Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.

Chairman, International Steel Group; Chairman and CEO, WL Ross & Co. LLC

Wilbur Ross may be the best known turnaround financier in the U.S., having been involved in the restructuring of over $200 billion of defaulted companies’ assets around the world. In 1998, Fortune Magazine called him "the King of Bankruptcy.”

For the 26 years preceding March 2000, Mr. Ross was Executive Managing Director of Rothschild Inc., the U.S. affiliate of the Rothschild family's merchant banking group. Then he purchased the firm's distressed investment activities on April 1, 2000, formed WL Ross & Co. LLC and opened offices in New York City, Tokyo and Seoul.

Since then, WL Ross has created private investment and hedge funds totaling more than $2 billion. The WL Ross partnerships’ major investment activities have included purchasing a failed bank from the Japanese government, turning it around and subsequently agreeing to sell it to a major Japanese financial institution, and purchasing and rehabilitating a failed life insurance company from the Korean government, as well as a bankrupt Japanese auto parts company and a thermister manufacturer.

In October 2003, -a Ross-managed partnership with Mohawk Industries will acquire Burlington Industries for $614 million. The partnership became Burlington’s largest creditor- after its bankruptcy filing at the end of 2001. WL Ross is also the major creditor of Cone Mills and was a major beneficiary of the acquisition of Fruit of the Loom by Berkshire Hathaway. Most recently, the firm became the largest creditor of 360networks, an optical fiber long distance network, helped 360 acquire Group Telecom while both were in bankruptcy and subsequently helped it to acquire Dynegy Telecom. 360 also has contracted to acquire Touch America within the next months. Finally, the WL Ross funds are the largest convertible debt holders of Penn Treaty American Corp., a turnaround situation in the longterm care insurance industry.

Mr. Ross organized International Steel Group in April 2002 to acquire LTV Corp.’s assets and is now its board chairman. Later in 2002, ISG acquired the steelmaking assets of Acme Steel Corp. and in April 2003, it arranged a $1 billion borrowing and acquired bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corp. to become the nation’s largest integrated steel producer. In August 2003, ISG filed with the SEC for a $250 million initial public primary offering of stock. The offering is expected to become effective in October and is co-lead managed by Goldman Sachs and UBS. Another Ross partnership is scheduled to acquire Burlington Industries for $614 million on October 31.

Buyouts awarded WL Ross & Co. LLC the 2002 Public-to-Private Deal of the Year award as well as the Middle-Market Deal of the Year award for its acquisition of LTV Corporation and The Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor awarded WL Ross & Co. LLC the Boutique Middle Market Private Equity Firm of the Year 2002 Award.

In July 2003 CalPERS provided the initial $200 million of equity for a $1 billion fund, Taiyo Fund Management, a joint venture between Taiyo Pacific Partners and WL Ross & Co. investing in publicly traded Japanese companies that desire to enhance corporate and shareholder value by introducing American concepts of governance.

In August 2003, the $100 million Japan Real Estate Recovery Fund was launched.

In 1999, President Kim Dae Jung awarded Mr. Ross a medal for his help during Korea's 1998 financial crisis. Earlier, President Clinton had appointed him to the Board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund.

Mr. Ross is a member of The Business Round Table, a board member of the Turnaround Management Association, and of Kansai Sawayaka Bank and Nikko Electric Co. in Japan, Tong Yang Life Insurance Co. in Korea, and of Syms Corp., 360Networks Corp. and Clarent Hospital Corp. in the U.S. He is Board Chairman of Ohizumi Manufacturing Company in Japan. He is a former Chairman of the Smithsonian Institution National Board, was Privatization Advisor to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is a member of the World Bank Bankruptcy Reform Study Group, the New York Society of Security Analysts Committee on Alternative Investments and the International Advisory Board of the Mayor of Seoul. Mr. Ross holds an A.B. from Yale University and an M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard University.