Know what underlies and drives your unique situation.
In the documents. In the numbers. In the principles. In the task. The wins are often where others have neglected.
Mark E. Palmer
An experienced practitioner for situations that “outran their playbook.”
Mark founded Theseus Strategy Group to do one thing well: work through situations where the usual answers don't work and support management needing experience but lacking internal resources.
The practice draws on running corporate practices at preeminent global law firms; managing positions across the largest restructurings; and stepping in as the executive responsible for the outcome.
He works from Dallas, TX, and operates nationally.
Structural Architecture
Read the challenge; build a solution to meet it.
Mark trained initially as an M&A lawyer, serving as a partner and practice group leader at multiple leading firms. He served as General Counsel and as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. Many wins come from simply knowing how situations were designed to play out.
Using this knowledge, he became an Investment Partner and Chief Structuring Officer at one of the world’s leading distressed private equity firms, taking on and managing trades and investments through uncertainty, cycles and conflict.
We evaluate the issues and manage the multiple threads to deliver a desired result.
Investment Strategy
The insights and discipline of capital.
Experience in venture and distressed investing, as well as entrepreneurship, provides a unique perspective. Mark served at MatlinPatterson, a distressed private equity franchise managing $13+ billion and involved in some of the most challenging and creative restructurings.
Across nearly two decades, he shepherded large and complex situations: e.g., Standard Pacific, where restricted investment covenants and M&A legal principles yielded a control position in a largest homebuilder. Nortel, where a view on the assets meant the bonds were undervalued. TOUSA, a fraudulent conveyance trade settled at 50x the start. And Energy XXI, where legal principles and tactics turned a 1.5 cents trade into a 30 cent resolution.
The common thread through these deals is that there is no single playbook — the deeper reading, the value of assets and opportunities, the hidden conditions, the practical angles others have neglected or ignored.
Crisis Operations
Taking the reins; more than a consult.
In many situations, advice is not enough. Mark has stepped in as the executive carrying the decision - whether as Chief Restructuring Officer, Chief Transformation Officer, Chief Liquidation Officer, or as critical fractional support.
At Loot Crate, that meant driving one of the fastest 363 sales in history, while simultaneously dismantling an attempted insider takeover and transforming a business in rapid change. At Titan Transportation, it meant resetting the equipment cost base - while protecting the core and creating an overall restructuring plan.
These chapters reveal where structure and capital meet the human and implementation side of the work.
Meeting the challenge
One operating instinct.
A persisting dedication to overcome the challenge, whether in a classroom or through military service, legal practice or investment management, or as manifest in a boardroom.
A Guiding Principle
Deliver skills and experience, as one unified solution.
Find hidden leverage; adapt and then create and extend your options.
Extreme tactical measures, applied to exhausted or evolving situations. A solution that cannot adapt is flawed.
Make the calls; deliver the solution; drive the players.
The decisions are about people, capital and timing. Hard decisions that unlock value.
A Closing Note
If your situation fits these parameters, a conversation is worth having.
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Our Services
Restructuring Advisory
Complex Transactions
Liquidations/Litigation
Special Situations
Fractional Support
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