Sharon F. Manewitz
Principal and Executive Director
Sharon Manewitz is a seasoned professional in the workout and restructuring industry with a distinguished career spanning more than 25 years. As a forceful advocate for clients, Sharon serves on corporate boards, creditor committees and post-Chapter 11 trusts. She has broad experience managing distressed real estate and corporate investments, and an in-depth understanding of insurance and bank regulatory environments. Sharon is particularly adept at working with teams — a talent that has served her well in handling a wide range of cases involving significant corporations around the world.
Sharon has been an invited speaker at conferences in the U.S. and overseas for sponsors such as Asia Development Bank, National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, New York Society of Security Analysts, The University of Delaware Symposium on Corporate Governance, Turnaround Management Association, Euromoney, and Institutional Investor. She has published noted articles and is often quoted in news media on matters relating to workouts, bankruptcy and corporate governance.
Sharon currently serves on the advisory board of Apex Fundamental Partners, a privately held investment and specialty finance firm. Sharon also serves as the independent member of a post-confirmation Chapter 11 trust pertaining to the bankruptcy of a financial services company. She recently completed a four-year assignment on boards of a large financial guaranty company and its subsidiaries that are supervised by U.S. and foreign regulators. The company is private and its shareholders are major foreign financial institutions. She served on the Audit, Compensation, Risk Management, and Strategic Planning Committees and contributed to the successful repositioning of a troubled entity.
Prior to co-founding Manewitz Weiker Associates, LLC, Sharon had a successful 20-year career at TIAA-CREF, the largest private pension fund, with assets over $500 billion. As Managing Director, Distressed Investments, she developed a highly regarded practice in asset recovery, corporate reorganization, and debt restructure. The cases under Sharon’s management represented a broad range of sizes, asset classes, and industries.
She served on numerous creditors’ committees for TIAA. She chaired major Chapter 11 cases and participated in restructure efforts involving corporations of all sizes. Responsibility for TIAA’s distressed investing activities and related third party advisory services rested with Sharon’s team. Risk management, compliance, participation on insurance regulatory committees, and active involvement in the valuation of portfolio holdings were key responsibilities.
In both the new business and workout arenas, she worked around the globe and has a deep understanding of cross border transactions. Her contacts in the legal and financial advisory communities are strong and broad.
Her corporate governance experience began in 1998 when Sharon and her team gained international recognition for leading a successful proxy contest as the first private pension fund to unseat the board of a public company and replace its management. Earning her the reputation in the press as a shareholder activist on par with the best in the field, this initiative served as the basis of a Harvard Business School case and was the subject of a Board Member Magazine article entitled “The Board from Hell.” Another achievement of note was her role as the backup collateral manager for a $1 billion distressed debt CDO issue in the early days of derivative investing and alternative investments.
On assignment as Special Assistant to the Chairman of TIAA-CREF, Sharon worked on matters of policy, including the writing of a white paper for TIAA-CREF and the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the use of soft dollars in the brokerage industry. She also served as a liaison between the office of TIAA-CREF’s Chairman and the boards of TIAA and CREF, including the Board of Overseers.
Sharon served on board nominating committees and, through her efforts working with boards and management teams, numerous debt to equity exchanges resulted in significant benefit to shareholders in post-reorganization companies.
Her knowledge of the insurance regulatory environment was enhanced through her official appointment to the Investment Advisory Team established at the request of the New York Superintendent of Insurance in his capacity as Rehabilitator of the First Executive Life Insurance Company of New York.
Prior to joining TIAA-CREF, Sharon spent 11 years in corporate banking at Bankers Trust Company of New York, where she was credit trained and rose to the position of Vice President in the Corporate Banking Department. In addition to her lending positions, Sharon enjoyed rotation assignments in credit audit, cash management, risk management and loan workouts. She also worked in corporate finance, planning, and control at American Can Company, a leading producer of consumer products and packaging.
Sharon was recently named a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Governance Fellow. She has demonstrated her commitment to boardroom excellence by completing NACD’s comprehensive program of study for corporate directors. She supplements her skill sets through ongoing engagement with the director community and access to leading practices. More…
Professional Associations
- National Association of Corporate Directors
- Turnaround Management Association
- Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors
- Association for Corporate Growth
- Insurance Federation of New York
Education
- NYU, Certificate in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics
- Pace University, MBA, Corporate Finance
- Hunter College, BA, Art History