Robert Beyer

Robert D. Beyer is Chairman of Chaparal Investments LLC, a private investment firm and holding company he founded in 2009. During his investment career, Mr. Beyer has been responsible for the management of a large, diversified and global business overseeing the management of more than 1000 employees and 100 different public and private market investment strategies and has had direct, senior-level responsibility as a portfolio manager in various investment categories, including fixed income securities, leveraged loans, collateralized and structured product funds, and distressed and special situations portfolios and funds. In connection with these responsibilities, Mr. Beyer was a founder and portfolio manager of the largest independent mezzanine finance fund primarily serving the leveraged buyout and recapitalization markets. From 2005 until 2009, Mr. Beyer was Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of The TCW Group, Inc., a diversified investment management firm of over 700 employees with equities, fixed income and alternative assets under management in excess of $150 billion; he previously served as President and Chief Investment Officer from 2001 until 2005. From 2001 until 2009, he was also a member of the executive committee of Société Générale Asset Management, a firm of over 1,500 employees and the parent company of TCW, sharing oversight for nearly $500 billion of global investment strategies and related distribution activities. While at TCW, Mr. Beyer oversaw the restructuring of the firm’s corporate investment strategy, investment research, marketing and distribution, human resources, corporate communications and information technology areas, developed numerous investment products including a global portable alpha strategy and several hybrid structured investment funds, and conceived and developed both the firm’s risk management infrastructure and TCW University, a broad-curriculum employee training program that was a winner of the ASTD Best Internal Training Program award for 2009. During his tenure as CEO, TCW achieved record assets under management and profitability. In 1991, Mr. Beyer co-founded Crescent Capital Corporation, an investment management firm specializing in high yield fixed income, bank loans, distressed securities and private placements that was acquired by TCW in 1995. At Crescent, Mr. Beyer developed the compliance, operational and financial reporting systems as well as the activities of Crescent Securities Corporation, an affiliated broker-dealer. From 1983 until 1991, Mr. Beyer was an investment banker and capital markets professional at Bear, Stearns & Co. and Drexel Burnham Lambert with extensive experience in structuring and financing leveraged acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings. At Drexel, he was appointed to oversee the management, restructuring and ultimately successful liquidation of a $3 billion portfolio leading to the repayment of that firm’s creditors. Mr. Beyer is a director of two Fortune 100 companies, The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) and The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR). In 2008, Mr. Beyer was selected as an Outstanding Director by his peers as part of the Outstanding Directors Program of the Financial Times. He is a past chair and serves on the Board of Trustees of Harvard-Westlake School. He is the Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a member of the Board of Councilors at the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council where he oversees management of the endowment. He is also a member of the Board of Airport Commissioners of Los Angeles World Airports and was a former commissioner of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System. Mr. Beyer is also an investor in and a member of the Advisory Board of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club. Mr. Beyer received his BS from the University of Southern California in 1981 and his MBA from The UCLA Anderson School in 1983. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Catherine, and their four children.