Bio

Chris has nearly 30 years of experience in capital formation, M&A advisory, debt placement and strategic advisory to restaurant industry entrepreneurs. As Managing Director at Auspex, Chris is responsible for the overall management of the firm and actively advises many of its keystone clients. Prior to joining Auspex, Chris was a partner at Trinity Capital, LLC. At Trinity Capital, he led the system-wide franchisee debt restructuring and recapitalization programs sponsored by Taco Bell Corporation and Burger King Corporation. The two programs, on a combined basis, involved more than 350 franchise companies and nearly $4.1 billion of total debt. Previously, Chris was Senior Vice President at Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company. At FMAC, he served as the Chief Credit and Operations Officer for the Energy Finance Division where he administered a $1.4 billion loan portfolio and was a member of FMAC’s senior loan and senior management committees. Chris was also a Vice President of Citicorp’s Franchise Finance Division where he specialized in loan syndications. Prior to Citibank, Chris held associate positions at investment banking firms Paine Webber and Prudential Bache. Chris has been a frequent author on franchise finance related matters, and his views are regularly published in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Restaurant Finance Monitor, and Franchise Times, among others. He received his undergraduate degree, with honors, from Occidental College where he was awarded cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa designations. Chris earned his MBA in finance and accounting from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.