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Ventor LLCWho We Are

Our Principles

For us, consulting is a privilege. It allows us to bring our talents and skills in service to clients. And to underscore our service, we publish these simple principles:

  1. We serve our clients with integrity and independence.

  2. We establish realistic expectations of the costs and benefits of each engagement, and put them in writing.

  3. We treat all confidential client information as such. We do not take advantage of privileged information.

 
The Team

Walter SimsonWalter Simson

Walter Simson is experienced as both a CEO and CFO in successful startups and turnaround companies.  In addition, as the principal of his own firm, he has consulted at senior levels to companies in industry, financial services and biotechnology.  Walter's expertise is in quickly analyzing and thoughtfully implementing the strategic, financial and operating plans that improve companies' revenues, efficiencies and profitability.  His experience also includes consulting to debtors, creditors, estates, legal advisors and equity investors.  He has been appointed by the US Trustee's Office of the Department of Justice as both an advisor and as a member of the unsecured creditors' committee in chapter eleven (bankruptcy) cases.

His turnaround experience includes:

Walter's key methodology is called "Core Product/Core Customer," a proprietary method that links direct costing, strategic imperatives and business process improvements to lead clients to profitability.

Walter started his career at the Chase Manhattan Bank, where he worked in investment banking, syndications and workouts.  He managed the 1982 rescheduling of the $32 billion debt of the Republic of Venezuela, where he served as co-chair of the creditor's committee. 

Walter holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from New York University.  He has lectured in turnarounds and venture capital at Columbia, NYU and UW-Madison graduate Business Schools. 

Clyde E. Rettig

Clyde Rettig is a true business builder.  He has been a venture capitalist, consultant, and technology executive.  He has advised the CEO's of raw startups as well as those of the Fortune 50.  His long interest in and deep knowledge of technology adoption across enterprises, along with licensing, patent development, joint ventures, public offerings and other milestones of corporate life make him an indispensable member of the Ventor team.  He is also recognized as an expert in growth strategies for industrial and business-to-business companies.

Clyde began his strategy consulting career at Bain and Company in 1974, and went on to do business development and venture capital investing, primarily in technology.  He returned to consulting, capping his formal career as a firm director of Deloitte in Boston before joining Ventor.

He received his BS in Economics and Management Science from MIT and his MBA, with Distinction, from the Harvard Business School.

Lisa M. Van Lieshout, CPA

Lisa Van Lieshout has over 13 years of consulting, management and executive experience. She began her career as an auditor with Grant Thornton and moved to the financial staff at Newell Rubbermaid, where she was involved with costing and inventory controls in a manufacturing environment.She was also the controller for GE Healthcare’s Life Support Solutions business in Madison Wisconsin, where her duties included forecasting, budgeting, financial policies and international merger integration

In addition to her association with Ventor, she is a Manager with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP. 

Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MBA from Edgewood College

Tricia Atallah

Tricia has over 20 years of entrepreneurial, management and consulting experience and is a nationally-known expert in the construction industry.  Tricia leads Ventor’s Construction Turnaround Practice.

Originally a corporate banker, Tricia founded SoundBuild, Inc. a construction consulting firm in 1994.   She led her firm’s efforts to provide comprehensive consulting services designed to assist clients to minimize risk and maximize results on their capital programs, including:

SoundBuild was acquired by Navigant Consulting, Inc. in 2006.

Tricia is author of the book “Building a Successful Construction Company: Create a Strategy / Organize Your Business / Protect Your Bottom Line” (Kaplan, August 2006), which is used as a textbook by New York University and other schools. She also writes a blog on McGraw-Hill’s web site, www.enr.com (“Growing Pains”) which addresses common business issues faced by growing construction companies. 

She has an M.B.A. in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a B.A. in political science from Tufts University.  She speaks Portuguese, Italian, German and French.

Gary Bernhardy

Gary Bernhardy has been devoted to turnaround consulting since 1993, and was one of the earliest practitioners to achieve the highest professional designations.  He has particular expertise in refining, ethanol production and other process industries.  Earlier, he lead the turnaround of the metals processing operation at American Can, and formulated the asset redeployment programs for Gulf Oil .  He began his career as an engineer in the integrated oil industry.

Mr. Bernhardy holds a BS and MS in Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA in Finance from New York University.   He is a Certified Turnaround Professional and a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor.