Once referred to by the New York Times as one of the 100 most creative and fiercest investment bankers on Wall Street, Ziad K. Abdelnour is a deal maker, trader and financier with over 20 year experience in merchant banking, private equity, alternative investments and physical commodities trading. Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions totaling over $30 billion in the investment banking, high yield bond and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors.

Before founding Blackhawk Partners, Inc., in 2004; a New York based private equity family office; that focuses on originating, structuring and acting as equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financing, Mr. Abdelnour held numerous senior positions at European American Advisors; Inc.,; THCG Inc .(formerly Hambro America Securities); Ladenburg Thalmann and Drexel Burnham Lambert, High Yield Bond Department where his responsibilities included investing, financing and restructuring over 100 companies spanning the industrial, logistics, consumer and manufacturing industries both in the US as well as in emerging markets.

Since 2001, Mr. Abdelnour has been a trusted advisor to a number of the largest family offices in the United States, Europe and the Middle East and a turnaround investor in a number of companies where Mr. Abdelnours corporate capital commitment through Blackhawk came either through acquiring those and other companies through their distressed debt or through the chapter 11 process.

Mr. Abdelnour has extensive connections with the Washington political, government and intelligence establishments having served since 1994 as a friend and advisor to a number of agencies and organizations associated with such entities in various capacities; especially when dealing with fiscal and foreign policy matters.

On a more personal level, Mr. Abdelnour is Founder and President of the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL), Founder and Chairman of the Financial Policy Council, Member of the Board of Governors of the Middle East Forum and Former President of the Arab Bankers Association of North America.

Mr. Abdelnour enjoys an American and Lebanese dual citizenship and holds an MBA in financial engineering from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut. Mr. Abdelnour is a regular panelist and speaker on private equity and venture capital topics at industry conferences nationwide and is personally a business angel investor in over a dozen ventures; both in the US and abroad.

Blackhawk Partners has recently entered into the trading Platforms and Private Placement Programs and have created the necessary infrastructure to be a global force in the traded market of those financial instruments. More to come as those platforms are set to redefine the way the new financial landscape is shaping up.

Ziad Abdelnour and Blackhawk Partners are one of my dearest strategic resources. They are a mentor, an advisor, a sounding board and real friends who believe that the truth is the firmest foundation upon which to build a business enterprise.

    Posted in Investing from Investor on 14. Jul. 2010