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Jeffrey Balash

Jeffrey
Balash

Mr. Balash has worked with and in successful growth companies for over twenty-five years, including his full-time involvement in eight start-ups and conducting business on five continents and twenty countries.

He was a managing director in corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions, both at Lehman Brothers (NYC: 1979-1985) and at Drexel Burnham Lambert (Beverly Hills: 1985-1990).

At Drexel, he founded and managed the Strategic Merger Group, which originated corporate development and acquisition ideas to accelerate growth for a broad range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to private equity investment groups to successful entrepreneurs, as well as representing companies both in the sale process and for their corporate financing requirements.

In 1991, he co-founded Anthem Partners LLP, a joint venture with the Sanwa Bank of Japan (one of the world’s largest banks), to make private capital investments in operating companies and to provide financial advisory services.

Since Sanwa was unable to continue its involvement in Anthem because of the economic crisis in Japan, Mr. Balash founded Comstock Partners LLC in 1992 (www.comstockpartners.com). Comstock is a merchant bank that invested in and provided investment banking services for middle market companies and private equity sponsors in the $50 million to $750 million revenue range.

Mr. Balash has been involved in a variety of operating roles, including co-founding JL Furnishings (design, manufacture and marketing of upholstered furniture for the hospitality industry) and serving as CFO/Chief Strategic Officer for Telephony@Work (a leading software application for multimedia contact centers), taking it from five employees to the deployment of its software in the WorldCom network. The company was sold in June 2006 to Oracle.

Early in his career, as a director at Avon Products, he was responsible for its export operations (sales to distributors in the smaller European markets and emerging countries) and also for the establishment of new businesses in emerging markets, such as Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, Latin America and Asia. He also held operating positions in Avon’s domestic business.

He initially worked for the CEO of Louis Dreyfus & Cie., a privately held French multinational conglomerate, with operations in grain trading, shipping, manufacturing, real estate development and merchant banking. His focus was on mergers and acquisitions and the operations of selected subsidiaries.

Mr. Balash graduated from Princeton University (summa cum laude, AB Economics, 1970) and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship by the English Speaking Union to Oxford University and was admitted to Balliol College. However, he instead chose to attend the joint MBA/JD program at Harvard: Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar, 1974) and Harvard Law School (cum laude, 1974).

His community activities have included service on the boards of the Joffrey Ballet, the West Los Angeles Little League, the Harvard Business School Association of Southern California and the Harvard Business School Alumni Council. Other associations have involved the Harvard Business School-Major Gifts Committee: Class of 1973, Harvard Business School-25th Reunion Committee; Program Committee-Harvard Business School Conference: March, 1996: The Information Revolution-Bridging the Gap, Princeton University Class of 1970 25th Reunion Committee, Princeton University: Alumni Schools Committee and the Defense Orientation Conference Association.

His interests include travel (all seven continents, 30+ countries), wine (especially Burgundy and Rhone), food, music (jazz and ballet), sports, art, nature and animals, fitness, biking and learning. He is also a member of The Family Club in San Francisco. He is divorced and lives in Beverly Hills, California.

Jeffrey Balash's Schools

  		•  Princeton University, Class of 1970
    Bachelors in Economics

    Summa Cum Laude; Phi Beta Kappa; Ransome Prize for Best Business Thesis; Jazz DJ for 4 years on WPRB; Secretary of the Whig Cliosophic Speaking and Debating Society; research assistant to Professors Burt Malkiel and Richard Quandt
  		• Harvard University

Jeffrey Balash's Companies

  		•  Anthem Partners LLP 1991 - 1992 - New York City, New York
    Co-Founder and Managing Director
    Corporate finance and M&A for domestic and international clients. The firm was a joint venture with the Sanwa Bank of Japan, which at that time was the largest bank in the world. The depression in Japan caused Sanwa to terminate the Joint Venture, since it required the capital that it had committed to us for private equity investments in its core business.
  		• Drexel Burnham Lambert 1985 - 1990 - Beverly Hills, California
    Managing Director
    Founded and managed the Transactions Development Group, which identified potential acquisitions for both private investment groups and corporate clients; also traditional M&A and corporate finance.
  		• Lehman Brothers 1979 - 1985 - New York, New York
    Managing Director
    Corporate finance and M&A: emphasis on international, private equity, complex situations
  		• Avon Products 1976 - 1979 - New York City, United States
    Director New Markets and Export Operations
    Identified countries where Avon should establish a subsidiary and assisted in the establishment of a subsidiary there. Also active in existing S. American subsidiaries and for a year in US operations. I was the first MBA that Avon hired into operations.
  		• Louis-Dreyfus 1974 - 1976 - New York City, New York
    Assistant to the CEO
    Evaluated and negotiated potential acquisitions and had responsibility for some smaller operations.