Managing Director
PPM America, Inc.
James
C. Leda is a managing director in the Debt Restructuring Group at PPM America,
Inc., which manages more than $100 billion as the North American investment
division of Prudential plc. He is responsible for managing the firm’s
distressed investments and has more than 17 years of industry experience
dealing in distressed and high yield investments.
At
PPM, James has represented his firm and its clients in a number of high-profile
corporate restructurings, including Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, General
Motors, and Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation. He is currently a delegate to the Washington
Mutual, Inc., Liquidating Trust Advisory Board and was a principal in the $2.9 billion
sale of Pilgrim’s Pride to a subsidiary of JBS SA of Brazil.
James
developed and leads PPM’s proprietary Comparative International Insolvency Regimes
project, which encompasses analysis and monitoring of more than two dozen insolvency
regimes in jurisdictions in which PPM invests, or may invest. He has managed
investments through insolvency proceedings in numerous foreign jurisdictions, including
the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Iceland.
James
came to PPM in 2009 from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., where
he was vice president and senior high yield automotive analyst. In this role,
he formulated, maintained, and communicated the firm’s investment
recommendations and preferred trading strategies in the high yield/distressed
automotive sector. His research was followed by more than 1,000 institutional
clients in 25 countries, and he was frequently quoted in the press during the
U.S. automotive industry downturn. Earlier in his career, James worked in Merrill’s
London office, covering the European financial sector.
Before
joining Merrill Lynch in 2000, James was a senior associate in the Corporate
Recovery practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, from 1995 to 1999. There, he
focused on restructurings primarily in the steel and retail sectors.
Representative assignments included Ben Franklin Retail Stores, Acme Metals, Copperweld
Steel, and Pittsburgh Food & Beverage.
James
is a frequent panelist at distressed conferences, including the Renaissance
American Management, Inc. and Beard Group Conference on Corporate
Reorganizations, and conferences of the Turnaround Management Association and the
William J. O’Neill Bankruptcy Institute. He was chair of the inaugural iGlobal
Forum Distressed Debt Investing Summit and has been a guest lecturer at the University
of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business. Most recently, he moderated a
panel addressing international insolvency for the Credit Roundtable/Fixed
Income Forum.
James
completed his MBA, with a concentration in analytic finance, at the University
of Chicago. He also completed the International Business Exchange Program at
the Stockholm School of Economics. He has an undergraduate degree in Finance
and Accounting, graduating magna cum laude, from Indiana University of
Pennsylvania. He is a certified public accountant (currently inactive).
James
was the IUP student trustee on the Council of Trustees from 1993 to 1995 and
has served on the IUP Business Golf Classic advisory committee. He was a 1998 recipient
of the IUP Young Alumni Ambassador Award, now called the Young Alumni
Achievement Award.
Inducted Spring 2013
Updated 2013