HWKZ

Failed

Hawks Acquisition Corp

Sponsors: Hawks Sponsor
Raised
$200M
CIK
1841144
SPAC Ticker
HWKZ.U
Focus
Distressed Companies
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

J. Carney Hawks — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. J. Carney Hawks serves as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Hawks is the Founder and CEO of JC Hawks & Co, an investment and advisory firm and an affiliate of our sponsor. Prior to that role, Mr. Hawks was a founding partner at Brigade Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar fixed income asset management firm, from its inception in 2007 until his retirement at the end of 2019. At Brigade, Mr. Hawks was the head of the Special Situations Group and sat on the firm’s Investment Committee. He also managed two funds at the firm focused on opportunities in the stressed and distressed energy sector. Through his special situation focus, Mr. Hawks has participated in the restructurings of dozens of companies, both through the bankruptcy process and after emergence. Some of Mr. Hawks’ most notable investments included positions in the Puerto Rico debt securities, where he helped the Creditor Group negotiate a restructuring of the Government Development Bank bonds. Mr. Hawks also had active roles in the General Obligation Group, as well as the PREPA Fuel Line Group. Mr. Hawks managed multiple investments in the Caesars capital structure prior to and during its bankruptcy in 2015-2016, including a lead role on the unofficial First Lien Creditor Group. In 2013, Mr. Hawks also helped lead the creditor group in the Jefferson Country sewer bonds, which was the largest municipal restructuring at the time of its default. He has also participated in the restructuring of numerous energy companies, including Parker Drilling, Jupiter Resources, Amplify Energy and Telford International. In many of these situations, Mr. Hawks remained active post-emergence either as an official or unofficial board observer. While at Brigade, Mr. Hawks sat on the boards of Aventine Resources and Jacuzzi Brands following their restructurings. Through his role at JC Hawks and Co, Mr. Hawks currently sits on the boards of directors of Cenveo Worldwide Limited and Extraction Oil & Gas. Mr. Hawks is also currently on the board of directors of Ferrellgas Partners, LP, a distributor of propane. Prior to his role at Brigade, Mr. Hawks was a Managing Director in the High Yield Group at Mackay Shields. At Mackay, Mr. Hawks covered a wide range of industries and participated in numerous restructurings of the firm’s investments. Mr. Hawks earned a Bachelor of Science with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

John Maher — Chief Operating Officer . Mr. Maher serves as our Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Maher has worked in the investment industry for more than 25 years. From 2015 to 2021, Mr. Maher served as a Senior Investment Advisor and Managing Director at Wilmington Trust, responsible for the implementation and management of customized investment portfolios for clients, as well as evaluating tax considerations, estate planning, and cashflow projections. Throughout his career, Mr. Maher has extensive experience assessing equity investments, as a buy-side analyst and portfolio manager at Royal Bank of Canada's Global Arbitrage and Trading department (2010-2011), hedge funds Hilltop Park (2008-2010; 2011-2015) and Tupelo Capital Management (1998-2008), and as a sell-side research analyst at the Value Line Investment Survey (1996-1997). Areas of coverage included Industrials, Defense & Aerospace, Commodities, and Healthcare. Mr. Maher's role at Tupelo Capital Management, which he joined prior to launch of the company, included responsibilities related to the formation, build out, and ongoing management of operations for the organization. Mr. Maher earned a B.S. in business administration from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Lois A. Mannon — Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer . Lois A. Mannon serves as our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Ms. Mannon is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mannon Consulting, LLC, a private firm specializing in financial advisory and financial outsourcing services for public and private businesses, which she founded in 2003. Such services include fractional CFO, financial controller, Chapter 11 bankruptcy estate and liquidating trust administration, as well as accounting, tax, and cash management. Over the past 21 years, Ms. Mannon has provided administration services to 23 liquidating and/or litigation trusts and has provided fractional CFO, financial advisory, accounting and tax services for approximately 10 other clients. Ms. Mannon has experience with businesses in various industries, including automotive, consumer retail, manufacturing, distribution/logistics, mining, telecommunications, metals and aluminum, power and energy, oil and gas, healthcare, and portfolio investments. Certain representative engagements include: Arcapita, Inc., Bluestem Group Inc., Patriot Coal Corporation, Quebecor World (USA) Inc., Seahawk Drilling, Inc., Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers of New York, and Tower Automotive, Inc. Ms. Mannon is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Ohio and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Ohio Society of CPAs. Ms. Mannon earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Marshall University.

