TEAM

Heath B. Freeman is the Chairman of our board of directors. Mr. Freeman is one of the founding members of Alden Global Capital LLC and has been its President since 2014. He has been managing and investing in companies with an opportunistic and catalyst-driven approach since 2006 when he joined Smith Management LLC, which was a prior affiliate of Alden Global. Prior to joining Smith Management, Mr. Freeman was an investment banker at Peter J. Solomon Company, where he specialized in mergers & acquisitions, structuring and financings. In addition to his investment research and operational responsibilities at Alden Global, within the media platform, Mr. Freeman currently serves as Chairman of Tribune Enterprises, LLC, a company that owns and manages media properties such as The Chicago Tribune, South Florida Sun Sentinel and The Hartford Courant and Vice Chairman of MNG Enterprises, Inc., a company that owns and manages media properties such as The Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register and the Boston Herald. Within the sports platform, Mr. Freeman serves as Managing Partner of the Florida Freedom of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and Executive Chairman of the AVP, the premier beach volleyball league. Mr. Freeman also serves as Managing Partner of EHP Hospitality Group which owns and operates marinas, hotels, and restaurants throughout the east end of Long Island. Additionally, Mr. Freeman currently serves as a director of SLT Group, LLC, which operates in the fitness space, Thuzio, Inc., a media company, and Party Products LLC, a consumer products company which acquired certain assets of the Tupperware brand. Mr. Freeman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.

Mario A. Zarazua is our Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of our board of directors. Since 2015, Mr. Zarazua has worked in investment or senior executive capacities at Alden Global, Smith Management LLC, or operating companies in which Alden Global was a majority owner. He is currently a Senior Managing Director at Smith Management LLC where he has invested in and managed businesses across a range of industries, including hospitality, real estate and sports, such as Florida Freedom of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders). Mr. Zarazua is also Chief Executive Officer of EHP Hospitality Group which owns and operates marinas, hotels, and restaurants throughout the east end of Long Island. He previously served as a senior investment professional at Alden Global and supported investment sourcing and deal structuring for Oyster Enterprises Acquisition Corp. Previously, Mr. Zarazua served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of Payless Holdings LLC and worked on its global restructuring. Mr. Zarazua also served as a board member and/or officer for several affiliated or subsidiary Payless legal entities. Prior to that role, Mr. Zarazua was Senior Vice President, M&A and Strategic Initiatives at MNG Enterprises, Inc., a company that owns media properties such as The Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register and the Boston Herald. Before that, Mr. Zarazua worked at AT&T in various roles across the company, including operations, sales, and global business strategy. Mr. Zarazua graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Randall D. Smith, our advisor, is the Chief of Investments of Alden Global and is one of the founding members of the firm, which was founded in 2007. Mr. Smith has been investing in companies with an opportunistic and catalyst-driven approach for more than 50 years. Prior to focusing on principal investing through Alden Global and Smith Management LLC, he established and ran R.D. Smith & Co., a company that became one of the largest enterprises in the world devoted exclusively to financially distressed companies. R.D. Smith & Co. was both a principal investor in distressed and a broker dealer for distressed securities. Mr. Smith exited that business in 1991 to focus exclusively on managing assets for himself and affiliated entities. Prior to creating R.D. Smith & Co., he was a partner at Bear Stearns where he headed the convertible arbitrage department and later focused on distressed investing. Mr. Smith previously served as a board member for Tribune Publishing Company, which Alden Global acquired in 2021. Mr. Smith graduated from Cornell University and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike Rollins has served as our Chief Financial Officer since inception. He has served as Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Calabrese Consulting, a financial accounting and consulting firm, since 2019. Mr. Rollins has served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Operating Officer for several public and private companies, including eLandia International, MSH International, Inc., Elevation Health, Fuse Science Inc., Technology Control Services and TVC Telecom. Mr. Rollins holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Georgia.

Divya K. Narendra serves as a member of our board of directors and has served as the Chief Executive Officer and is Founder of SumZero, Inc., an online community for professional investors which he founded in 2008. Mr. Narendra is also a Managing Partner of SumZero Capital, a private fund that invests in public equities recommended by the SumZero investment community, since 2024. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Gemini Trust Company, a digital asset exchange, since 2015 and MeWe, a privacy-first social network, since 2022. Previously, Mr. Narendra was an associate at Sowood Capital Management a multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to that, he was an analyst in the M&A Group at Credit Suisse (which was later acquired by UBS), a global financial services firm. Mr. Narendra received a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College and a JD/MBA from Northwestern University.

Lief Haniford serves as a member of our board of directors and has since 2023 been an independent investor. He served as a Director at Temasek International (USA) LLC, a global investment company, from 2017 to 2023, where he helped lead and manage investments in the industrials and transportation & logistics sectors and develop and drive investment strategies related to digitisation and sustainability. Prior to that, Mr. Haniford served as an Investment Analyst at BMGI, a private investment firm, from 2011 to 2016, where he invested across a variety of sectors on behalf of Bill and Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation Trust. Previously, Mr. Haniford held positions at McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a law firm; Jones Day, a law firm; and UBS (NYSE: UBS), a global financial services firm where he began his career as an Analyst. Mr. Haniford received a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from Stanford University, a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jordan Fliegel serves as a member of our board of directors and is a two-time venture-backed tech founder and Chief Executive Officer, experienced startup investor, and advisor to Chief Executive Officer’s of high-growth companies. He also serves on the Entrepreneurs Council at the Center for American Entrepreneurship (CAE) and is the author of leadership book Coaching Up! (Wiley & Sons, 2016). Mr. Fliegel is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shareholder Ventures, a holding company backed by experienced founders and operators, that helps acquisition entrepreneurs acquire small and medium-sized businesses from retiring owners by providing capital, back-office support, resources and community. He was previously the Managing Director of the Techstars Sports Accelerator, which he launched in 2019. He also led the Techstars NYC Accelerator, which he took on from previous leadership in 2022. Between the two accelerators, he led investments in approximately two dozen startups per year. Mr. Fliegel is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Founders First, a vertical-agnostic early-stage angel fund and leading syndicate on AngelList, which he has led since co-founding it in 2014. Portfolio companies include seed investments in now-unicorn startups like Carta, a cap table management, and company/fund operations solution and Ramp, a business credit card, bill payment and expense management provider. He was previously co-Chief Executive Officer of Draft.com, a venture-backed fantasy sports company until its sale to Paddy Power Betfair in 2017. Before Draft, from 2012 to 2016, Mr. Fliegel was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer and President (now Chairman) of CoachUp.com, a sports coaching marketplace. Prior to CoachUp, Mr. Fliegel played professional basketball in the Israeli Premier League, Israeli National League, and EuroCup league. In 2018, he led a group that bought a minority stake in the ANBL four-time champion New Zealand Breakers. Mr. Fliegel holds a B.A. in Philosophy & Government from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A. from Tel Aviv University.