COVID-19 has had a significant impact on small businesses and the real estate industry. While problem loans have been controlled during the crisis with loan modifications and PPP loan proceeds, financial institutions remain cautious about the future. Early identification of red flags is crucial - waiting for a payment default often reduces available options for the institution and the borrower. Hear from a panel of industry experts about what to look for, lessons learned, and mistakes to avoid.   

We will explore this topic through the lenses of the credit officer, the workout officer, a turnaround consultant, and a legal administrator. 
 
About Our Panelists

Cynthia Romano is the Global Director of CohnReznick’s Restructuring and Dispute Resolution practice. With more than 25 years of experience in performance improvement, turnaround management, transaction support, and investment analysis, Cynthia’s work has added significant value to middle market companies in healthcare, manufacturing, education, technology, security, distribution, professional services and not-for-profit. She is well known in the market and the recipient of numerous awards including Smart CEO Brava Award winner honoring top female CEOs, winner of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Global Mid-Size Company Turnaround of the Year, and co-winner of TMA Northeast Small Company Turnaround of the Year. She also has numerous board seats, panels, and publications to her credit including for ABI, TMA, HBS, MIT, the Nassau County and Boston Bar Associations, Exit Planning Exchange, Debtwire, and the ABF Journal and is also regularly quoted in industry publications and news outlets. Ms. Cynthia holds degrees from Brown University and MIT is a TMA Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP).

Amy Tsokanis has been Senior Vice President and Director of Managed Assets Department at Eastern Bank since 2015 and oversees a team of experienced workout loan officers and portfolio managers. The Managed Assets Department supports Eastern Bank’s commercial lending divisions to manage the risk and maximize collection and recovery of distressed loans. Previously Amy worked in Eastern Bank’s Credit Risk Review Group assessing the overall quality of the Bank’s loan portfolio.

Prior to joining Eastern Bank Amy held various positions in commercial credit and lending at Shawmut Bank and Fleet Boston Financial. She is a graduate of Boston College and received a Master’s in Business Administration from Boston University.

Maureen S. Walsh is the Director of Credit Review at Brookline Bancorp. She is an accomplished risk and lending professional with over 30-years of commercial lending experience in risk, front line and compliance roles. Maureen’s experience covers a myriad of industries and products including Middle Market, Asset-Based Finance, Leasing, Large Corporate, Dealer Finance and Precious Metals. She brings this experience to her current role as Director of Credit Review at Brookline Bancorp. Maureen and her team are charged with timely identification of risk to ensure the risk rating integrity of the Bank’s loan and equipment leasing portfolios. Previously, as Regional Senior Credit Officer, Maureen led a team responsible for Risk Management of an $18B portfolio of asset-based, leasing and specialty finance loans at Citizens Bank, where she held various credit officer roles over 10+ years. Prior to that, Maureen was at Bank of America where she worked in credit, underwriting and portfolio management. Maureen graduated from Providence College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

Lori-Ann Zannini With over three decades of experience in the commercial lending and real estate realm, Lori-Ann has a proven track record of formulating pragmatic process solutions while working with and maintaining an institution’s culture and identity. Lori-Ann specializes in developing and implementing workflows and procedures, instituting technological solutions and reassessing staff roles and responsibilities, resulting in measurable process enhancements for the companies she works with.

Prior to launching LZ Commercial Services, Lori-Ann was highly recruited by the Rockland Trust Company in 2010. During her tenure at Rockland Trust, she established the Bank’s commercial operations unit which heavily contributed to the framework for organization growth. She also led and managed the closing, legal documentation and construction administration teams.

Today, Lori-Ann works with multiple financial institutions and several real estate development firms as a consultant focusing on creating and implementing process improvement initiatives for financial institutions and due diligence strategies for the legal service professionals.
 
About our Moderator

Carol Cedrone Brennan, Director of Business Development for BDC Capital, has been with the firm for over 20 years. She is responsible for keeping the BDC Capital name before the business, banking, and investment communities for ABL, subdebt, mezzanine financing and SBA 504 loans. Carol is also a board member of the New England Chapter of the Risk Management Association (RMA).

 

 

Zoom information:

When: Jun 3, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Loan Workouts: Expecting the Unexpected

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://rmahq.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-APJKXUvTxepkEu6g94KFg

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

For more information contact:
Julie Conroy, RMA Administrator
Julie@rmanewengland.org