Irwin Gold

Irwin Gold
Born	Irwin N. Gold
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Duke University University of Virginia School of Law
Occupation	Executive Chairman
Years active	1980s-present
Employer	Houlihan Lokey
Website
http://www.irwingold.com/

Irwin Gold is the Executive Chairman of Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE: HLI). In 1988, Gold co-founded the Financial Restructuring Group of Houlihan Lokey and is today considered a leading expert in corporate debt restructuring.

In the past 30 years, Gold has redefined the role of investment bankers in financially distressed transactions and pioneered the use of now common restructuring and liability management techniques, such as pre-arranged and pre-packaged Chapter 11 cases, larger-scale 363 asset sales and creative exchange offer structures. His expertise in these areas has led Gold to play a major role in restructuring debt for global corporations, including Charter Communications, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Southern California Edison, Delta Air Lines, and WorldCom.

Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Gold held three major positions in the 1980s. He began his career as a corporate lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1982. He then joined Wood Bros. Homes Inc., as a senior officer to restructure and sell the company between 1985 and 1986. His final role before joining Houlihan Lokey was as a Principal of the Seneca Group.

Education

Gold holds a J.D. from the from University of Virginia School of Law and a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Duke University.

Career

In Gold's early career, he spent three years as a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in its corporate department. In 1985, Gold became a senior officer of Woods Bros. Homes, Inc., a Denver-based real estate company, where he led the workout and sale of the company. Gold was a Principal of the Seneca Group from 1986 until he joined Houlihan Lokey in 1988. Gold has spent over three decades with the firm.

One major restructuring deal Gold was involved in was WorldCom in 2002. With a debt of $40 billion, it was the largest Chapter 11 filing in US history. By 2004, the company emerged from bankruptcy under the name MCI.

In 2005, Delta Air Lines announced it would be accelerating its restructuring, targeting an additional $3 billion per year in expense reductions by 2007. The restructuring process was managed by Houlihan Lokey, Gold and other executives. As part of the restructuring, it was announced that $970 million in savings was to come from debt relief, lease and facility savings, and previously commenced fleet modifications. A very small percentage of staff were cut as part of the cost saving to allow the airline to remain viable. The restructuring and new initiatives that were introduced meant Delta would return to profitability by late 2007.

In 2009, Houlihan Lokey restructured Charter Communications, reducing debt by $8 billion and raising $3.3 billion of additional capital. A year later, in 2010, Charter Communications was relisted on the NASDAQ.

In 2010, Gold and Houlihan Lokey managed the restructuring of MGM, through a pre-packaged Chapter 11 plan that restructured more than $4 billion in debt. During the same year, as Co-Head of Financial Restructuring for Houlihan Lokey, Gold restructured the $4 billion debt load of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a global leader in educational content services.

Gold was the Co-Founder and Global Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s leading Financial Restructuring Group for 26 years. Following decades of specializing in corporate restructuring, Gold became Executive Chairman of Houlihan Lokey on April 17, 2013. Houlihan Lokey and its senior executives have been responsible for some of the largest restructuring deals in U.S. corporate history, including Enron, Lehmann Brothers, General Motors, CIT Group, and WorldCom. Under Gold's guidance, Houlihan Lokey filed for its initial public offering in 2015 (NYSE: HLI). Gold is one of Houlihan Lokey’s senior executives responsible for strategic planning, client relations and business development, and manages the firm in conjunction with the other three members of the Office of the Executives.

Throughout his career, Gold has served on the boards of directors of numerous public companies, testified as an expert witness on restructuring matters, and spoken publicly on a variety of financial restructuring topics. He is the author of “Valuation of the Restructured Enterprise and Its Effect on Negotiating Leverage” and a member of the International Insolvency Institute.

Media commentary

In an interview with Bloomberg, Gold spoke about the industry-wide issue of retaining young talent. Young financial professionals often join firms such as Houlihan Lokey for a number of years before moving into private equity or alternative asset management. While the trend was affecting all major investment banks, Gold believed that market conditions were playing a factor. Gold suggested that, when the economy evolved into more of a bear market scenario, young talent would be less likely to move as frequently. He suggested that juniors at Houlihan Lokey were offered more job enrichment and client-facing opportunities at the firm, which he believed encouraged talent to stay at the firm for a longer period of time.

In 2018, Gold spoke about the next cycle of material financial distress. He hoped that the triggers would not lead to a similar lack of liquidity in the markets as witnessed during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Gold also believed that disruptive innovation and globalization in some industries had meant a number of major corporations were more directly affected by new entrants into particular markets than they were "say 30 years ago." Gold also believed that political turmoil and geopolitical issues could eventually be external factors that have deeper effects on markets, with Italy being a prime example. He believed that this change in market conditions could lead to an increase in restructuring. In an interview with Business Insider, Gold stated, "When you have highly leveraged companies and even a modest rise in interest rates, that can result in an increase in restructuring activity."

In 2020, Sonali Basak from Bloomberg interviewed Gold on March 31 to discuss the COVID-19 crisis, the financial markets during the pandemic, and what people can expect moving forward. Basak then interviewed him again in October as part of the special report "2020 Year of Crisis: The Credit Disconnect" on Bloomberg's Markets and Finance channel. He discussed the differences in credit available to large vs. small businesses and their ability to recover in the long-term.

In 2023, in an interview with Forbes, titled The Doctors of Broken Balance Sheets, Gold discussed repercussions of the Federal Reserve's rapid rate hikes following years of a Zero Interest Rate Policy fueling a speculative asset bubble. Gold anticipated increased fallout from institutions like Silicon Valley Bank's collapse leading to a booming financial restructuring business, benefiting Houlihan Lokey, known for fixing distressed companies.

Philanthropy

Gold is also a known supporter of numerous charitable causes in the areas of education, human services, the arts, the environment and healthcare/medical research, particularly relating to childhood diseases, cancer, and heart disease.