Mr. Serota has served as one of our directors since September 2006. Mr. Serota is a member of our Acquisition Committee. Mr. Serota has served as a senior partner in the Private Equity Group of Ares Partners since 1997. Prior to joining Ares Partners in 1997, Mr. Serota was a vice president in the Investment Banking Department of Bear, Stearns & Co. where he specialized in providing investment banking services to financial sponsor clients of the firm. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Serota was with Dabney/Resnick, Inc., a boutique investment bank. At Dabney/Resnick, Mr. Serota specialized in merchant banking and capital raising activities for middle market companies and had primary responsibility for the firm’s bridge financing activities. Mr. Serota also worked at Salomon Brothers Inc. focusing on mergers and acquisitions and merchant banking transactions. Mr. Serota serves on the board of directors of Exco Resources, Inc., a publicly-held company, and he serves on the boards of several private companies. Mr. Serota graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and received an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. |