Corporate Advisory Services
How Solon Group Can Help
Often, executives in distressing situations think they should have all the answers. Just when they need help most, it seems impossible to ask. The skills required to navigate crisis, however, are not them same skills required to run the company every day. Having a confidential sounding board who has sat in the leader’s chair can be invaluable to identifying the goal, developing the path forward, and realizing the result. Deborah and her team are prepared to come along side you, providing the insight, guidance and validation needed to move forward.
About the Solon Group Network
With the kind of network, reach, and sophistication that can only be developed over time, the Solon Group’s team brings extensive and varied experience to each business challenge. Founded and led by Deborah Hicks Midanek, a pioneer in the corporate restructuring industry, our teams are comprised of outstanding people who parachute into high-pressure situations and make a difference fast, providing unbiased analysis, clear thinking and steady leadership.
Selected Engagements
Independent Director
For a deeply distressed offshore fund complex operating in multiple jurisdictions, Deborah served as sole independent director, successfully resolving the situation.
For a company emerging from Chapter 11, Deborah served as chairman, working with formerly warring, disparate board members to create a well functioning board.
For a public company, Solon Group resolved long standing compensation arguments, freeing the parties to move forward.
For a controversial company in bankruptcy, Deborah negotiated a restructured board of directors and served as lead director, resulting in successful recoveries and emergence.
Interim Management
For a family owned company, Solon Group helped remove a destructive non family manager and develop succession plans for nine members of the next generation, representing two family branches.
For a NYSE company, Deborah served as CEO during a major liquidity crisis, dividing operations into two pieces and successfully folding each.
For a Canadian company, Solon Group managed divestiture of non core assets in Europe and Asia.
Business Development
For an investment management firm, Solon Group developed its first branded proprietary funds.
For a property management company, Solon Group developed a process of re-purposing space and attracting new tenants.
Strategic Advisor
For a waste management company, Solon Group reorganized 52 P&L’s, organized by line of business, into three market segments to identify core vs non-core operations, then moving to sell non-core.
For a rural county, Deborah developed its first professional economic development function and crafted a strategic plan, resulting in significant regional job growth.
Financial Advisor
For a struggling chemical company, Solon Group rebuilt the company’s plant overhead from bottom up, providing the ideal mix of services, while removing 35% of overhead cost.
For a company facing an unexpected loss of patent protection, Solon Group developed a rapid downsizing process, while preserving core operations and maintaining morale.
Expert Witness
For many companies, Solon Group acts to provide expert reports, consulting services, and testimony.
Teacher
For business schools and others, Deborah has developed short form courses in acquisition due diligence, merger integration, restructuring techniques, and board of directors role.
About Deborah Hicks Midanek, Founder
As the founder and managing partner of Solon Group, Deborah leads our engagement teams.
With solid knowledge of capital markets from all points of view and a long record of success in building and rebuilding companies from the bottom up, Deborah focuses relentlessly on defining transitions as positive processes. Not interested in merely preserving companies, organizations and jobs, she instead works to drive them to levels previously unimagined. Drawing on her previous experience as CEO of United Companies Financial Corporation and Standard Brands Paint, she has led turnaround teams for diverse companies including Parmalat USA, Mississippi Chemical, and FINOVA.
Deborah earned her MBA from the Wharton School and an AB from Bryn Mawr College. A frequent writer and speaker on governance, strategy, and leadership, she is deeply involved in promoting entrepreneurship.
A Note from Deborah
"One of my favorite expressions is this: Fish Cannot See Water. Often people are too close to the situations they are in, and thus blind to pathways through challenges to renewal. It is not easy to distill what Solon does, but at its heart we work to help our clients develop a clear understanding of where they stand, what their possible routes forward are, and what they need to do to pursue those possibilities. Then we work to help realize them, working with our clients and their constituents to achieve agreed milestones. To every assignment, we bring three attributes: the steady hands of experience, the attitude of an owner, and the compassionate detachment of an outsider. We look forward to helping you tackle your biggest challenges and solve your toughest problems.” - Deborah
