Mr. Palermo brings 20 years of diversified business experience to the classroom. His professional career began at The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., where he was a middle market lending officer for several years. After completing his MBA at Adelphi University, Mr. Palermo left Chase to take the position of Vice President – Finance for The Neil Automotive Group. He then returned to school full time on a full scholarship, earning his JD from Hofstra Law in December 1993 and graduating in the top 1.5% of his class. Combining his business experience with his law degree, Mr. Palermo practiced corporate law at the New York law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, where he negotiated and documented debt and equity transactions, domestic and offshore hedge fund organizations, and structured finance transactions (securitizations and commercial paper conduits). After four years of successful law practice, Mr. Palermo accepted a position with Gordon Brothers Capital as Vice President, where he was deeply involved in all aspects of financing private companies in crises. In addition to managing the operations of this finance company, he spent much of his time actively managing companies in crises, and negotiating the sale of corporate assets. Mr. Palermo also has experience financing distressed public companies through uniquely structured private placements of convertible debt instruments. He now teaches full-time at the College of Business while remaining active in the practice of law.