Mike Luther has over 20 years experience in the field of corporate finance and investing. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in 1981, Mr. Luther spent nearly 10 years working under the Harvard University professor, Dr. Jack Zwick (Zwick/Zenoff “Multinational Finance”) in the field of multinational finance. During this period, Mr. Luther advised the World Bank, the IMF and other multilateral institutions. He was also an advisor to institutions in the Middle East including the KIA, GCC, National Commercial Bank, Citibank, Chase Bank, Westpac Bank and many Asian institutions.
In 1989, Luther and Zwick advised many participating banks on the investment in the RJR Nabisco leveraged buyout. During the 1990’s Mr. Luther advised the largest shareholder of VF Corp. on a transaction that led to a leveraged recapitalization. Successive transactions involved middle market and Fortune 500 companies. Luther and Zwick created the initial corporate finance programs at Citibank and Chase.
During the 1990’s, Mr. Luther was involved in numerous corporate finance transactions and leveraged buyouts. Mr. Luther worked for Kirkpatrick Pettis, an affiliate of Mutual Of Omaha during the early 1990’s. One transaction he originated there was the management buyout of Transaction System Architects (NASD “TSAI”), a $55 million management buyout that went public within 2 years through Goldman Sachs and grew to a valuation of over $1 billion.
Over time, Mr. Luther began to invest for his own account. Mr. Luther and his partner were the founding investors in what would become Homestore.com (NASD “HOMS”.) From 2002 until late 2004 Mr. Luther and two partners ran a hedge fund with proprietary capital for Deutsche Bank.
His largest transaction involved originating and structuring the purchase of Alamo National Car Rental with Cerberus, the New York investment fund. Mr. Luther has been in corporate finance transactions of in natural resources from 2005 until present.
Michael Luther Facts 