Mr. Schaeffer has worked with CLECs, RLECs, mobile wireless, fixed wireless, long distance, terrestrial cable, data center, semiconductor, network hardware and software, enterprise software, video conferencing, network storage, traditional manufacturing, and services companies. Some of the communications companies that Mr. Schaeffer has worked with include Terremark, Hawaiian Telecom, Cincinnati Bell, T-Mobile, Metro PCS, LA Cellular (AT&T Wireless), Bell South Mobility, BT Cellnet, Powerband Communications (Tokyo), Integra Telecom, ATG, ITC^Deltacom and Reach Communications (Hong Kong).

Transactions Mr. Schaeffer has worked on include multiple middle-market data center transactions; a strategic and operational transformation of a billion-dollar incumbent local exchange carrier, including evaluation of new products such as video and wireless broadband; operational stabilization of a private equity owned incumbent LEC; a $450 million senior and junior secured debt raise for a regional CLEC; buy-side CLEC advisory on a $245 million strategic acquisition; a $170 million senior secured debt raise for a regional CLEC; the restructure of a $185 million senior secured loan to a regional CLEC; a $75 million equity fundraise by a start-up mobile wireless carrier; a $50 million equity raise by an early stage cable overbuilder; a $300 million equity raise by a subsea cable operator; a $120 million CLEC acquisition; a $25 million distressed CLEC sale; a $325 million senior debt raise and balance sheet restructuring for a wireless carrier; multiple $5 - $10 million acquisitions of CLEC assets and acquisitions by national wireless carriers of smaller local and regional wireless operators. 

Mr. Schaeffer has worked in the communications, media and technology industries for 14 years. Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Schaeffer was a managing partner at West Lake Partners, a niche strategic and transaction advisory firm focused on expansion stage and middle-market companies in the communications and technology industries. Previously, Mr. Schaeffer worked for two private equity firms – Whitney & Co. and One Liberty Ventures – where he worked with, and invested in communications, technology and services businesses. Mr. Schaeffer also spent several years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a founding member of FTI’s predecessor Telecommunication Industry practice and where he earned his CPA auditing manufacturing, technology and private equity companies.

Mr. Schaeffer holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in economics and German from Middlebury College, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.