John Adams

Co-Founder & Managing Director

John is a Founding Partner of CMD Global Partners.  Like each of the other Founding Partners of the firm, John previously was a Managing Director at XMS Capital Partners. Prior to his time at XMS, John spent 14 years at Lazard where he ran the Chicago Office / Midwest Investment Banking business, Global Private Equity and the Global Automotive group. He has extensive experience in China beginning in 2006 with the opening of Lazard’s Beijing office. Earlier, during 1986-1999, he was with Morgan Stanley in New York, Chicago and London where he ran the firm’s European M&A Business Development effort. Recently, he represented Icahn Enterprises in the $5.4 billion merger of Federal Mogul and Tenneco.  John has over 30+ years of experience in investment banking working across a number of industries in M&A, public and private financing, as well as restructuring (has completed 15 successful restructuring assignments).

John holds a B.S. from Truman State University (Summa Cum Laude) and an MBA from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania (Director’s List). He is a US citizen with EU residency.

Conor Barry

Co-Founder & Managing Director

Conor is a Managing Director and co-founder of CMD Global Partners. Conor has spent the entirety of his 20+year career in capital markets. Conor runs the European practice of CMD from Dublin where his main focus is on enabling clients to complete Trans-Atlantic transactions through superior execution and support. In addition, Conor has enormous experience dealing with entrepreneur or family-owned entities that are looking to transition to a new phase of growth via some form of PE or growth equity funding. Conor has a particular emphasis on the business services, healthcare and packaging sectors.

Conor began his career in the Equity Capital Markets division at Deutsche Bank in London, where he worked with Pan-European Hedge Funds and Institutions from 2001-2005. After Deutsche Bank and before joining the investment banking world with XMS Capital Partners, Conor was a co-founder of a private equity business in Ireland having raised and invested €350m of equity predominantly in property related transactions.

Conor holds a BSc degree in Finance from University College Cork and an MBS degree in Strategic Management from The Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Dublin.

Colin Brown

Director

Colin is a Director at CMD Global Partners, where he has played a pivotal role since joining the firm in January 2020. In his current position, Colin leads transaction execution teams across a diverse range of industries, including healthcare and industrial technology. Colin has also successfully sourced and led transactions across various sectors, such as healthcare, industrials, professional services and technology.

Colin began his career at Wells Fargo Securities, executing mergers, acquisitions and capital markets transactions. His early career also includes a tenure at BlackArch Partners, a boutique investment bank based in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he focused on sell-side M&A.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Chinese from Davidson College, where he graduated with honors. During his time at Davidson, he also played Division I football for the Wildcats.

Colin resides in Chicago and is passionate about fitness, sports, podcasts, reading and enjoying time with his family and friends. He is a board member of Highwind Impact Fund, a Chicago-based organization that provides grants to small and underrepresented non-profits.

Alex Chenesseau

Managing Director

Alex is a Managing Director at CMD Global Partners and based in New York. He advises corporate and private equity clients on M&A and strategic matters in the technology, interactive media and consumer sectors.

Alex was formerly a Managing Director at Evercore, where he executed a wide range of transactions with North American and European clients in Asia, as well as Asian private equity firms and corporations on cross-border acquisitions. Prior to Evercore, Alex spent the first decade of his investment banking career at Lazard in Paris, Beijing and New York, where he was a Vice President in the TMT group.

Alex has worked on transactions totaling more than $50 billion in aggregate value throughout his career. Alex’s select transaction experience includes Level 3’s merger with CenturyLink for $34 billion, Tribune Publishing on its unsolicited offer of $815 million from Gannett, SeaWorld on the sale of Blackstone’s remaining 21% stake, Bridgepoint’s sale of Infront to Wanda for $1.2 billion, IK Investments’ sale of a majority stake in Vistra Group to Baring Private Equity Asia, Carrefour on its €2.3 billion spin-off of hard discounter DIA on the Madrid stock exchange and the strategic review of its China business, Dongfeng Motor’s €800 million investment in Peugeot SA alongside the French state, COSCO on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Piraeus Port, etc.

Alex serves as a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and was appointed as a Foreign Trade Advisor by the Republic of France. He was recognized as a Young Leader by both the French-American Foundation and the Aspen Institute’s French chapter. Additionally, he was nominated as an Asia 21 Fellow by the Asia Society, where he serves on a leadership committee focused on US-China relations. A dual citizen of the United States and France, Alex holds a Master’s in Finance from Sciences Po Paris and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

Bill Fox

Managing Director

Bill is a Managing Director of CMD Global Partners. Bill is based in Chicago and focused on the packaging and broader industrial sector. Bill was formerly COO of the Restructuring and Liability Management Group at Lazard, advising clients on complex mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and corporate finance transactions across a wide range of industries.

While Bill has predominantly lead transactions as an advisor, he has spent time in both private equity and corporate positions, including as the CFO of a leading corrugated packaging operator in the Midwest. As CFO, Bill successfully led the acquisition of multiple corrugated convertors and related packaging players.

Representative restructuring transactions include: 24 Hour Fitness on its Chapter 11, the ad hoc group of DISH Network DBS/spectrum note cross-holders, the convertible noteholders in the Chapter 11 of Intelsat SA, FirstEnergy Solutions on its Chapter 11, Dynegy on the Chapter 11 of its subsidiary Illinois Power Holdings, J.Crew on its comprehensive liability management transaction (2017), and the first lien lenders in the Chapter 11 of Walter Energy.

Representative merger & acquisition transactions include: Welch Packaging’s acquisitions of Pierce Box & Paper, Heritage Packaging, KnoxBox and Excel Display & Packaging, as well as FirstEnergy Solutions on the Section 363 sale of its retail energy business and Warrior Met Coal on its Section 363 stalking horse bid for certain assets of Walter Energy, among others.

Bill graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance with honors.