Bio

Russell Ryba is a partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, the firm he joined and has been with since graduating from Duke law in 1989. Russ practices in the areas of public offerings and private placements of equity, debt and hybrid securities, including as company counsel in multiple initial public offerings; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; the transactional representation of Special Committees; public company compliance with federal and state securities laws and reporting requirements; corporate governance; going private transactions; and general business counseling. His practice crosses a broad range of companies and industries, including manufacturing and distribution companies; service companies; printing and marketing solutions companies; beauty retail companies; public utilities and public utility holding companies; media companies; newspaper companies; skilled nursing and assisted living companies; and insurance companies. His clients range from large publicly held corporations to mid and small cap companies. He is a member of the firm’s Transactional & Securities Practice, as well as the Manufacturing, Energy and Health Care Industry Teams. Previously, Russ served as co-chair of the firm's Senior Living Team. In his 30 years of practice, Russ has represented buyers, sellers and investors in over 160 domestic and international business combination transactions aggregating over $35 billion in total consideration, including multiple tender offers. Russ also has represented issuers in over 55 public securities offerings or private placements raising more than $10 billion. He currently represents three publicly traded companies which he took public (Mayville Engineering Company, Inc., a leading U.S.-based value added manufacturing provider; Quad/Graphics, Inc., a worldwide marketing solutions provider of print and related services; and National Research Corporation, a leading provider of performance measurement and improvement services, health care analytics and governance education to the health care industry), as well as several other publicly-traded companies, including Ulta Beauty, Inc., The Manitowoc Company, Inc.; Jason Industries, Inc. and Extendicare Inc. Russ formerly represented, among other companies, Journal Communications, Inc., which he took public, prior to their merger with The E.W. Scripps Company; Journal Media Group, Inc., which he took public, prior to their sale to Gannett; Integrys Energy Group, Inc., a public utility holding company, and its public utility subsidiaries, Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, prior to their sale to WEC Energy Group; and Extendicare Health Services, Inc., a long-term care provider in the United States.