Mr. Gillfillan has over 35 years in banking and finance positions, with extensive leadership experience in troubled debt restructuring, turnaround management, and strategic finance issues dealing with capital structure and capital adequacy.
Mr. Gillfillan joined Meriturn in 2002 and brings particular expertise in portfolio company management and financial restructuring activities. He is the Chairman of Johnston Textiles, and a Member of Board of Prime Tanning and Dunn Paper.
Mr. Gillfillan spent more than 25 years with Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), most recently serving as its Vice-Chairman and Chief Credit Officer. His career with the bank was focused principally on its credit portfolio, but also included senior leadership positions in marketing, management, and administration, as well as direct responsibility for the bank's problem loan portfolio from 1986 to 1999. In 1991, Mr. Gillfillan was promoted to Vice Chairman and Chief Credit Officer and became a member of the bank's Senior Management Committee. He also served as Vice Chairman and head of the Corporate and Commercial Banking Groups, where he was responsible for the bank's investments in private equity partnerships. During that time, Mr. Gillfillan also successfully founded a bank sponsored SBIC, as well as an agricultural investment partnership.
As head of the bank's loan workout group (LAG), he directly led or managed Wells Fargo's strategic efforts in troubled debt restructuring, including those related to the LDC international loan crisis, aggressive LBO activity in the late 1980's, and real estate liquidity problems in the early 1990's. He was an early adopter of the distressed debt sales market. Mr. Gillfillan's first turnaround and restructuring assignment with Wells Fargo was in 1984 as CEO of Wells Fargo Ag Credit, a troubled finance subsidiary of Wells Fargo. He successfully restructured the subsidiary, and positioned it for a profitable sale.
Currently, Mr. Gillfillan is a member of the Board of Directors of Maguire Properties, Inc. (NYSE: MPG) and UnionBanCal Corp. (NYSE: UB), the holding company for Union Bank of California. Mr. Gillfillan earned a BA in History from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.