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JERRY W. LEVIN
Mr. Levin is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JW Levin
Partners LLC, a management and investment firm organized in February
2005.
Mr. Levin is an experienced CEO, turnaround
expert and mergers & acquisitions
specialist. He has been growing the sales and profits
of branded consumer products companies for the past 30 years
via internal product development programs, restructurings, acquisitions,
and cultural improvements.
From 1974-1989, Mr. Levin worked for the
Pillsbury Company ("Pillsbury"). In
his initial capacity as head of corporate development, Mr. Levin
completed hundreds of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
Some of the transactions Mr. Levin led included Haagen-Dazs,
Green Giant, Totino's Pizza, Steak & Ale, Chart House,
and American Beauty Macaroni. Mr. Levin also became the Chief
Executive Officer of several operating units within Pillsbury,
including Haagen-Dazs and the second largest restaurant group
in the U.S. (comprised of Burger King, Steak & Ale, Bennigan's,
Chart House, and Godfather's Pizza).
From 1989 until 1991, Mr. Levin was the Chief
Executive Officer of The Coleman Company, Inc. ("Coleman"),
a company controlled by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.
("MacAndrews & Forbes"). During
his tenure as Coleman's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Levin divested
non-strategic businesses and devoted resources to growing the
core camping business.
From 1991 until 1997, Mr. Levin was the Chief
Executive Officer of Revlon, Inc., another company controlled
by MacAndrews & Forbes. When
Mr. Levin joined Revlon, it was suffering from significant losses
and debt load, and had a number three, and declining, market
share in the United States mass market for color cosmetics. By
the end of Mr. Levin's tenure as Chief Executive Officer of Revlon,
Revlon was restructured with its debt load significantly reduced
and the number one market share in the United States mass market
for color cosmetics. Mr. Levin became Chief Executive
Officer of Coleman again from early 1997 to the sale of Coleman
to Sunbeam Corporation ("Sunbeam") in March 1998.
From June 1998 until January 2005, Mr. Levin
served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American
Household, Inc. (formerly named Sunbeam) ("American Household"),
the holding company for Coleman, Sunbeam Products, Inc., Coleman
Powermate, Inc., and First Alert, Inc. Mr. Levin was
hired by the Board of Directors of Sunbeam after the termination
of Al Dunlap with Sunbeam facing numerous significant financial,
operational and legal issues. Mr. Levin restructured
Sunbeam's operations during 1999 and 2000, and in 2001, in
order to restructure Sunbeam's finances, Mr. Levin led Sunbeam
through a chapter 11 restructuring. American
Household, Inc., was sold in two separate transactions during
2004 and at the time of its sale, it businesses were the leading
or one of the leading businesses in the markets they served.
Mr. Levin graduated from the University of Michigan with B.S.E.
degrees in Electrical and Mathematics and received an MBA from
the University of Chicago in 1968.
Mr. Levin is on the Board of Directors and chairs the governance
committees of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:
USB). |