Cerberus Capital Management Appoints Afsheen Afshar as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. ("Cerberus") announced today that Afsheen Afshar will join Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company, LLC ("COAC"), the firm's industry-leading operations platform, as Senior Managing Director and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, a newly created role within the group. Dr. Afshar will be based in the firm's New York headquarters effective November 20.

In this role, Dr. Afshar will lead the development of a proprietary operations platform focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning, the goal of which is to empower Cerberus' portfolio companies and trading desks with the technological, analytical, and cultural perspectives to extract measurable value out of raw data. Specifically, this new COAC platform will identify opportunities to leverage data and analytics to drive operational improvement, enhance decision making, and create automated business insights for Cerberus' trading businesses and its portfolio companies. It is expected that Dr. Afshar will build a team of world-class technologists over time to selectively execute operating projects across Cerberus' global portfolio.

"We are excited to welcome Afsheen to Cerberus," said Frank Bruno, President of Cerberus Global Investments, LLC and Senior Managing Director of Cerberus. "He brings passion and deeply-tenured business and technology acumen to advance our vision of providing sophisticated, data-driven capabilities to our investment strategies and operating companies."

Chan Galbato, Chief Executive Officer of COAC, added, "We believe that leveraging data and rapidly testing business hypotheses are essential to competitiveness. The addition of an expert data scientist such as Afsheen further strengthens our proprietary operations and advisory platform, and accelerates our ability to implement continuous improvement initiatives in the Cerberus portfolio in the face of rapidly changing business conditions."

Dr. Afshar joins COAC from J.P. Morgan where he was Chief Data Science Officer and Managing Director, responsible for data science efforts for the entire corporate and investment bank. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where he led data science and machine learning teams that worked across multiple businesses. Dr. Afshar holds dual-doctorate degrees (MD and PhD) from Stanford University. His PhD was in electrical engineering with a focus on AI/machine learning and neuroscience. He also holds a Masters in electrical engineering from Stanford, and a Bachelors in electrical engineering from Princeton. 

"I look forward to building COAC's proprietary AI/machine learning capabilities for the Cerberus portfolio and platform and to recruiting world-class talent to one of the most forward-thinking firms in global alternative investing," said Dr. Afshar. "Our objective is to empower Cerberus' investment strategies and portfolio companies to answer their most urgent questions and to derive insights from data in ways that measurably improve performance."

About Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.

Established in 1992, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the world's leading private investment firms. Cerberus has more than US $30 billion under management invested in three complementary strategies: private equity; global credit opportunities (which includes non-performing loans, corporate credit and distressed debt, mortgage securities and assets, and direct lending); and real estate. From its headquarters in New York City and network of affiliate and advisory offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Cerberus has the on-the-ground presence to invest in multiple asset classes globally.

About Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company, LLC

As the proprietary operations affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company, LLC (COAC) is one of the largest and most experienced teams of operating executives and functional experts in alternative investing. COAC consists of approximately 110 professionals from a wide spectrum of industries and business disciplines that assist Cerberus by sourcing opportunities, conducting highly informed due diligences, executing acquisitions, and improving the performance of portfolio investments. COAC executives often hold senior leadership and director positions at Cerberus' portfolio companies, and COAC teams are regularly deployed to provide practical assistance to help drive operational and strategic transformations.

Contact
Andrew Johnson
Glover Park Group
646-495-2700
[email protected]

SOURCE Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.