Shawn
Hassel

Mr. Hassel is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Areté Partners. After years of experience guiding the leaders of organizations through some of their darkest days, Mr. Hassel recognized the deep experience and stability of character required to navigate the treacherous waters of highly charged restructuring situations was often lacking. Areté was founded as a special situations advisory firm providing independent fiduciary services with a strong bias to action and tangible value creation in rapidly evolving distressed situations. His approach to guiding the often non-linear processes associated with complex organizational change is highly influenced by his fundamental belief that embracing the “human element” of organizations is the only strategy that consistently moves the needle.

Mr. Hassel is a senior executive with a proven track record of identifying, managing, and implementing operational and financial solutions for companies that foster long-term strategic improvement and maximize value. Over the last 30 years, as a private equity investor, C-Suite executive, independent board member, and strategic advisor, he has worked with businesses across a wide range of industries. He has sat on both sides of the restructuring table, advising companies as well as their creditor constituencies, working with the decision makers of boards, management, equity owners, bondholders, and lenders. He has served and continues to serve as a member of multiple boards.

Mr. Hassel has been involved in all aspects of the business lifecycle, including growth, retrenchment, reinvention, and distress. He has formulated and executed strategic business plans, developed and implemented operational and financial turnaround strategies, negotiated complex capital structure solutions, managed the divestiture and monetization of multiple distressed assets, and helped companies mitigate crisis situations, ultimately managing the return to corporate viability.

Prior to Areté, Mr. Hassel was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Bestige Partners, where he built a private equity investment platform focused on long-term capital appreciation. He continues to be actively involved as an operating partner and board member to the firm’s portfolio companies. Prior to Bestige, he was a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal, where he spent 14 years advising clients through complex restructurings while leading the firm’s Phoenix Restructuring Practice and helping guide the national practice as a member of the firm’s Restructuring Executive Committee. Prior to A&M, he spent 7 years with Andersen in their corporate finance and restructuring group.

Mr. Hassel is also very active in philanthropic work and serves as the chair of the audit and restructuring committee at FINCA Impact Finance, a large multinational microfinance organization operating in 20 countries with over 800,000 clients and $1.2 billion in assets.