Strategic Value Partners and its affiliates, a global investment firm focused on distressed and deep value opportunities, appointed Flip Huffard, previously of The Blackstone Group, to its Advisory Council.

Huffard brings nearly 25 years of restructuring experience to SVPGlobal, having retired from Blackstone, where he was most recently a senior managing director and one of the leaders of the firm’s Restructuring and Reorganization Group. In that role, he provided financial advisory services to companies and creditors in a wide range of situations. Among others, he worked on transactions including Patriot Coal and Tribune and led Blackstone’s restructuring efforts in the shipping industry with deals such as ZIM Integrated Shipping and Excel Maritime.

Huffard will work with SVPGlobal’s team of nearly 60 professionals in Greenwich, as well as the 35 professionals the firm has in its London, Frankfurt and Tokyo offices. With his appointment to SVPGlobal’s advisory council, Huffard joins five other current members: Sir David Cooksey, former Chairman of UK Financial Institutions; Dr. Bernd Fahrholz, former CEO of Dresdner Bank; Jose Barreiro, former Global Head of Investment Banking at BBVA; Ian Guthrie, a former executive at Lloyds and Halifax Bank of Scotland; and Hideto Ozaki, former CFO of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Victor Khosla, founder and chief investment officer of SVPGlobal, commented: “We are delighted that Flip has joined SVPGlobal as a senior advisor. His experience, knowledge and relationships across the U.S. financial restructuring community will be hugely additive for our North American franchise.”

“I am excited to be working with SVPGlobal,” said Huffard. “As SVPGlobal is one of the leading distressed debt investors in the world, and a group I have known and worked with on transactions over many years, I look forward to leveraging my experience from the last 20-plus years across their platform.”

Prior to Blackstone, which Huffard joined in 1995, he worked at the distressed investment and advisory firm Hellmold Associates and Smith, Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Huffard is also currently chairman of the board of directors of Vubiq Networks, a wireless broadband networking technology company and a member of the board at CORE Media Group.