Howard Brownstein is a nationally-known turnaround and crisis management professional, and is the President of The Brownstein Corporation, which provides turnaround management and advisory services to companies and their stakeholders, as well as invest- ment banking services, fiduciary services, and litigation consulting, investigations and valuation services. Previously he held partner- ship or senior executive roles in turnaround management firms, where, in addition to leading turnaround assignments for clients, advising senior management and fulfilling a senior management role, he had overall responsibility for transactional activities and the marketing of the firm’s services, and gained extensive experience in valuing businesses, obtaining financing, and selling businesses.
Howard Brownstein has served as Financial Advisor to Debtors and to lenders and Creditor Committees in bankruptcy proceedings, and as a litigation expert in several cases, including the landmark Merry-Go-Round bankruptcy. Mr. Brownstein served as Chief Re- structuring Officer in U.S. Mortgage which involved a $138 million mortgage fraud, and as Plan Administrator in Montgomery Ward LLC, the largest retail liquidation in history.
Mr. Brownstein regularly serves as an independent corporate board member for publicly-held and privately-owned companies, as well as large nonprofits. He has been named “Directorship Certified” and a “Board Leadership Fellow” by the National Association of Cor- porate Directors (NACD), and served as Board Chair and President of its Philadelphia Chapter. He also served as Vice Chair of the ABA Corporate Governance Committee and co-chaired its programming, and has been named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, which includes only one percent of lawyers admitted to practice in any state. He has been a board chair, and also chaired board Audit, Risk, Nominating and Strategic Planning/Risk Assessment committees, and is a Qualified Financial Expert (QFE) for Sarbanes-Oxley purposes.
Howard Brownstein served for over 13 years until its sale in late 2023 on the Board of P&F Industries (NasdaqGM: PFIN), a publicly- held manufacturer/importer of air-powered tools, and chaired its Nom/Gov and Strategic Planning Risk Assessment Committees, He serves on the Board of Merakey, a large nonprofit provider of education and human services with more than 10,000 employees in several states. He serves as the sole board member of Community Council Health Systems, a nonprofit provider of behavior health and other services. He served as the Board Chair/CEO of Universal Services Associates, a designer and manufacturer of museum exhibits. He also served on the Board of Renew Financial, a leading provider of innovative PACE financing for home improvement projects, where he chaired its Risk and Operating Committees, as well as the Board of A.M. Castle & Co. (OTCQB: CASL), a multinational metals distribution and supply chain solutions company. He also served on the Board and chaired the Audit Committee of PICO Hold- ings (Nasdaq: PICO), a publicly-held diversified holding company with investments in water resources and storage operations, and real estate operations, and chaired the Audit Committee of LMG2, successor to Chicago Loop Parking, a $600Mil parking infrastructure entity in downtown Chicago, in which a lender group led by Société Générale succeeded to ownership following a restructuring. He also served as sole Board member of Betsey Johnson LLC, a privately-held designer and retailer of women’s apparel with equity sponsor Castanea Partners, and he previously served on the Board of Directors of Special Metals Corporation, a $1 billion nickel alloy producer, where he also chaired the Audit Committee. He also served on the Board and Audit Committee of Magnatrax Corporation, a $500 million manufacturer of metal buildings. He also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Philanthropic Trust, then the largest independent provider of donor advised funds. Mr. Brownstein previously served on the boards of a regional bank, a retail department store, and nonprofit Boards including Chair of a United Way agency.
Mr. Brownstein is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP). He served on the International Board of Directors of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), its Executive Committee, and chaired its Audit Committee, and received TMA’s “Outstanding Individ- ual Contribution”. He served on the Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), co-chaired its Complex Financial Restructuring Program and its Mid Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop for several years, and is a Coordinating Editor of ABI Journal. He served on the Governing Board of Secured Finance Network Association (formerly CFA) Education Foundation. Mr. Brownstein is a frequent speaker at professional and educational programs, including at Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU, Villanova Law School, ABI, ABA, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and TMA. He has published over 120 articles, textbook chapters and e-books, including ABI’s Problems in the Code, has served on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Corporate Renewal, and chairs the Editorial Advisory Board of abfJournal.
Howard Brownstein is a graduate of Harvard Law and Business Schools, and of the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained B.S. and B.A. degrees from the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Brownstein is admitted to the bars of Pennsylva- nia, Massachusetts and Florida, but does not actively practice law. He also served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. He is reasonably fluent in Spanish, and also speaks some French and Japanese.
