Alternatives to Graduate School & Self-Promotion // Real Name

While speaking with an operating partner from Centre Partners who was once at the helm of Restaurant Associates, he came away with a sense of urgency to an impending lawsuit impacting another couple of middle-market private equity firms: HGGC and Charlesbank. Leaving his position towards late January 2016 at Edison Investment Research, a U.K. based equity research firm, he decided to be sure there was tangibility in the A. Schulman matter concerning Citadel Plastics and Lucent Polymers. “Although at the time I was living in Long Island City, I never lost touch with my roots: in my hometown of Bridgewater, NJ – I lived less than a mile from a plastics manufacturing facility.” Reviakin decided to strike out on his own and do what he could to show federal investigators the impact this type of litigation would have on the industry. “Starting towards late Q1 2016, I spent the next 9 months finding a way to test the feasibility of backchannel diplomacy to get on their radar,” he explains.

Lawsuits typically take years to settle and this case was no different. He gave himself a 36 month commitment to the program before exploring next steps in his career. His first win came from a tipoff to a $275M lawsuit settlement request. “My brother, Eugene, having had worked at powerhouses such as Bloomberg as well as a French cryptocurrency company definitely instilled a sense of ethics in me. Furthermore, I wasn’t taking any chances on tainted intelligence.” A job interview at CoBE Capital two months before a proof of concept communications line was approved by the FBI, definitely tested any would be solo proprietor. Having had worked for 10 entrepreneurs to date allowed him to pass on this opportunity and instead serve as practice for his most recent engagement: a capital raising summer project involving an agribusiness. “Beforehand, I worked on a consumer lifestyle engagement as well as a debt capital markets 1099 project since leaving behind my private equity consulting job four years ago. Not to mention my tenure in investor relations at Edison.” While glancing over his LinkedIn profile, one can quickly see the breadth of his experience.

As to what exactly was accomplished; he points our attention to a prominent Cleveland law firm, Benesch. “Since A. Schulman is covered by some equity research firms north of their headquarters, I decided to also be advised by folks from Ohio. I once met a man, James, who worked in the private equity practice there and he instilled in me a sense of bravado and being proactive in my affairs.” He made sure to receive conflict-free funding during his 3 years away from the workforce. By paying attention to the settlement exceeding potential representations and warranties insurance and showing government authorities that some of the parties involved were willing to go above and beyond their job descriptions, other agencies such as the American Investment Council can see the impact independent third parties can make on the private equity industry.