcy and insolvency professionals, and serves as a member of the advisory board of the Institute of Asian-Pacific Business Law. In addition, he is a member of INSOL International, the International Bar Association, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the American Bankruptcy Institute, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the American-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, and the Yale Club of New York City.

In recent years, Mr. Kargman has traveled to virtually all major regions of the globe and has visited literally dozens of countries around the world, including: Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.