Newsmakers—Academic Hits the Bankruptcy Trenches

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After a decade spent as a professor at the UCLA School of Law, Daniel Bussel is moving from the classroom to the courtroom to practice what he’s been teaching.

Bussel is taking a two-year leave of absence to become a partner at the Century City office of Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP, a boutique firm specializing in bankruptcy law.

“There’s just a tremendous amount of big, exciting bankruptcy cases to work on right now,” said Bussel, who has been teaching courses in bankruptcy, corporate reorganization, commercial and contract law at UCLA since 1991.

Primarily driving the boom in bankruptcy law is the slowing economy, he said.

Deciding to move from teaching to practicing law was not a tough choice for Bussel to make.

“I’m not ambivalent about it at all,” Bussel said. “At this point in my life and given the market, I just think it’s a great time to be out there working on real cases. I’ve never been someone who’s ever been disconnected from the real world.”

Bussel will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Century City firm, where he begins work on June 30. Before teaching at UCLA, Bussel was an associate in the bankruptcy department of O’Melveny & Myers. As a professor, he co-authored casebooks on bankruptcy and contract law.

Bussel will be representing debtors, a practice he prefers to working with creditors.

“The debtor side, I think, is more challenging,” he said. “You’re in the center of all these relationships, so you’re having to balance all these different things.”

Claudia Peschiutta


Accounting & Consulting

Arthur J. Hadnett has joined Carter & Burgess, a consulting firm, as operations manager for the Los Angeles program and construction management unit. He is responsible for project development and operations for the full-service office in Encino. Previously, Hadnett was Los Angeles-area manager for an engineering and program management consulting firm.

Daniel H. Marcus has joined the Los Angeles office of SCA Consulting as its co-director. He will be responsible for the day-to-day management of client consulting, specializing in designing reward programs that reflect corporate strategy, organization and time. Prior to joining SCA, Marcus was a principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc.


Advertising & P.R.

Gerard LaFond has been named vice president of marketing and business development for Media Revolution, an integrated marketing agency in Los Angeles. He will be responsible for ensuring the overall growth of the company’s client base, while designing, developing and managing marketing and business development strategies. LaFond was formerly general manager of Citysearch.com.

Paul Sewell has joined Envision, a Los Angeles-based strategic marketing firm specializing in sports and entertainment. He will be responsible for spearheading all artist- and tour-related sponsorships, as well as endorsements for the company’s client list. Prior to joining Envision, Sewell launched Marketing Through Entertainment, a Chicago-based consulting firm.


Aerospace

Robert Nilson has been appointed manager of project engineering and certification for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.’s Long Beach facility. He will oversee all project engineers, weight-and-balance personnel and the designated engineering representatives. Nilson joined the company in 1999 and served as a project engineer on the Gulfstream V team.


Banking & Finance

Rob DiPaolo and Pedro Urrutia have been promoted at Special Value Investment Management LLC in Los Angeles. DiPaolo has been promoted from controller to vice president of finance. He has been with the company since September 1999. Filling the vacancy left by DiPaolo, Urrutia has been promoted from assistant controller to controller.

Kathleen Knight and Bruce Norman both have been promoted at Northern Trust of California in Los Angeles. Knight, who is now serving as chief fiduciary officer and director of trust administration, will oversee trust administration in California and Nevada and will manage all aspects of fiduciary accounts, establish and monitor fiduciary standards, policies and procedures in addition to training trust administrative staff. As general counsel and secretary, Norman will directly supervise Northern Trust’s internal legal staff and the company’s dealings with external law firms. He also will be responsible for the legal review of all company policies and practices, will provide legal advice regarding compliance issues and reporting and will oversee risk management and coordination with federal bank examiners and state and federal regulatory agencies.


Entertainment

Susan Nahley Fleishman has been promoted to senior vice president, corporate communications and public affairs for Universal Studios in Universal City. In her new role, Fleishman assumes responsibility for all external and internal corporate communications, as well as public and community affairs, including Universal’s philanthropy and charitable programs and the company’s volunteer program. She had been vice president, corporate communications and public affairs since 1996.

Gil Gagnon has been named vice president of post-production services for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. He will oversee all operations and strategic direction for the studio’s post-production facility, as well as supervise daily operations, focusing on the emerging technologies in post-production work. Gagnon was most recently vice president, head of production for Kodak’s Cinesite.

Jeffrey A. Karbowiak has been promoted to executive vice president of operations and finance for MGM Home Entertainment Group in Santa Monica. He will oversee all financial and operational activity related to the Home Entertainment Group, which includes MGM Home Entertainment, MGM Consumer Products, MGM Interactive and MGM.com, in addition to managing relationships with home entertainment vendors worldwide. Karbowiak was most recently a senior vice president for MGM Home Entertainment Group.

Fred J. Lounsberry has been promoted to senior vice president of sales for the Universal Studios Recreation Group in Universal City. He will be responsible for the oversight, development and coordination of sales activities for Universal Studios’ theme parks worldwide, including Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Japan and Port Aventura in Spain. Prior to his appointment, Lounsberry was executive vice president, marketing and sales.


Health Care

Victor Rodriguez has been promoted to chief information officer of the L.A. Care Health Plan, a non-profit HMO serving Los Angeles County. In this position, Rodriguez will be responsible for the strategic planning, development, implementation, maintenance, quality improvement and budget/expenditure management of all information technology-related resources at L.A. Care. Rodriguez has been serving as L.A. Care’s acting chief information officer for the last several months.


High Tech

Kevin Gaulin has been named president of the application services division at Computer Sciences Corp. in El Segundo. He will be responsible for application outsourcing market strategies, including the capture and transition of support services. Gaulin previously served as the division’s vice president of service delivery.


Law

Ken Meyer has joined Bryan Cave LLP to lead the firm’s entertainment industry practice. Based in Santa Monica, Meyer will be responsible for extending the firm’s reach to entertainment, media and sports clientele. Meyer spent the past five years building his own private law practice.


New Media

Myles M. Fuchs has been hired as director of eastern sales at eUniverse, an interactive entertainment network in Los Angeles. He will be responsible for strategically implementing sales and advertising activities, as well as creating sponsorship opportunities across the entire range of eUniverse offerings including e-mail, animation, streaming video and Web pages. Prior to joining the company, Fuchs served as vice president of advertising sales at CareerBuilder Inc.


Non-Profits

Sharon Kaplan has been elected president of the Los Angeles Headquarters Association, an organization of 250 corporations and businesses serving Greater Los Angeles. LAHQ will be addressing the economic impacts of the energy crisis, growing housing shortage and regional transportation issues. It will establish policy directives with the new City Council and Mayor. Kaplan is principal and vice president of Psomas, a multi-disciplined civil engineering firm, where she heads its planning and entitlements unit.

Howard Lappin has been named vice president and director of development at Pueblo Nuevo Development, a non-profit organization that is establishing charter schools in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. His responsibilities will include helping to develop community resources including the areas of health, recreation and arts programs in support of Camino Nuevo charter schools. Lappin was most recently principal of the Foshay Learning Center.


Real Estate

Richard G. Newman has been named executive vice president of the commercial group at Lowe Enterprises Inc., a real estate investment, development and management firm in Los Angeles. He is responsible for commercial property acquisitions in California as well as development activities and operations in greater Los Angeles and Northern California. Newman joined the commercial group in 1986.

Michael Sajjadi has joined Overton Moore Properties, a Los Angeles-based development firm, as vice president of construction. In his new post, he will head construction operations encompassing more than 3 million square feet at four OMP projects. Sajjadi was formerly a senior construction manager at Irvine-based Legacy Partners.

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