Who Wrote This?

Of course, much of this site has been, and will be, written by you and the other site members.  As to the original topics and other comments by the author, those were written by me, H. Lee Rust

For my training, more practical than formal, I have had a varied 45 year career in business with experience in general management, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial analysis, and sales.  I joined the investment banking field in 1978 with Hendrix, Mohr & Yardley, a small boutique firm in Birmingham, Alabama, and subsequently financed numerous small companies, principally using Industrial Development Revenue Bonds.  More recently, as an independent corporate finance consultant, I have analyzed, structured, negotiated, and financed a wide variety of acquisitions, sold almost as many companies, and arranged public offerings for several relatively small ventures.

Concentrating throughout my career on small business, I have also been the president of six turn-around companies with serious financial and operating problems.  I’ve been a director of twelve corporations both public and private and wrote and published books on executive job search techniques, acquisition strategies, and innovative management techniques.  During the last five years, those included Let’s Buy a Company, How to Accelerate Growth Through Acquisitions and Is This Any Way to Run a Company?, the  companion book to this web site.

For more than fifteen years, I’ve offered my corporate finance consulting services through Florida Corporate Finance, a sole proprietorship owned by me.  Although perhaps not consistent with most of my past experiences and current vocation, I am a 1962 mechanical engineering graduate from Yale University and started my career wearing a had hat during twelve years in heavy industrial construction.  I live with my wife in Orlando, Florida.