Frank Sena and Team Join Bentley Associates

The Firm, Company Launches Travel & Leisure Banking Advisory Practice

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. May 06, 2009

MAY 6, 2009 - Bentley Associates, L.P, a 19 year-old leading independent investment banking advisory firm, announced today that Frank Sena, Justin Hirs, and Kineret Baumberg have joined the firm as Managing Director, Vice President, and Analyst, respectively. Mr. Sena most recently headed the Travel & Leisure investment banking practice at Libra Securities, where Mr. Hirs and Ms. Baumberg also worked with Mr. Sena. At Bentley, they will continue to focus on travel and leisure companies that require merger and acquisition advisory services and/or additional equity and debt financing.

Further, Bentley Associates is pleased to announce the addition of two Senior Advisors with extensive travel and leisure industry experience to further enhance this new industry practice. Mims Wright and Susan Black both have wide-ranging operational experience in the travel and leisure business, as well as investment banking expertise from their most recent positions at Denver-based Chimney Rock Capital Partners. Mr. Wright and Ms. Black have worked together for many years in their travel advisory firm, The Black & Wright Group.

This combined travel industry group has a recent history of more than 35 travel industry transactions, and 62 travel sector strategic advisory engagements.

Oliver D. Cromwell, Bentley Associates' Founder and President, commented, "I am delighted that we have added Frank and his team to launch a new concerted effort in the travel and leisure sector. These professionals have extensive experience and served as the investment bankers on a significant percentage of the transactions in this sector."

Mr. Cromwell also noted, "We continue to seek additional Managing Directors at the firm who have at least 10 years of investment banking experience, preferably at major Wall Street firms."

Bentley Associates is comprised of senior level investment bankers providing a full array of services to middle market and growth companies. Founded in 1990, these senior level investment bankers joined Bentley Associates over the years from a full array of major Wall Street firms. The firm's current 25 senior level investment bankers, typically with 15-25 years of experience, have executed a wide variety of transactions. Bentley's clients are in diverse industries, both domestically and internationally.

Biographical Background

FRANK SENA began his career with Cambridge Technology Group where he held management positions at two successful startup software companies. After business school, he joined the Investment Banking Department of Salomon Smith Barney in their Technology Group, where he worked with clients in the telecommunications equipment, information technology services, Internet, software and PC hardware sectors. In 1998, he joined CIBC World Markets as an Executive Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group where he worked with clients from various industries, including travel services, leisure, lodging, gaming and technology. In 2003, Mr. Sena joined Libra Securities, as Managing Director and Head of the Travel & Leisure Investment Banking Group. During his career, Mr. Sena has completed an extensive array of travel and leisure transactions in the areas of mergers, acquisitions, , fairness opinions, private financings and financial advisory assignments. He and his team joined Bentley in early 2009. Mr. Sena received his B.S. from Yale University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

M. MIMS WRIGHT is a veteran of the travel and leisure industry. Most recently, Mr. Wright was a Principal at Chimney Rock Capital Partners, a boutique investment bank, where he headed their travel practice. He was also the Co-Founder of The Black & Wright Group, a successful travel strategy firm, whose other principal was Susan Black. Previously, he was Co-founder of Bidtripper.com, a popular consumer travel site and Executive Vice President/eCommerce for TravelClick, Inc. Prior to entering travel, Mr. Wright served as President of a global energy company, focusing on corporate finance. He has also served on boards of both US and UK public companies and provided strategic advisory services to companies worldwide. Mr. Wright is an often-quoted, frequent speaker. Mr. Wright earned his B.A. from Belhaven College, Jackson, Mississippi.

SUSAN BLACK has spent her 29-year career in travel industry leadership roles. She is currently Managing Director of the strategy firm, Susan Black Associates, Inc. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor - Travel Industry at Chimney Rock Capital Partners, a boutique investment bank. Prior to that she was Chief Marketing Officer of CheapCaribbean.com, where she led strategy for the online retail and wholesale Vacation Package Company.

Ms. Black's previous post was Executive Vice President, Marketing, of $2 Billion LibGo Travel (Liberty Travel and GOGO Worldwide Vacations), where she was also a member of LibGo's Executive Strategy Committee. Prior to joining LibGo Travel, she founded and chaired the eight-year-old Travel Commerce Conference and Expo (TravelCom) in conjunction with Forrester Research, where she directed the growth of TravelCom into a multi-million dollar conference/tradeshow, culminating in an August 2005 sale to the US Travel Association (USTravel.org).

Ms. Black also served as Chairman of eTravelWorld, General Manager of Thomas Travel Ventures, a division of Thomas Publishing Co., Associate Publisher of Corporate Travel Magazine, and Senior Editor of Meeting News Magazine.

Ms. Black was also a co-founder of the travel strategy consultancy, The Black & Wright Group. She currently serves on several corporate and travel association Advisory Boards and is a frequent speaker at travel industry conferences and corporate events. Ms. Black received a B.A. from Rutgers University and an M.Phil from University College London.

JUSTIN HIRS joined Libra Securities in 2003 as a financial analyst. Mr. Hirs has experience working with travel services companies on mergers & acquisitions, financing and strategic advisory projects. He joined Bentley in early 2009 as a Vice President. Mr. Hirs received a B.S. and B.A. from the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

KINERET BAUMBERG first worked as a management analyst in the technology solutions group at BearingPoint, Inc. where she worked with hotel and travel services companies. In 2007, Ms. Baumberg began working in the Investment Banking Department of Libra Securities. She joined Bentley in early 2009 as an Analyst. Ms. Baumberg received a B.S. from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.