Herbert B. Siegel, Ph.D.

e-mail: Herb515@rcn.com



Executive Summary

· Former Chief Financial and Executive Officer of Major Public Companies.
· Certified Professional Management Consultant in Asset Valuations,
· Ph.D. in International Business Law.
· Qualified Expert Witness in Business Disputes.
· Academy Certified Diplomate.
· Former Bank Trustee and Bank Holding Company Director.
· More than 25 years Experience in Domestic and Multinational Industries.
· Author of over 25 Professional Publications and Presentations on Management, Administration, Corporate Finance, Turnarounds, and Privatization.



INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE


1989 – October 2005 Founder, and Principal Officer, of The Whitestone Consulting Group, Ltd., of New York, California, and Arizona, (www.whitestoneltd.com) a firm of professional management and turnaround consultants providing business services across a wide spectrum of industries. A partial list of our expertise includes electronics, telecommunications, video conferencing, jewelry fabrications, commercial lenders, manufacturers of precision mechanical and electronic components assemblies, furniture, and apparel products, retail specialty chain stores and department stores, multinational corporations, exothermic chemical fractionators, Calcining aggregates, oil refineries, restaurant installations, Multi-national Corporations, and other service providers (Partial list of clients available on request).

Professional assignments include providing expert witness reports and testimony, preparing comprehensive business plans for IPO’s and investment banking opportunities, strategic marketing studies, merger and acquisition studies, forensic audits and business appraisals and asset valuations, corporate rehabilitation plans, ISO qualifying methodologies, implementing corporate governance policies, intellectual property protection, supply chain and materials handling systems, business valuations, litigation counseling, privatizing state-owned enterprises, Comparative legal Systems, legal systems in radically different cultures, and multi-national reorganization proceedings.

1983 - 1989 President, and Chief Operating Officer of Deerhill Development Corporation and Subsidiaries (Sales: $250 million):
- Seal-Kap Packaging Company, a manufacturer of food and drink containers.
- Quaker City Steel Corporation, a quasi-public steel mill and metal products fabricator.
- J. Ramsey Reese, Inc., a multiple-facility fabricator of high precision electronic, metal and plastic components.
- JRR-BC Buying Consortium, Inc., an outsourced buying agency for Fortune 500 manufacturers.
- Columbia Professional Baseball Team, Inc. (NY Mets farm team

1979 - 1982 President and Chief Operating Officer of National Silver Industries, Inc.,
and Subsidiaries (Sales: $200 million; AMEX symbol: NSI), a multinational import/exporter of precious metals and giftware items, and fabricator of House wares and silver-plated Hollowware.
- F.B. Rogers Silver Company
- National Silver Company, Inc.
- NSI International (Italy, Japan, Taiwan, China, and Columbia)

1971 - 1978 President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee in bankruptcy reorganization of Interstate Stores, Inc., name changed to Toys R Us. (Sales: $10.5 billion; NYSE symbol: TRU), a retail chain of 800 specialty stores, 50 major department stores, 125 Topps discount stores, and 125 White-Front discount appliance stores.


FORMER OUTSIDE DIRECTORSHIPS

- Neisner Bros. Department Stores, Inc.
Court-Appointed Bankruptcy Trustee
- White Front Appliance and Furniture Stores, Inc.
Court-Appointed Bankruptcy Trustee
- Topps Discount Stores, Inc.
Court-Appointed Bankruptcy Trustee
- National Coin Entertainment, Inc.
Interim President


- Tritium Card Services, Inc.
Interim Director of Strategic Planning
- Magrill Brothers, Inc.
- Professional Consultant-in-residence
- Fin-Tec Video-Phone Corporation
Interim Chairman
-The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburg
Chairman: Mortgage, Real Estate Valuation,
Auditing, and Executive committees of a $1 billion Savings Bank.
- Silver-Gull Pacific Realty & Development Corporation
Major shareholder
- Havemeyer Equities, Inc. (Bank owned holding company)
- Interstate Department Stores
Chairman
- United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau, Inc (non-profit).
Voluntary Executive Vice-President
- Lionville Packaging Company, Inc.
Interim President
- Motorcycle Malls of America, Inc.
Consultant to Board of Directors.
- Coast-To-Coast Marketing Company of America, Inc.
Consultant to Board of Directors
- NY-Pacific Real Estate Exchange, Inc.
Shareholder.
- Advanced Rehabilitation Centers
- Pain Control Centers of Brandon, Inc.
- Emle Industries, Inc.
Interim President
- Swissco Automotive Component Industries, Inc.
Interim President

