Meet the Team
David L. Bogetz
David has more than 30 years’ combined experience in the financial markets as well as in senior management roles with various companies. His financial background includes commercial banking, investment banking, venture capital, and private equity investing. David has been an active investor and board member for companies in various industries, such as general manufacturing, healthcare, technology, distribution, and retail. In these roles, David has helped his portfolio companies generate accelerated growth, by both analyzing opportunities for internal growth, as well as identifying and analyzing potential strategic acquisitions. David has worked turnarounds of underperforming companies, leading strategies to increase sales, focus product offerings, streamline production, improve quality, and generate additional cash flow.
Prior to creating Burnham Capital Partners, David was the Founder and President of ABN AMRO’s private equity group in North America. During his career he has invested over $500 million directly into companies, or through limited partnerships with other private equity firms, for institutional investors such as ABN AMRO and the Sears Pension Plan. He has extensive experience with industry consolidations, mergers & acquisitions, initial public offerings, and turnaround investing. David is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) and a member of the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, where he is a long-time committee chair as well as a past board member. David holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois.
Bernard D. Asher
Bernie is a seasoned senior executive who works hands-on with companies to improve operating performance, validate business models, and assist in fundraising events. He provides outsourced or interim leadership and consulting services to help companies increase revenues, improve operations, optimize cash flow, and prepare business plans for fundraising. He has broad business and technical knowledge with over 30-years’ experience in the manufacturing, transportation, software, technology, real estate, and renewables industries. Recently he served as CFO of a large-scale cold-storage company; CFO of an entertainment development company supporting its $160 million funding; and CFO of a waste to energy company for the largest sustainable aviation fuel project in the airline industry.
Bernie began his career with A.O. Smith Corporation, and moved to CIMLINC, the company that pioneered the first UNIX workstation-based CAD/CAM systems. At CIMLINC he helped improve operations of manufacturers such as John Deere, General Motors, and Boeing. Bernie has served as a Director in Management Consulting for a Coopers & Lybrand subsidiary where he was involved in operational improvements at several Ford Motor assembly plants. He was part of the team that helped the Cadiz, Spain facility increase output over 270% and become Ford’s number one quality plant in the world. He worked with multiple Ford senior executives to develop the framework for re-engineering five Ford divisions. As its president and CEO, Bernie led the turnaround of Real World Technology, a venture-backed supply chain solutions company. He refocused the company, implemented a plan to get to cash flow breakeven, raised growth capital, and executed a strategy to double sales and increase margins by over 30%. Bernie is the co-developer of two patents and created the Manufacturing Profitability Index™ to measure the impact of incremental investment in manufacturing. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Illinois.
Robert P. Handler
Bob has over 30 years’ experience within the commercial restructuring sector as an attorney, commercial lender, and turnaround manager. He has handled business financing, reorganizations, mergers & acquisitions, court-supervised receiverships, bankruptcy reorganizations, sales, and liquidations across the United States in a wide variety of industries. Bob was a founding member and general counsel for the commercial lending divisions of Bank of America and The CIT Group, where he was involved in sourcing, structuring, and documenting loans to financially distressed companies. He is a Bankruptcy Trustee, a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP), and has been engaged in all aspects of restructuring distressed businesses on behalf of secured creditors, creditors’ committees, and debtor clients. Bob holds a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and a B.A. from Grinnell College.
James M. Wilber
Jim has more than 41 years’ experience in consulting, commercial banking, and manufacturing. Since 1982 he has worked for many of the largest national banks in the United States in the areas of credit, new business development, and troubled loan workouts. Over the last 10 years, Jim has been an independent consultant with engagements ranging from bank turnarounds, Chapter 11 reorganizations, Chapter 7 liquidations, and real estate foreclosures, to operating company reorganizations. He has worked for Northern Trust, Mellon Bank, Bank of America, National City Bank, US Bank, and several of the major regional banks. During his early career Jim was an accountant with the Chevrolet Motor Division of the General Motors Corporation. While earning his M.B.A., Jim worked as a healthcare consultant, working on budgeting, certificate of need applications, reimbursement accounting, and hospital staffing. Jim has an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Business Administration from Central Michigan University. He is a Certified Management Accountant and a member of the Institute of Management Accountants. Jim is the President of the Chicago Chapter.