Eugene Davis — Director . Mr. Davis is a Director. Mr. Davis has served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PIRINATE Consulting Group, LLC, a privately held consulting firm specializing in turnaround management, merger and acquisition consulting, hostile and friendly takeovers, proxy contests and strategic planning advisory services for domestic and international public and private business entities since 1999. Mr. Davis was the President, Vice Chairman and a director of Emerson Radio Corporation, a consumer electronics company, from 1990 to 1997 and was the Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Sport Supply Group, Inc., a direct-mail marketer of sports equipment, from 1996 to 1997. Mr. Davis currently serves on the boards of directors of FTS International, where he is Chairman of the Board, GTT Communications, Inc. and Hycroft Mining Corporation, where he is Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. During the past five years, Mr. Davis was a director of the following public or formerly public companies: Montage Resources Corp., Seadrill Limited, VICI Properties Inc., Verso Corporation, ALST Casino Holdco, LLC, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc., Atlas Iron Limited, The Cash Store Financial Services, Inc., Dex One Corp., Genco Shipping & Trading Limited, Global Power Equipment Group, Inc., Goodrich Petroleum Corp., Great Elm Capital Corp., GSI Group, Inc., Hercules Offshore, Inc., HRG Group, Inc., Knology, Inc., SeraCare Life Sciences, Inc., Spansion, Inc., Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc., Titan Energy LLC, Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., U.S. Concrete, Inc. and WMIH Corp. Mr. Davis received his Bachelor of Arts, Masters in International Affairs and Juris Doctorate from Columbia University. Mr. Davis was selected to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant management and leadership experience.

Daniel H. Golden — Director . Mr. Golden is a Director. Mr. Golden has more than 40 years of experience as a practicing financial restructuring attorney representing primarily official and informal creditors’ and bondholder committees in some of the largest and most complex restructurings and bankruptcies in U.S. history. From 1999 to 2019, Mr. Golden was head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s nationally and internationally renowned financial restructuring practice. Currently, Mr. Golden serves as a member of the board of managers of the Insys Liquidation Trust, a litigation/liquidation trust formed pursuant to the confirmed chapter 11 plan of Insys Therapeutics, Inc., and as the trustee of the Quorum Health Corporation Litigation Trust formed pursuant to the confirmed chapter 11 plan of Quorum Health Corporation. Additionally, Mr. Golden serves as a restructuring consultant to several plaintiffs law firms representing tens of thousands of claimants in the Boy Scouts of America, Mallinckrodt PLC and Purdue Pharma chapter 11 cases. Mr. Golden received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a J.D. from the University of Buffalo School of Law. Mr. Golden was selected to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant restructuring and leadership experience.

Marc Heimowitz — Director . Mr. Heimowitz is a Director. Mr. Heimowitz is the founder and Managing Member of Coda Advisory Group LLC. Coda Advisory Group is an independent advisory firm that specializes in providing advice to and advocating for parties-in-interest involved in complex restructurings and special situations, and which can act as an unconflicted professional fiduciary for litigation and liquidation trusts. Mr. Heimowitz has more than 23 years’ experience in capital markets and in managing and analyzing investments related to companies in stress or reorganization, including bankruptcy reorganizations and liquidations, out-of-court restructurings, rescue financings and distressed acquisitions. In his personal capacity, Mr Heimowitz also acts as an independent director for companies in distress, restructuring and bankruptcy. Prior to founding Coda Advisory Group, from 2012 to 2017, Mr. Heimowitz was a portfolio manager for Claren Road Asset Management, a long-short credit hedge fund owned by The Carlyle Group. Prior to Claren Road, from 2006 to 2012, Marc was a Managing Director, Head of Credit Special Situations, and Co-Head of the Distressed Trading Desk for Citigroup Global Capital Markets. Mr. Heimowitz received his B.S.B.A. in finance with Highest Honors from the University of Florida, holds a J.D. from Columbia University, practiced law in New York and Florida and is a CFA Charterholder. Mr. Heimowitz was selected to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant financial and leadership experience.