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Bar Association (Associate)
International Bar Association
American Academy of Professional Consultants and Experts
American Bankruptcy Institute
American Consultants League
American Lawyer Expert Witness & Consultants Network
American Management Association
American MENSA, Ltd.
American Society of Appraisers
International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists
International Studies Association
National Association of Corporate Directors
New York Academy of Sciences
New York University Alumni Club
Prime Raters Financial Club
Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR)
TASA
Turnaround Management Association
United Cerebral Palsy
Who’s Who in America


ACCREDITATIONS

Arbitrator/ Mediator
Certified Professional Consultant
Chartered Consultant (U.K.)
Expert Witness
Thesis Examiner - Rutgers University, Graduate School of Banking
Guest Lecturer: Yale University, Graduate School of Management and Organization.
: New York Board of Realtors.
: Prime Raters Financial Club
Security Clearance: Top Secret Codeword (inactive)


PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

· Chapter Ten from a Trustee’s View, The Financial Executive, July 1983.
· The Entropy of the Deficit, San Francisco Times, February 1995.
· Corporate Rehabilitation’s After Bankruptcy, A Thesis, September 1995
· The Masquerade of Cost-Cutting, The Financial Times, March 1996.
· Market Economics For Multinational Corporations, The Harvard Business Review, January 1997
· International Trade and The Competitive Environment: (How Trade- related Disputes Affect Labor, Business, Government, and Laws), The Financial Times, July 1997
· Statistics That Measure The Wealth of Multinational Companies, The International Executive, June 1998
· Privatizing: A Social Milestone or Millstone? A Published Doctoral Dissertation, June 1999
· Lecture Series:
-Leadership Techniques.
-Strategic Marketing Processes.
-Statistics: How They Work, and Their Usage. -Operating Projections: Methodologies and Usage.
-Accounting Strategies for Multinational Corporations.
-Developments in Organizational Behavior in International Business Environments.

· Other Articles & Presentations:
-Avoiding Escalation in Business Conflicts.
-Detecting Bias, Finagling, and Fraud in Publicly Owned Companies. -Fraudulent Research.
-The Scientific Revolution.
-The Clash Between Eastern Culture and Western Law.
-Organized Business Writings.
-Aristocracizing America.
-Humanizing Privatization.
-Restructuring Corporate America.
-Using Cultural Persuasions in Multinational Business Environments.
-The Changing American Business Culture.
-Re-educating the Socially Handicapped.
-Calculating Business Risks.
-The Trend to Disenfranchise Corporate Chiefs.
-Industrial Transformation or Progress by Accident?

LANGUAGES: Comprehensible Russian; Conversational proficiency in German.

EDUCATION:

Columbia Pacific University, BA, Management & Administration
NYU, Graduate School of Business, MBA program (Corporate Finance)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Business, Executive Training Program
Columbia University, Ph.D., International Business Law
The American Academy of Certified Consultants and Experts-
Diplomate, ACD
Post Doctoral:
The College of Law of England and Wales:
International Practice Diplomas:
-International Mergers and Acquisitions Law.
-International Intellectual Property Law.

The Shrinking Importance of Americans

ARISTOCRACIZING AMERICA



Beginning with The Bank Holding Act of 1956[1] that exempted Industrial Loan Companies from federal banking regulations except for keeping them eligible for government- sponsored FDIC insurance, these secondary lenders were a valuable source of high interest loans to a public segment otherwise unbankable. A financial stranglehold has proliferated on all citizens, however, because of misusing an otherwise well conceived statute.

Today, Industrial Loan Corporation charters are open to non-bank corporations wanting to own a financial institution without becoming subject to the provisions of the Bank Holding Company Act. These “Credit Card Companies,” with federal deposit insurance protection, are endowed by Congress with “most favored lender” treatment and “exportation” rights pursuant to the Federal Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980[2], a statute enacted to allow a special interest group to usurp all State usury laws, and charge outrageous interest on credit card purchases that masquerade as punitive fees, elected by the card-holder, as an addition to contractually high interest rates.

