Executive Officers

George E. Hall, 51
Chief Investment Officer and Director

Mr. Hall is the Founder, CEO, President and Chief Investment Officer of Clinton Group, Inc. Mr. Hall is ultimately responsible for all final investment and trading decisions, risk management and quantitative analysis. Before founding Clinton Group, Inc. in 1991, Mr. Hall was a vice president at Greenwich Capital Markets, Inc., a primary dealer and mortgage securities broker-dealer. He headed the mortgage arbitrage group which traded mortgage securities, interest rate derivatives and futures and options. There he created and implemented the firm’s analytical systems for CMOs and related securities. Prior to his time at Greenwich Capital Markets, he directed the trading of mortgage securities including agency pass-throughs, options, whole loans, CMOs and interest rate derivatives at Citicorp Investment Bank. Before pursuing his MBA, Mr. Hall was a nuclear engineer at Tenneco Corporation. Mr. Hall holds a BS from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel A. Strauss, 27
Vice President of Acquisitions and Secretary

Mr. Strauss is a member of the private equity team at Clinton Group. He is responsible for evaluating and executing transactions across a range of industries. Prior to joining the Clinton Group in 2010, he was with Angelo, Gordon & Co. as a member of the firm’s private equity practice. Prior to his work at Angelo, Gordon & Co., he was a Financial Analyst at Houlihan Lokey focusing on mergers and acquisitions in the consumer products industry. Mr. Strauss holds a B.S. in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Mr. Strauss is a director of Pacific Mecantile Bancorp, a Nasdaq-listed company.

Francis A. Ruchalski, 47
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Ruchalski is a CPA and the CFO of the Clinton Group. Prior to joining Clinton Group in 1997, Mr. Ruchalski was an audit manager for Anchin, Block & Anchin, LLP, a certified public accounting firm. His responsibilities included client auditing and financial and taxation planning. Mr. Ruchalski holds a BS in Accounting from St. John’s University.

Board of Directors

Thomas J. Baldwin, 56
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Baldwin is a private investor and a past Chairman of the Board, CEO and business leader in the restaurant industry. Most recently, Mr. Baldwin was the Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc., positions he held from 2005 until February 2010. Mr. Baldwin, formerly the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, was instrumental in key parts of Morton’s history. Mr. Baldwin joined Morton’s in 1989 as vice president, finance and chief financial officer as part of an LBO with Castle Harlan, a private equity firm. He oversaw the company’s IPO in 1992. He was later promoted to senior vice president, finance and in 1997 was named executive vice president. He was first elected to the board of directors in 1998. The management team and Castle Harlan took the company private in July 2002 after defeating a hostile takeover attempt and proxy challenge. Mr. Baldwin, as CEO, led the subsequent IPO on the NYSE in February 2006. Earlier in his career, he served as a vice president for strategic planning at Citigroup and held a number of executive positions with Kraft (General) Foods. Mr. Baldwin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Inc. and Wood Fired Holding Corp., the parent company of Firebirds Wood Fired Grill Restaurants, and serves on the Board of Advisors of Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, Inc. and Home Run Inn Pizza Corp. Mr Baldwin has been an advisor or member of Boards of Directors for numerous restaurant companies, including Caribbean Restaurants, Inc. and McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants, Inc. He is a past chairman and long-time board member of the March of Dimes, Connecticut Division. Mr. Baldwin was appointed Managing Director of the Clinton Group on December 20, 2011.

Joseph A. De Perio, 33
Vice-Chairman of the Board and President

Mr. De Perio is a senior member of the portfolio management team of Clinton Group, Inc. Mr. De Perio is involved in all aspects of portfolio management for public equity and private equity strategies at Clinton Group, including trading, structuring and research. Prior to joining Clinton Group, he was a Senior Analyst at Millennium Management executing a long/short public equity strategy. Prior to his work in hedge funds, he was an associate at Trimaran Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity investment fund. He originated, executed and monitored leveraged buyout and growth equity investments in the technology and consumer industries. Mr. De Perio was also an Associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions department of CIBC Oppenheimer. Mr. De Perio currently serves on the board of directors of Overland Storage, Inc., a provider of data protection appliances and solutions for small to midsized businesses and distributed enterprises, and Viking Systems, Inc., a provider of integrated visualization and operation systems for surgical procedures. Mr. De Perio’s restaurant investment experience includes equity investments in Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc. California Pizza Kitchen, Inc., Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc., Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., O’Charley’s Inc. and McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants, Inc. Mr. De Perio received a BA in business economics and organizational behavior management with honors from Brown University, where he was enrolled in the Program in Liberal Medical Education.