Joseph Mills —  Director . Mr. Mills is a Director. Since February 2017, Mr. Mills has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Samson Resources II, LLC, a private E&P company, and continues to serve on its board of directors. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mills sold an asset base in a series of transactions totaling $820 million. In November 2018, Mr. Mills joined the Board of Directors of Roan Resources Company (“Roan”) and in April of 2019, Mr. Mills assumed the Executive Chairman role, leading and negotiating the sale of Roan for $1 billion to Citizens Energy, a private portfolio company of Warburg Pincus. In 2006, Mr. Mills founded Montierra Minerals & Production, L.P. (“Montierra”), a limited partnership that acquired oil and gas fee minerals, royalties and non-operated working interest drilling programs across the United States, and sold the assets to Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP (“Eagle Rock”) in 2007, becoming Eagle Rock’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and serving in that capacity from 2007 to 2015. Mr. Mills was responsible for managing and creating the strategic direction and vision of the company and managing its growth as a publicly traded E&P and midstream master limited partnership. Mr. Mills served at Montierra from 2006 to 2016. Prior to his service at Eagle Rock, Mr. Mills served in various leadership roles at El Paso Production Company, an oil exploration company. Mr. Mills currently serves on the boards of directors of Riviera Resources Company and the University of Houston Energy Advisory Board. Mr. Mills received his B.B.A. in petroleum land management from the University of Texas and holds a MBA from the University of Houston. Mr. Mills was selected to serve on our Board of Directors due to his significant financial and leadership experience.

Mr. Reynertson, co-founder of GLC and a Managing Director of GLC Advisors, will also serve as our advisor. The following provides biographical information of Mr. Reynertson. For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Reynertson is not an officer or director.

J. Soren Reynertson — Advisor . J. Soren Reynertson is our Advisor. Mr. Reynertson serves as the Managing Director of GLC Advisors, which he co-founded in 2009. Mr. Reynertson also serves as Chief Executive Officer of GLC Securities, which he co-founded. GLC is a FINRA-regulated investment banking boutique with more than 40 professionals focused on financial restructuring, capital raising, and mergers & acquisitions. The firm is consistently ranked in the Top 10 US Restructuring advisors by Thomson Reuters (now Refinitv). Based in the New York office, Mr. Reynertson has worked with companies and their creditors on assignments including bankruptcy reorganizations, exchange offers, out-of-court workouts, M&A, financings and recapitalizations for over 25 years. Before co-founding GLC, Mr. Reynertson was a Managing Director in UBS’ Restructuring & Leveraged Finance Group in New York from 2008 to 2009. Previously, Mr. Reynertson was a Managing Director and Head of the European Strategic Finance Group at Morgan Stanley in London from 2007 to 2008. From 1999 to 2007, Mr. Reynertson held various roles within UBS’ Restructuring team in New York and London, including Managing Director and Head of UBS’ European Restructuring team. From 1995-1999, Mr. Reynertson was a crisis manager for Jay Alix Associates (now AlixPartners), where he focused on taking operational roles in financially distressed businesses. From 1994 to 1995, Mr. Reynertson worked in PriceWaterhouse’s Dispute Analysis and Corporate Recovery Group in New York, providing advisory services to troubled companies and their creditors. Mr. Reynertson has successfully completed the following FINRA Administered Qualification Examinations: Series 7, 24, 63. Mr. Reynertson received a BA from Emory University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Mr. Reynertson was selected as our advisor due to his significant financial and leadership experience.