Only California, Colorado, and Utah offer charters for Industrial Loan Corporations that are eligible for FDIC insurance to exempt them from abiding by bank regulatory statutes, and other State usury laws. In 1986, only the Utah legislature enacted a statute that “mandates” all Industrial Loan Corporations be insured by the FDIC, and be allowed to use the words “bank” and “savings” in their name. [3] This act enhanced the value of their State charters for non-bank Industrial Loan Corporations (previously tainted by the failure of Utah’s privatized Industrial Loan Guaranty Corporation that resulted in numerous problems for state politicians including depositor lawsuits.)[4]

The Competitive Equality Banking Act was passed by Congress in 1987 to change the definition of “bank” to include any institution having FDIC insurance but specifically exempted Industrial Loan Corporations from other bank regulations if, among other things, such corporation, “...organized under the laws of a State which, on March 5, 1987, had in effect, or had under consideration in such State’s legislature, a statute which required or would require such institution to obtain insurance under the FDIC Act.”[5] Utah was thereafter prepared for the “gold rush” of domiciling credit card companies. From 1994 to 1998, at least eighteen major credit card companies obtained Utah State Charters to operate as Industrial Loan Corporations, including American Express, First USA, GE Capital Financial, and Providian Bank. Combined these accounted for over $18 billion in consumer debts in 1998. Today, these chartered “banks,” joined by almost 200 others account for $two trillion of outstanding credit card debts-- half of which constitute egregious interest charges and punitive fees (the latter a euphemism for even higher interest rates) that often double the cost of an original purchase on a revolving account. The constitutionality of State and consumer rights to fair and statutory interest is rarely challenged when federal legislation benefits the gigantism of credit card “banks” and their lobbying at all political levels, not to mention the largess of their political action committees (PACs) and soft money contributions.”[6] (MBNA, a major company made political contributions of $3.5 million in the last election, and the credit card industry as a whole is estimated to have contributed $19.2 million, two-thirds going to the Republicans).[7] Pernicious consumer laws become accepted doctrine by default because they are rarely tested against the metrics of our founding fathers that entitles every American citizen to freedom from legalized forms of oppression---economic, as well as religious.

Not content with the Utah lottery that entraps the American public into over-shopping then paying credit card companies twice for the privilege, or the merchant clients who also pay fees, discounts, and collection days to credit card companies for the privilege of selling merchandise, the Congress passed consumer bankruptcy law reforms(?) to prevent hard-pressed American consumers from their constitutional right of due process to declare bankruptcy and obtain relief from their accumulated and burdensome debts including credit cards, exorbitant fees, and horrendous interest. This new law raises all credit card debts to the same priority as income taxes arrearages (taxes are not dischargeable in bankruptcy). In U.S. history, no other type of indebtedness enjoyed such privileged status.[8] Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah), and former chair of the Judiciary Committee that created this travesty, is quoted as saying, “This bill will do an awful lot for the good people in our society”. Article 1 of The Constitution grants powers to Congress to regulate bankruptcy for the purpose of “enacting laws of hope,” but can the debtor’s stockades be far behind?

Congress is unaffected by the burdensome consequences of having American citizens pay exorbitant and no longer illegal interest and fees that masquerade as punishments, but our politicians continue to profit politically from the payback of passing the Bank Holding Act of 1956. Do we not have political aristocrats who cloak themselves as selfless public servants to further enrich their regal benefactors as well as themselves?

Please let me know your thoughts....Thanks!


End Notes:
[1] 12 U.S.C. x 1841(c)(2)(H).
[2] Section 521, 12 U.S.C. x 1831d(a).
[3] Utah Code x 7-8-5(3)(a)(iv).
[4] A fund created by State statute in 1975.
[5] ref: 12 U.S.C. x1841(c)(2)(H) and 12 U.S.C. x1811.
[6] ibid., March 15, p. A22.
[7] ibid., March 13, p.A14.
[8] NY Times, March 13,15, 2001, pp. A1-14 and A22, respectively.