William Lippman
Senior Advisor – Principal
Harvard University, A.B.
UCLA School of Law, J.D
Member California State Bar
Chief Executive Officer of TD Materials, Inc. 1992-1998
General Manager, TW Metals Extrusion Division 1998-2000
Andrew Lippman
Senior Advisor – Principal
University of Southern California, B.A.
President and Chief Operating Officer of TD Materials, Inc. 1992-1998
Sales Manager, TW Metals Extrusion Division 1998-2000
Tamara Bernstein
Managing Director
University of California at Irvine, B.A.
Vice-President of International Sales, TD Materials, Inc. 1992-1998
International Sales Manager, TW Metals Extrusion Division 1998-2000
Our Story
The story behind our tenure at TD Materials, Inc. is more important to our experience and perspective than the recitation of the qualifications found above. We took over management of this failing company during a recession, successfully navigated it out of insolvency, and transformed it into a highly profitable leader in its industry. The summary below illustrates the scope of this accomplishment.
TD Materials was founded in 1937, and by the 1980’s specialized in distributing aluminum aircraft parts. As the founder grew elderly, ownership involvement declined, with absentee management running the company after he passed away in 1989. By the end of 1992, TD was over inventoried, insolvent due to mismanagement, and lenders and suppliers were threatening action. Additionally, TD had become the subject, along with its major competitors, of a probe by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice. Therefore, we made the decision to terminate the management of the President and Executive Vice President. We took over management under these severe crisis conditions, and shortly thereafter, The Boeing Company, our largest customer, announced some of the most dramatic reductions in aircraft production in its history. At this juncture we began to rescue the company from a looming bankruptcy or liquidation, and then to build it into a profitable operation.
Until 1992 the partners of Logical Path Advisors, LLC, then in our early twenties, had the unusual experience of learning our business, not from the perspective of a manager, but rather as operational personnel, working in every area of the company, including the warehouse, administration, sales and purchasing departments. This exceptional circumstance was due to the then executive management’s active antagonism towards ownership involvement in management, since they had operated unfettered during the founder’s last years. However, in the period after his death, we were unable to act to remove this management, due to the “key man” clause in our line of credit with the bank, and our lack of a personal histroy with the company’s key lenders. Nonetheless, despite our “key man” clause predicament, by the middle of 1992 it became clear that action had to be taken. Shortly thereafter, our concerns were realized when the bank called in its loan.
At this point, the company was financially under water, with total debt exceeding fifteen million dollars, fourteen million dollars of which was current debt. Available liquid assets consisted of less than fifty thousand dollars cash, and two and half million dollars of accounts receivables (half of which were foreign receivables, not backed by a letter of credit, which would end up being uncollectible for more than a year). Furthermore, our vendors were forced to suspend shipments since payments were more than nine months overdue to them. Lastly, our non-liquid assets consisted primarily of an inventory in excess of fifteen million dollars, of which more than forty percent was greater than five years old. Yet from these unlikely beginnings, we ultimately reduced inventory, collected our receivables, paid off our debt, and our suppliers, and turned substantial profits. We hope to have the opportunity to put this experience and perspective to work for you.