Eric L. Johnson
Partner
Spencer Fane, LLP
Eric L. Johnson is a partner at Spencer Fane LLP in Kansas City, Mo., and the practice group leader for its Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights Group. He represents clients in bankruptcy, non-bankruptcy insolvency proceedings, such as receiverships and other related insolvency matters.
Mr. Johnson is a member of the panel of chapter 7 trustees and has served as a federal equity receiver for the Western District of Missouri. He currently chairs the Missouri Bar’s Business/Corporate Division.
In the past, Mr. Johnson has served as co-chair for the Missouri Bar’s Bankruptcy Creditor- Debtor Rights Committee, president of the Kansas Bar Association Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section, president of the Kansas City Bankruptcy Bar Association, and as a member of the Bench Bar Committees for the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the District of Kansas and the Western District of Missouri. He currently serves on ABI’s Board of Directors and on the advisory board for the Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute, and he is a past chair of ABI’s Secured Creditors Committee and has served in other committee leadership positions.
Mr. Johnson is a frequent author and speaker on insolvency-related topics and is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification. He was recently selected into The American College of Bankruptcy, Class XXXII (2021).
Mr. Johnson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law.
Steven J. Fleiming, CIRA, CDBV
Principal
PwC, LLP
Steven J. Fleming, CIRA, CDBV is a principal in the New York office of PwC LLP and the U.S. leader of the firm’s Business Recovery Services practice (BRS). He has more than 20 years of business advisory experience with PwC, during which he has been assigned to the firm’s London, New York and Dubai offices.
Mr. Fleming has provided financial advisory services to many local and international clients, spanning the whole deal spectrum from devising acquisition/disposal strategies to performing valuations and due diligence, business reviews, and negotiating with potential investors. He has experience in assisting distressed companies in the development of pro forma financial statements, the preparation and analysis of business plans and strategic alternatives, analysis of cash flow and working capital management, identification of liquidity-enhancing activities, including the execution of cost-savings initiatives, and the identification and prosecution of avoidance actions, including preferences and fraudulent transfers.
Mr. Fleming has experience serving as a CRO in connection with chapter 11 cases, and has been qualified as an expert witness with respect to valuation, DIP financing, ? 363 transactions and other bankruptcy-related matters. His recent restructuring clients have included TK Holdings Inc. (d/b/a Takata), SunEdison, Inc., et al. and NRAD.
Mr. Fleming Fleming is a member of the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, the Turnaround Management Association and ABI, and was recognized by M&A Advisor as a 2013 recipient of its “40 under 40” award. He received his B.S. in finance from Lehigh University and his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
Melissa S. Kibler
Senior Managing Director
Mackinac Partners
Melissa S. Kibler, CPA, CIRA, CTP, CFF, CDBV is a senior managing director of Mackinac Partners in Chicago and has 30 years of experience providing financial advisory, restructuring and turnaround management services to Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies and their stakeholders. She also has investigative, litigation and valuation experience, including insolvency-related litigation, avoidance actions, fraud investigations, merger and acquisition disputes, director and officer claims, and other commercial litigation support.
Ms. Kibler was most recently a senior managing director in the Chicago office and an executive committee member of Mesirow Financial Consulting following its 2004 acquisition of the corporate recovery practice of KPMG LLP, where she had served as partner-in-charge of the Midwest Region Corporate Recovery practice and the Pacific Northwest Corporate Recovery and Forensic and Litigation Services practices since 1999 after starting her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She currently serves as president of the American College of Bankruptcy, and her prior leadership roles in professional associations included president of ABI, director of INSOL International, and chair of the AICPA Bankruptcy Task Force.
Ms. Kibler was named a Consulting Magazine 2013 “Women Leader in Consulting,” an Illinois CPA Society 2011 Women to Watch Award recipient, the IWIRC 2010 Woman of the Year in Restructuring, a Crain’s Chicago Business 2004 “40 Under 40,” and the 2003 “CIRA Gold Medal Winner.”
Ms. Kibler received her B.A. in accounting summa cum laude from Texas A&M University and her M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University, graduating first in her class.
Hon. Barbara J. Houser
Chief Judge
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas
Barbara J. Houser is the chief bankruptcy court judge for the Northern District of Texas. Judge Houser was sworn in by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King as the first female bankruptcy judge in the Northern District on January 20, 2000.
Upon graduation from law school, Judge Houser joined Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neeley in Dallas and became a shareholder in 1985. She joined Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay PC in 1988 as the shareholder in charge of the Dallas office and remained there until she was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge on Jan. 20, 2000.
Judge Houser was named President-Elect of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, her term began on Oct. 21, 2009.
Judge Houser was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1954 and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1978. She received her B.S. degree with honors in 1975 from the University of Nebraska and her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1978.
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