Mr. Niemann is a Managing Director and senior member of Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group. Since joining Houlihan Lokey, he has served on the firm’s Management Committee, among other leadership roles, including running Houlihan Lokey’s global real estate and real estate restructuring investment banking teams from 2008 to 2014. Mr. Niemann has been a senior leader in both the Chicago and Los Angeles offices and has extensive investment banking experience in the helicopter sector, among many others.
From 2012 to 2019, Mr. Niemann was a member of the Board of Directors of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH), one of the largest homebuilders in the Western United States, where he sat on the Compensation (Chair), Governance, and Audit Committees and chaired the Pricing Committee for WLH’s IPO in May 2013.
Over his career, Mr. Niemann has served as a principal or advisor in a wide range of M&A, restructuring, and financing transactions for Fortune 500 and middle-market companies. He also regularly testifies as an expert in federal court on M&A, valuation, capital market, fiduciary duty, and transaction process issues. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Niemann ran PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Financial Advisory Services Group and practiced law in Bryan Cave’s Corporate, Banking & Real Estate practice in St. Louis. He also spent three years with Cerberus Capital, where he was a Managing Director and investment professional, and served as Senior Managing Director and Chief Strategic Officer of GMAC ResCap (a Cerberus portfolio company), where he was in charge of strategy for its $5.0 billion portfolio of builder and developer real estate investments.
Mr. Niemann holds Finance and Law degrees from St. Louis University, where he served on the Law Review. He was a guest lecturer from 2006 to 2011 at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, was a member of the Ph.D. Dissertation Committee at Webster University in St. Louis, and was recognized by the K&A Registry as one of the leading restructuring investment bankers in the United States. Mr. Niemann founded the American Bankruptcy Institute Corporate Bankruptcy Restructuring Competition and authored the inaugural case study Delicious Delights in 2003. He was the chairman of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) Distressed Investing Conference in 2008 and regularly participates in industry conferences. Mr. Niemann has been accredited as a Certified Turnaround Professional by the TMA. He has served on the executive committee of the board (Treasurer) of The Ronald McDonald Houses of Greater St. Louis, Our Holy Redeemer Parish Council and School Board (Treasurer), and the Webster Groves Economic Advisory Council.