Our Leadership Team
Jeremy Back
Mr. Back is the President & CEO of Grosvenor Square Limited. Mr. Back has over 20 years of private investment and corporate finance experience. Many of the transactions he has consummated have been complex in nature and have received "Deal of the Year" awards and/or nominations. He is also responsible for the strategic direction of the Energy division of GSL. Mr. Back has been instrumental in arranging direct supply relationships with leading refineries around the globe as well as an extensive network of end users of fuel.
Prior to forming GSL, Mr. Back was responsible for NewStar Financial’s middle market lending practice on the West Coast of the United States. At NewStar (NASDAQ: NEWS), Mr. Back was responsible for originating leveraged loan transactions (with an emphasis on first lien, first lien last out, second lien and unitranche loans), making credit selection decisions and managing a team of investment professionals. Prior to NewStar, Mr. Back was a senior investment professional with GoldenTree Asset Management in New York where he was responsible for investment decisions in connection with investment opportunities across the capital structure (from senior secured loans to equity co-investments). Mr. Back consistently had some of the top performing credits in Newstar’s and GoldenTree’s portfolios including investments that were realized in 2008 when market conditions were particularly adverse.
Prior to joining GoldenTree, Mr. Back originated and executed complex leveraged loan and high yield debt financings and restructurings in the Leveraged Finance Groups at firms such as Credit Suisse (DLJ), CIBC (The Argosy Group, LP) and Merrill Lynch. He has consummated corporate finance, M&A & restructuring transactions that have generated over $10 billion of gross proceeds for middle market clients in the beauty/cosmetics, energy, environmental services, manufacturing, logistics, retail, technology, telecom, media and aerospace & defense sectors, among others. Advisory transactions consummated by Mr. Back included: (1) the highly complex $3.2 billion restructuring of Rite Aid Corporation (which contributed materially to over $3 billion of equity value creation in a 6-month period); (2) the refinancing of ON Semiconductor in May 2002 (during a very challenging market for technology companies); and (3) the refinancing of KinderCare Learning Centers upon its exit from bankruptcy, which included a $100 million offering of 10.375% Senior Notes. The ON Semiconductor transaction was considered an "all-time" execution in the history of DLJ's #1 ranked High Yield practice by the former Head of Global Leveraged Finance at DLJ.
Mr. Back graduated with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.E. degree (Finance).
Seymour Knox
Mr. Knox is a member of the Advisory Board of GSL. He lives in Buffalo, NY.
Mr. Knox is an investor, competitive athlete and philanthropist. Mr. Knox is a member of the Knox Family of Buffalo, NY. The Knox Family has owned controlling stakes in the Buffalo Sabres NHL Hockey team and Marine Midland Bank (which was sold to HSBC thereby becoming the core of HSBC’s banking presence in the state of New York). A member of the Knox Family was also instrumental in growing Woolworths into the largest retailer in the world (at one point in time).
Mr. Knox was Vice President of Corporate Relations for the Buffalo Sabres and was Alternate Governor of the NHL.
Mr. Knox has been a member of the Board of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo since 1990. He has also been a member of the Board of the George Eastman House since 2000. Mr. Knox is also a member of the New York Public Ethics Committee.
Dr. Jianfeng Li
Dr. Li is a Senior Advisor to GSL. He lives in Beijing, China.
Dr. Li is a distinguished professor of Organizational Behavior at the Business School of Renmin University of China (one of the top five Universities in China). He also teaches EMBA students at Tsinghua University and Beijing Jiaotong University. During 2005-2006, he was a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London.
Dr. Li has extensive experience in structuring oil & gas, corporate finance and real estate transactions for companies located in China. He has relationships with the central offices of many of the largest fuel buyers globally (particularly in China).
Dr. Li is also a well known management consultant who has provided consulting services to more than 30 companies, including White Snow, Shenzhen Weineng, Xingguang Car, and Dongxin Group, among others. As a leading expert in Organizational Behavior, he led the development of the “National Management Development Plan” organized by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) (which was formerly known as the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-Operation) in 2000-2005 and has taught more than 100,000 corporate executives all over China during the past 15 years.
Dr. Li has written more than 20 books, including a textbook authorized by China’s Ministry of Education titled “Organizational Behavior Management.” Dr. Li has also published more than 50 papers, including:
• “Power Distance as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Justice and Employee Outcomes in a Sample of Chinese Employees” with Thomas M. Begley, College of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2002; and
• “Conflict Management Style: Accounting for Cross-National Differences” (with Michael W. Morris, Stanford University, Journal of International Business Studies, 1998).
Dr. Li graduated with honors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a Ph.D. degree in Management.
Wang Yunjie
Mr. Yunjie is a Senior Advisor to GSL. He lives in Beijing, China.
Mr. Wang Yunjie is registered to practice law with China’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ). He is a member of the China Law Society, the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA), the ACLA Financial Securities Commission, and the Asian Pacific Bar Association. He qualified as a solicitor in March 1985. He was hired as an associate professor at Peking University in early 1993. Since 2003, Mr. Yunjie has been an independent member of the China Development Bank.