Founder

Jay Alix founded AlixPartners in 1981. His vision and leadership propelled the firm to achieve 28 years of uninterrupted revenue growth and profitability and launched its global footprint. With over 900 employees and 14 offices on three continents, AlixPartners achieved Jay’s vision of being recognized globally as the industry leader and the employer of choice for the best and the brightest talent in the areas of corporate turnarounds, restructurings, financial advisory services and corporate performance improvement.

Sought out by corporate directors and executive management, Jay has served as CEO, COO and CFO as well as having invented, developed and served in the roles of Chief Turnaround Officer (CTO) and Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) for a variety of companies undergoing significant change. In addition, he has served as an advisor to major lenders, bondholders, trade creditors, shareholders, and city as well as federal government agencies to assist them in maximizing the value and recoveries from distressed companies.

Jay has led some of the largest and most complex out-of-court restructurings, turnarounds, and performance improvement programs, focusing on the speed of completion by minimizing litigation and achieving results and success through building consensus. With a passion for setting visions, developing strategies, designing high-impact performance improvement and turnaround strategies and processes, he has a relentless focus on building businesses, establishing priorities, time management, and achieving actual implementation of his ideas, vision and strategies.

Under Jay’s leadership, AlixPartners has served as advisor to management and corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies on a broad range of global matters, including financial restructurings, strategic operating matters, corporate governance and internal investigations.

Jay served on a pro bono basis as a strategic advisor to various Japanese government agencies and officials earlier in this decade as the nation of Japan developed its strategy and initiatives for corporate revitalization, restructuring and turnarounds. Jay played a key role helping the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), as well as other branches of government and industry, to establish the turnaround industry in Japan as the nation worked to revitalize its economy and restructure its corporate base after more than ten years of national recession and deflation. Jay’s use of the term “corporate saisei,” which cast the idea of saving a failing company in a more favorable light, was adopted by the corporate turnaround industry in Japan and expanded the existing lexicon.

Following Jay’s vision and strategy to be at the forefront of the restructuring industry, AlixPartners has played a key role in leading many of the major corporate restructurings of the last two decades, including General Motors, WorldCom, Enron, Dana Corporation, Calpine and Kmart Corporation. The firm also serves as a confidential advisor to many leading U.S., European and Asian companies that seek to solve urgent and high-impact issues that inhibit financial performance.

Jay has worked across a broad range of industries and sectors with a significant focus in the automotive industry where he has personally led many corporate restructurings and turnarounds as well as other critical projects at OEM’s and major suppliers. He has also been a regular speaker and commentator on the automotive industry within his areas of expertise.

President Clinton appointed Jay to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, which he served on in the mid- to late-nineties, the only businessperson and non-lawyer serving on the nine member commission which was established by Congress and charged with making proposals to revise the nation’s bankruptcy laws. Additionally, Jay has been recognized as an expert in courts throughout the U.S. as well as by Japan’s legal scholars and government leaders.

Jay served on a pro bono basis as a strategic advisor to Dennis Archer during his first term as Mayor of Detroit in the mid-nineties, helping to plan and lead the Mayor’s 400-member Transition Team, as well as the restructuring and turnaround of the city’s finances and operations.

In addition to his leadership roles and turnaround activities, Jay has lectured widely, written many articles on turnaround management, co-authored two books published by West Publishing on the financial issues facing companies in reorganization, and given many speeches on companies in transition, debt negotiations and the corporate revitalization process. He has taught classes within his expertise to thousands of people, including being invited to lecture at the Harvard Business School, the University of Michigan Law School, as well as teaching numerous U.S. Bankruptcy Judges and U.S. District Judges through the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC. In addition, Jay was sponsored to teach U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Trustees by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2008, Jay was honored as one of the inaugural inductees for the Turnaround Management Association Hall of Fame for his leading role in establishing and building the turnaround industry. Jay was awarded Wayne State University’s 2005 Michigan Executive of the Year award. He received the Harvey R. Miller Outstanding Achievement Award for Service to the Restructuring Industry in November 2004. The Japanese Association for Turnaround Professionals honored him as its inaugural Foreign Member in April 2003. The Turnaround Management Association presented Jay with the 2002 Chairman’s Award in recognition of his “pioneering leadership role” in helping to create and build the turnaround industry, including Jay’s role in creating and promoting the industry’s lexicon, most notably combining the words “turn” and “around” to create the noun “turnaround.”

Jay’s experience includes designations as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP), a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and a Certified Insolvency & Reorganization Accountant (CIRA). In addition, he is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. He has served as a court-appointed fiduciary including serving as an Operating Trustee as well as an Examiner in complex Chapter 11 cases and fraud investigations.

Jay completed the YPO/Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School, and holds an MBA in Accounting from Rutgers University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career as a C.P.A. with Price Waterhouse in New York.

As a widowed single father, Jay has also focused on his two teen-aged daughters and their development, activities and well-being. They reside in suburban Detroit.