Mark Walker has 40 years of experience advising more than 20 countries around the world on complex financial matters.
Prior to joining Guggenheim Securities, Mark was head of sovereign advisory at Millstein & Co. and Rothschild London and a Senior Advisor at Lazard Paris. Mark led the Rothschild team that advised Cyprus during its financial crisis in 2013 and co-led the Lazard team that advised Greece in 2011 and 2012 on the first sovereign debt restructuring of a Eurozone country and the largest sovereign debt restructuring ever. Mark also advised the governmental authorities of Greece and Cyprus in their negotiations with the I MF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank and is currently advising the Venezuelan bondholders committee. Mark has worked with the IMF and other official bodies in seeking to improve the practices followed by debtors and creditors in dealing with liquidity and solvency problems of heavily indebted states. Mark has lived and worked in Paris, Brussels and London and has spent substantial time working in Latin American and Asia.
Mark was a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP from 1975 to 2011 and the firm's Global Managing Partner from 2005 to 2011. He led and co-founded that firm's premier sovereign practice and developed much of the documentation that set the standard for sovereign debt restructurings during the 1980s and 1990s. Mark received a law degree from Yale Law School and a B.A. in English literature from Stanford University.
- Advisor to the Government of Mexico for more than 30 years on liability management, privatization of the steel, petrochemical and telecommunications sectors bank and capital markets financings and complex international financial matters generally
- Advisor to Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for more than 30 years on private investment in the E&P sector, equipment financing, bankers acceptances, infrastructure finance and other complex financings
- European Stability Mechanism: development of a sovereign debt restructuring framework and mechanism to offer debt relief to Greece
- Advisor to South Korea and Indonesia during the Asian financial crisis with respect to the refinancing of their banking systems.
- Mexican Government and Pemex: negotiation of a treaty with the United States governing exploitation of transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs
- Indonesian state-owned utility (PLN) and Pertamina: renegotiation of 26 independent power projects following the Asian financial crisis
- U.S. monetary authorities: advice as to bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and design of Federal Reserve Programs to protect systemic banks and keep markets open during the financial crisis
- CFE: the first independent power project in Mexico (Samalayuca)
- Hungary: Euros 10 billion financing of a nuclear power plan expansion with the Russian Federation, advice regarding foreign currency mortgage lending by banks and advice to the government and the central bank on financing the government
- Algeria: advice on a series of industrialization project including transfer of technology, training of workers and construction of plants for the manufacture oil field equipment, consumer electronics, agricultural equipment and other industrial goods
- Advisor to countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe on liability management, privatization and pubic finance generally
- Advisor to the bondholders of Venezuela
- Advisor to Slovenia regarding its separation from Yugoslavia