Thomas Shandell was one of four founding partners of GoldenTree Asset Management, LP in the spring of 2000. At GoldenTree, Mr. Shandell was responsible for investments in a large number of industries including gaming, lodging & leisure, auto supply, consumer products, retail, restaurants, food, movie exhibition and building products. In addition, Mr. Shandell was in charge of all the firm's investments in companies having issues with asbestos liability. Most recently, Mr. Shandell started and was co-head and portfolio manager of the Capital Solutions Group at GoldenTree, whose mandate was to make direct investments in companies with limited access to traditional markets due to those companies lacking scale or possessing complex capital structures. In that role, Mr. Shandell oversaw a portfolio of approximately $1 billion of debt investments across a diverse spectrum of industries including those mentioned above among others. Prior to joining GoldenTree, Mr. Shandell was at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. for 16 years, most recently as a Senior Managing Director, covering companies in the gaming, lodging, restaurant and leisure industries. Mr. Shandell followed companies in the auto supply industry and several capital equipment companies during his tenure there as well. Mr. Shandell was a member of the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed-Income Research Poll team of gaming analysts for the five years prior to his joining GoldenTree, most recently occupying the Second Team position. Mr. Shandell spent his first eight years at Bear Stearns in the Corporate Finance Department before joining the High Yield Bond Department in 1992. As an investment banker, Mr. Shandell worked on a number of transactions for gaming/leisure companies, including Bally Entertainment, Bally's Park Place, the Trump Organization and Carnival Cruise Lines. Mr. Shandell also completed numerous debt and equity financings and served as an advisor for merger and acquisition transactions for a diverse group of manufacturing and service companies. Mr. Shandell received a B.S. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and an MBA from Columbia University in 1984.