Jamal Mashburn, 38
Director

Mr. Mashburn is most notably known for his success on the basketball court — the former college and NBA All Star spent over 20 years with the Kentucky Wildcats, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, and New Orleans Hornets. With a natural knack for teambuilding, Mr. Mashburn took his skills straight to the business world after his basketball career was over. Mr. Mashburn successfully assembled a team of savvy professionals specializing in administration, finance, project management, insurance, and advertising, and to date, Mr. Mashburn has ownership interest in numerous restaurant franchises (38 Outback Steakhouse restaurants, 32 Papa John’s pizza restaurants, and three Dunkin Donuts stores), car dealerships (owner of Kentucky’s Toyota of Nicholasville and Lexus Store of Lexington), real estate, and the thoroughbred horse racing industry. Mr. Mashburn is active in the community and has established the Mashburn Scholarship Fund at the University of Kentucky. He is also a founding member, officer, and director of The MAP Foundation (focused on youth mentoring) and the Mashburn Family Foundation (offering programs and support for latch-key children and children of alcoholics and single mothers). Mr. Mashburn currently sits on the Board of Directors for the National Forest Foundation and has served on the Advisory Board for Central Bank & Trust Company in Lexington, Kentucky.

Ronald D. McCray, 54
Director

Mr. McCray is a private investor and corporate director. He serves on the board of directors of A. H. Belo, the board of trustees for Cornell University, and the visiting committee of the Harvard Law School, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. McCray is a limited partner of the Boston Celtics ownership group, and previously served as a director of Knight Ridder, Inc. Mr. McCray practiced corporate, securities and finance law at law firms in New York City and Dallas from 1983-1987. He then joined Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a $19 billion consumer products company, where he worked for over 20 years, and was elected senior vice president —  law and government affairs. He joined Nike, Inc., a $19 billion sports and apparel company, from 2007 to May 2009 as Chief Administrative Officer with responsibility for strategic leadership and for oversight of various business and administrative functions. Mr. McCray graduated from Cornell University in 1979, where he was named to honor societies his junior and senior years. He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1983, where he served as the editor and business manager of the Harvard Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Law Review. In 2011, President Obama nominated Mr. McCray to serve as a member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Joseph Stein, 51
Director

Mr. Stein is a senior executive leader with solid executive management experience and skill in motivating teams to achieve success. Mr. Stein is currently owner/founder of Simply Innovate^TM, an innovation consultancy focused on creating tools to help companies innovate, providing consulting services, and facilitating executive workshops and speaking engagements. Previously, Mr. Stein served as Senior Vice President of Strategy & Innovation of El Pollo Loco, Inc., a quick service restaurant company with over 400 restaurants. Prior to this role, Mr. Stein served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In his capacity at El Pollo Loco, Mr. Stein oversaw the sale of El Pollo Loco to a private equity investor and directed public bond offerings in 2003 and 2005. Previously, Mr. Stein held a similar role at Rubio’s Restaurants, Inc. where he oversaw their initial public offering. Mr. Stein also was an executive of CKE Restaurants, Inc., Checkers Drive-in Restaurants, Inc. and Fidelity National Financial, Inc. Mr. Stein began his career as a CPA at KPMG.

David L. Burke, 49
Director

Mr. Burke is the owner of DBGlobal, LLC and Watershed Ventures, LLC, the parent company of eight modern American restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Prior to his entrepreneurship and ownership of restaurants, Mr. Burke trained at the Culinary Institute of America and with notable chefs such as Pierre Troisgros, Georges Blanc and Gaston Lenôtre. Burke returned from France to the U.S. as a sous chef for Waldy Malouf at La Cremaillere and for Charlie Palmer at River Café, where he ascended to Executive Chef and earned three stars from The New York Times. In 1992, Burke opened the Park Avenue Café with the Smith &Wollensky Restaurant Group and, in 1996, became Vice President of Culinary Development for the Smith &Wollensky Restaurant Group. Mr. Burke then went on to open his own restaurants, including David Burke Townhouse, David Burke Prime and Fromagerie, among many others. As well as being a chef and restaurateur, Mr. Burke is an inventor, author, television personality and product developer.