Melissa S. Kibler
<p>Melissa S. Kibler, CPA, CIRA, CTP, CFF and CDBV is a senior managing director in the Chicago office of Accordion, which acquired Mackinac Partners in May 2021. She has over 35 years of experience providing financial advisory, restructuring and turnaround management services to Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies and their stakeholders. Ms. Kibler recently served as an expert on feasibility in the Boy Scouts of America matter; CRO in the bankruptcies of Rubio’s Restaurants, a 170-unit Mexican coastal grill, and Juno, previously the third-largest ride-hailing company in New York; and as the CFO of Edmentum, a leading provider of K-12 online learning solutions. She also has extensive investigative, litigation and valuation experience, including insolvency-related litigation, avoidance actions, fraud investigations, merger and acquisition disputes, director and officer claims, and other commercial litigation support. Ms. Kibler was previously a senior managing director in the Chicago office and an executive committee member of Mesirow Financial Consulting following its 2004 acquisition of the corporate recovery practice of KPMG LLP, where she had served as partner-in- charge of the Midwest Corporate Recovery practice and the Pacific Northwest Corporate Recovery and Forensic & Litigation Services practices since 1999 after starting her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Kibler is the immediate past Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy, and her prior leadership roles in professional associations include ABI President and Chair, director of INSOL International and chair of the AICPA Bankruptcy Task Force. She received the 2022 Global M&A Network USA Women Dealmakers DEI Award and the 2021 Global M&A Network’s Women’s Leadership Award, and she was named the Chicago Chapter Turnaround Management Association’s 2021 CTP of the Year, Consulting Magazine’s 2013 Women Leader in Consulting, Illinois CPA Society’s 2011 Women to Watch, the IWIRC 2010 Woman of the Year in Restructuring, Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2004 40 Under 40, and the 2003 CIRA Gold Medal Winner. Ms. Kibler received her B.A. in accounting summa cum laude from Texas A&M University and her M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University, graduating first in her class.</p>