About Us

Anna is the founder and CEO of Expert Webcast. She leads the business, strategy and direction of Expert Webcast which produces the industry’s leading programs covering corporate, M&A, restructuring and finance topics, addressing most pressing issues for business owners, C-level executives, corporate advisers and institutional investors.

Rita O’Neill is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Los Angeles office and serves as co-head of the Firm’s Global Private Equity Group. She has a broad-based practice that includes advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and securities offerings, and providing general corporate advice on disclosure and governance. She has advised clients in a wide range of industries, including consumer and retail, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, telecommunications and transportation.

Rita is a member of S&C’s Women’s Initiative Committee and is the co-founder and co-chair of a national Women in M&A Network (WiMA), a network of senior women dealmakers focused on business generation.

Rita provides guidance to Expert Webcast on private equity, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate content, as well as women’s initiatives in law and finance.

Igor Kirman is a partner in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, activism and takeover defense, corporate governance and general corporate matters. He has advised public and private companies, as well as private equity funds, in connection with mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, cross-border deals, shareholder activism, takeover defenses and corporate governance matters.

Igor received a B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was notes editor of the Columbia Law Review.

Igor provides guidance to Expert Webcast on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance content.

Eric Waxman is a Partner within the Ares Private Equity Group.  He works on both the acquisition and disposition of ACOF portfolio assets and assists portfolio companies in dealing with significant legal issues. Prior to joining Ares in 2016, he was a Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, where he practiced for more than 30 years.

Eric holds a B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles in Economics and a J.D. from The University of California Davis School of Law.

Eric provides guidance to Expert Webcast on private equity, corporate governance, M&A and securities litigation and other corporate content.

Hon. Melanie L. Cyganowski (ret.) chairs the bankruptcy practice at Otterbourg P.C. , which she joined in 2008, after serving as the Chief Bankruptcy Judge in the Eastern District of New York. She is also an arbitrator/mediator and has testified as an expert in international cases involving U.S. bankruptcy laws.

Melanie graduated magna cum laude from the School of Law at the SUNY at Buffalo and served as law clerk to the late Hon. Charles L. Brieant (SDNY). Melanie was then a litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

Melanie provides guidance to Expert Webcast on insolvency, restructuring and bankruptcy content.

Cynthia Romano is a Global Director of CohnReznick Advisory’s Restructuring and Dispute Resolution Practice. She has more than 25 years of experience in performance improvement, turnaround management, transaction support, and investment analysis.

EDUCATION

• MBA, International Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
• B.A. with honors, Educational History and Policy, Brown University

Cynthia provides guidance to Expert Webcast on insolvency, restructuring and bankruptcy content.

Sharie is a partner in the white collar and government investigations practice group of Troutman Pepper.  She is a trusted advisor, investigator and practical thought leader in corporate compliance and internal investigations related to alleged financial fraud, FCPA bribery and corruption, trade sanctions, USA Patriot Act anti-money laundering, and civil asset forfeitures.

EDUCATION

• Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., Dean’s List, 1982
• University of Pennsylvania, joint B.A./M.A., ONYX Senior Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society, Sphinx Honor Society, 1979

Sam is a partner in Dentons’ Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy group. His practice includes bankruptcy matters and financial restructuring in- and out-of-court in all industries, but he leads the firm’s healthcare industry restructuring efforts nationwide. He has served as lead bankruptcy counsel to debtors in Chapter 11 cases, as an examiner appointed pursuant to the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as lead counsel to various official bankruptcy committees and to individual creditors. As a senior advisor, Sam helps guide Healthcare Restructuring programs offered on Expert Webcast.

Mark is a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.   has almost 30 years of experience restructuring companies inside and outside of bankruptcy in numerous industries, directing bankruptcy-related litigation, and handling the purchase of assets out of bankruptcy.

Mark holds a J.D. from Harvard University and a B.S.B.A. from Georgetown University.  He helps guide restructuring and turnaround focused programs on Expert Webcast.

Mike is an experienced global entertainment, media and technology executive. He provides guidance with respect to M&A, capital raising, restructuring and corporate governance content within entertainment, media, technology and communications space on a global basis.  Mike has significant history in turnaround and rebuilding situations and is heavily involved in high-growth environments.

Michael has led Skadden’s Asia-Pacific practice and was the firm’s senior M&A partner in Greater China. Continuously active in cross-border and U.S. change of control transactions for more than 25 years, he advised clients throughout the world in a range of industries with respect to corporate and international transactions, representing major firm clients in the real estate, technology and entertainment industries, among others. Michael advises Expert Webcast on timely corporate topics including mergers and acquisitions and capital markets throughout the world.

Michael holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School (Order of the Coif; senior articles editor, Stanford Law Review) and an A.B. from Harvard College (cum laude).