Brian G. Kushner

Brian Kushner is Leader of the Private Capital Advisory Services practice and co-leads the Activism and M&A Solutions, the Technology and the Aerospace and Defense (“A&D”) industry practices. He has over 35 years of Board and C-level experience that include serving as Director, CEO/interim CEO and CRO of over 35 public and private telecom, media and technology (“TMT”) companies, including serving as the CEO of four telecom companies, two software companies and a defense contractor.

Dr. Kushner has led more than 50 engagements involving all aspects of TMT and A&D, as well as staffing solutions, semiconductors, gaming, MRO and auto parts manufacturing. These projects involved every aspect of corporate performance, from strategy and go-to-market planning, pricing and revenue enhancement, cost cutting, supply chain management, digital and social marketing strategy and complex restructuring. He has bought or sold more than 25 companies and conducted diligence on more than 50 companies for private equity and hedge funds, along with leading numerous projects in financial, commercial and operational diligence, revenue enhancement, cybersecurity, digital strategy, outsourcing, governance and SG&A cost reduction. He corrected 3 ERP implementations and led/overseen many perpetual license to SaaS transitions during his career.

Dr. Kushner is currently on the board for Cumulus Media (NASDAQ: CMLS) and serves as Chair of their Audit Committee. He also serves on the Resideo Technologies (NYSE: REZI) board on its Audit, Technology and Finance Committees. Dr. Kushner is also on the boards of Thryv, Inc. (OTC: DMDA) and Gibson Brands, and is Chair of the Audit Committee for each. On top of his current board roles, Dr. Kushner served as a member of the Governance and Audit Committees of Zodiac Systems, LLC, a One Equity Partners portfolio company providing outsourced video software engineering services that was sold to Orion Innovation in June 2020; and as Chair of the Audit Committee of Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: MUDS), which acquired Hycroft Mining in May 2020 and is now traded as NASDAQ: HYMC. Both sales closed during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

Prior board roles include Chair of the Remuneration Committee and Audit Committee member of Luxfer Holdings PLC (NYSE: LXFR); Chair of the Audit Committee of the re-organized EveryWare Global (now The Oneida Group, formerly NASDAQ:EVRY); as Lead Director and Audit Committee member of Damovo, which was sold to Oakley, PLC; as Managing Member/Director and interim CEO of DLN Holdings, LLC, an IT (cyber and cloud) and naval (ship and aerospace) engineering services defense contractor operating at U.S. bases and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previously he served as Chair of the Innovative Companies in the Caribbean (island cable, telecom ILEC and mobile services provider), sold to ATNI in 2016; and a Director of Headway Solutions, a staffing and training company.

Dr. Kushner served as the CRO of Relativity Media, which involved two 363 asset sale transactions and additional sale. Prior to this, he was the CEO and acting Chairman of Sage Telecom, a Texas CLEC which was sold to a strategic buyer in 2012. He led the turnaround of Sage from a loss to EBITDA of 18% of revenues in nine months, reducing bad debt from over 11% to about two percent and monthly churn from over 7.5% to less than 4% in the same time frame. At wine.com, he restructured the company through litigation, regulatory issues, credit card fraud and chargeback challenges, growing revenues, leading an IT systems modernization and resolving supplier problems.

As CRO and CEO at Intira, the managed applications data center company, Dr. Kushner brought the company to cash flow neutral in 60 days and closed a 363 sale to a strategic buyer. Other recent engagements have included numerous TMT company and lender assignments, Blackbox Systems, MediaMath, Edmentum Software, Broadview Networks, TwentyEighty, CPXi, Xerox, Qualcomm, BHP, Holley Auto Products, Isola, Midway Games, Monster Worldwide, Nortel, One Communications, Outfront Media, Playboy, PRC, PR Wireless, Sequa, Spansion, Standard Register and XO Communications.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Dr. Kushner co-founded CXO, L.L.C., which was acquired by FTI Consulting in 2008. Dr. Kushner began his career at BDM International, a defense firm, where after 10 years, he was Chief Scientist with oversight over Advanced Technology, IT, turnarounds and all DARPA business. He has been a testifying expert in over a dozen large matters relating to all aspects of TMT, IT and M&A.