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Professional Profile: Gerard Keena II By *
Q: Tell me a little bit about your background. Growing up in Long Island, I initially decided to stay on the East Coast, receiving my Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College, followed by an MBA from The University of Rochester’s Simon Business School. Following that, I worked in Taiwan and Japan as a restructuring professional for a California-based crisis management firm called Diablo Management Group. “Diablo” was a very appropriate name for type of work I did. For nearly two years in Asia, I wrestled with language barriers, unfamiliar business cultures and distant time zones, however, afterward I learned how to navigate unfamiliar circumstances which has served me well as a Receiver. Upon my return to the U.S., I continued to work on corporate restructurings during the “dot.com” bust of 2001 as well as the 2008 mortgage crisis and became extremely familiar with insolvency cases, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors (“ABC”), bankruptcy and corporate liquidations. During a receiver networking event, I met a young attorney named Ryan Griffith who worked for the Vallejo City Attorney’s Office and handled Vallejo’s Health and Safety Receivership Program. At the time, I had just completed my first solo receivership case of a gas station. By way of background, the defendant was married to two women at the same time and shortly after my appointment hired someone to burn down the gas station. Needless to say, I was quickly indoctrinated in the world of crazy receivership cases. Around this time, I was still exploring different types of receiverships and had never heard of health and safety receiverships. Ryan described Health and Safety receiverships as a way to help cities and counties clean up nuisance properties. I’d always had an interest in construction and public service, so the health and safety receivership remedy intrigued me. As a result of this chance meeting I was inspired to form Bay Area Receivership Group (“BARG”) which has developed a specialty in Health & Safety Receiverships throughout Northern California. Q: What are do you like to do outside of work? When I am not working, I enjoy playing and coaching basketball – either at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA at 6AM or at lunch time when I can occasionally break free for a “court appointment”. Although most people know me as Gerard, my basketball community refers to me as “Mailman”. Perhaps it is because I once had a cameo appearance in a Converse commercial. Whatever it may be, it never gets old when I walk around Berkeley and hear someone shout-out MAILMAN What’s Up! Q: How has Bay Area Receivership Group benefitted from the relationship with the California Receivership Forum? Just as I have enjoyed giving back to youth by coaching basketball and raising money for the YMCA, along the way there have many great coaches in our receivership community. Steve Anderson, now happily retired, gave me my first opportunity to become a Receiver and I will always be indebted to his stewardship over the years. There have been many Receivers and attorneys who I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from. I believe this a unique and defining quality of our small community. As a result, I extremely proud that, BARG over the past 6 years has grown
from a one-man shop to now having twelve team members and growing. We have
handled numerous cases in counties across Northern California including Alameda,
Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sacramento San Mateo, San Francisco, Fresno, San
Mateo, Sonoma, Shasta and growing. Towards that end, I am proud to be serving as the 2021 President of the California Receivership Forum’s and continuing to grow and educate this great community that has served me so well. |
In
this edition of Receivership News, we are profiling Gerard F. Keena,
court-appointed receiver and President of Bay Area Receivership Group. Gerard is
currently the President of the Bay Area Chapter of CRF and is the incoming
President of the California Receivers Forum.