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 — or in what has been misconstrued.
Mark E. Palmer
An experienced practitioner for situations that “outran their playbook.”
Mark Palmer founded Theseus Strategy Group to do one thing well: assist through situations where the usual answers and typical tactics are failing. He also provides critical support to management in need of the skills and experience but lacking the internal resources.
The practice draws on three convergent experiences: running corporate practices of preeminent global law firms; managing positions across some of the largest restructurings of this century; or stepping in as the executive responsible for change. He is not just a consultant across the table but a trusted problem solver making the calls.
He ties this experience together to serve clients who need a fresh read on a situation and the insights to act on it – or to serve those who simply need support to deliver on their plans.
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 also 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 and how they really 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.
Using this experience and insight, we evaluate the issues and manage the multiple threads to deliver a desired result. Preserving leverage and options where none appears to exist.
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 more than $13 billion and involved in some of the most challenging and creative restructurings in the industry.
Across nearly two decades, he shepherded large and complex situations: e.g., Standard Pacific, where analysis of restricted investment covenants and basic M&A legal principles yielded a control position in one of the largest homebuilders. Nortel, where a view on the assets inside meant knowing bonds were undervalued. TOUSA, a fraudulent conveyance trade settled at fifty times the start. And Energy XXI, where legal guiding principles and tailored 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. A willingness to do the work — 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 or driving advisors and others to get the job done — 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 the history of the Delaware bankruptcy court, while simultaneously dismantling an attempted insider takeover and transforming a business in rapid change. At Titan Transportation, it meant resetting the equipment cost base of a national transportation company suffering a sector collapse — 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. The decisions about process and people. The conversations no one wants to have. The willingness to make the call and drive the solution.
Meeting the challenge
One operating instinct.
Whether in a classroom, through service, legal practice or investing, or manifesting itself in a boardroom, dedication to overcome the challenge persists.
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 and pivot is flawed.
Make the calls; deliver the solution; drive the players.
From the seat, not merely a voice across the table. The decisions are about people, capital and timing — decisions that others may have left unmade.
A Closing Note
If your situation fits these parameters, a conversation is worth having.
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