Hilco Global announced the appointment of two Hilco operating company leaders to the role of Co-President at the holding company.
New Co-President’s Neil Aaronson and Henry Foster are both longtime leaders within the global diversified financial services firm, both having helped to successfully build very large and growing Hilco business units, serving as the CEO’s at Hilco Real Estate and Hilco Capital respectively. In their new role as Co-President, the two will report directly to Jeffrey Hecktman, Founder and CEO of the holding company, Hilco Global.
In making the announcement, Hecktman said, “This is an important step in assigning critical global management duties to a new generation of leadership who will help us continue growing and expanding our financial services platform in new and exciting ways.” Hecktman emphasized that both Aaronson and Foster will continue to serve in their current roles as Chief Executive Officer of Hilco Real Estate and Hilco Capital, while adding the Co-President responsibilities to their existing duties. Hecktman added, “Both Neil and Henry are representative of the depth of exceptional talent and management leadership that Hilco has attracted and empowered to lead each of our 20+ Hilco operating units over the past 37 years.”
John Chen who has been serving as President and COO for the past 7 years, will continue with his current responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer and will become a Vice Chair at the holding company. Hecktman said, “John will focus on managing our growing operational needs as we have expanded our holistic solutions focused platform and grown to over 800 people worldwide.”
The company indicated that Mr. Aaronson will focus on Hilco business currently operating in, or to be operated in the United States, Mexico, and South America. And, Mr. Foster will focus on Hilco business operating in, or to be operated in, Europe, Canada, and Australia.
The Co-Presidents will be responsible for driving growth of the Hilco Global operating platform by serving as a strategic business partner to the 20+ Hilco operating companies, pursuing, and executing company-wide strategic initiatives, and driving collaborative cross platform business integration. The two will also become members of the company investment committee.
Neil Aaronson is a dynamic leader and seasoned dealmaker, having been involved in large-scale acquisitions, dispositions, investments, and general deal-making across a broad range of significant real estate and corporate holdings. With extensive experience in all aspects of retail, restaurant, industrial, hospitality, and office real estate, he has been instrumental in the successful completion of over $4 billion in transactions during his career.
Neil joined Hilco Global in 2007 as an Executive Vice President at the holding company. His responsibilities included major transaction structuring and oversight. In 2008, Neil assumed the leadership role as CEO of Hilco Real Estate. Prior to joining Hilco, he served as Senior Vice President of Business Development for publicly traded Cendant Corporation, where he oversaw mergers, acquisitions and investments for the Company’s hotel and timeshare businesses. He previously held the position of Vice President for Cendant’s Strategic Development Group, spearheading acquisitions across the platform of Cendant Companies. Earlier, he served as an associate investment banker with ING Barings, where he handled the analysis and negotiations of acquisitions, divestitures, and financings for several public and private companies.
Henry Foster has been serving as our Chief Executive Officer of Hilco Capital, operating across the Hilco Capital businesses in the UK, Europe, Australia, and Canada. He joined Hilco in 2007 and held several positions with increasing responsibilities prior to being appointed to lead the company.
As CEO, Henry, alongside the Hilco Capital team, has grown the company’s financial investment and advisory businesses across the UK and Canada while expanding into Europe and more recently Australia. In addition, the business has extended into several sectors outside of retail including manufacturing and engineering. More recently, Henry oversaw the development of the Hilco Capital lending business which has to date provided total facilities of approximately £300m over the last four years. Prior to his tenure at Hilco, Henry worked as a Chartered Accountant with a leading professional services firm, advising lenders, corporates, and other stakeholders on turnaround situations.