Bio

Elizabeth LaPuma is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal's Asset Management practice, with more than 15 years of investment banking experience, focusing on financial institution structuring and M&A. During her career, she has been involved in landmark financial institution transactions and assignments around the globe. Before joining A&M, Ms. LaPuma worked with BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory Group, where she was part of initiating the group’s client coverage model with primary responsibility for more than 30 of the largest financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, private equity, hedge funds and specialty finance companies. There, she served in a leadership role evaluating asset portfolios of the largest Greek banks on behalf of the IMF, ECB and EU with primary responsibility for coverage of the largest banks and presentation of key findings to the Greek government. She also advised a group of 15 major financial institutions in claims against a monoline insurer as part of the multi-year restructuring of the public insurer. In addition, she led an internal team of 25 to estimate the projected claims owed by the insurer. Ms. LaPuma has assisted the FDIC in valuing a portfolio of assets in excess of $150 billion from failed financial institutions and advised on future resolution. She also originated and directed valuation of assets in several M&A transactions for sellers of pools of esoteric / complex securities to assist in structuring their sale and to maximize value. She supported clients in M&A contexts on deals of significant size, such as the purchase of $200 billion of mortgage servicing rights. Earlier, she worked at Lazard Freres & Co. within their financial institutions and restructuring group, leading teams in three of the 10 largest bankruptcies during the financial crisis, as well as other significant restructuring assignments (both in and out-of-court resolutions), including Lehman, Capmark, monoline insurers and Abitibi-Bowate. In 2010, Ms. LaPuma was ranked 2nd among restructuring bankers globally for the successful completion of these landmark transactions. She has completed the sale of public and private companies, buy-side advisories and fairness opinions, public and private debt and equity offerings, leading all phases of transactions and negotiated numerous merger and private placement agreements. She has structured complex financial transactions that addressed tax, rating agency, regulatory and accounting considerations, including complex partnership structures, tax optimization solutions, and contract monetizations. Ms. LaPuma earned a B.S. in finance and an MBA from the Wharton School, and a B.A. from the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, graduating from Wharton as a Palmer Scholar.