Who ran First Brands: managers, officers and the restructuring team

analysisAt the Chapter 11 filing First Brands had a board of managers at each of four parent entities: First Brands Group Holdings, LLC, First Brands Group Intermediate, LLC, First Brands Group, LLC and Viceroy Private Capital, LLC. According to the first-day declaration of the chief restructuring officer, filed on September 29, 2025, each board consisted of Patrick James, Stephen Graham and Shekhar Kumar as managers and Neal Goldman and William Transier as independent managers. All five signed the omnibus written consent approving the Chapter 11 filings, which was filed with the petition of First Brands Group, LLC on September 28, 2025. ^{1 2}

analysisAccording to the omnibus consent, the four boards appointed Goldman and Transier as independent managers on September 17, 2025 and established a special committee made up of the two; on September 24, 2025 the boards widened the committee's authority to consider, evaluate, negotiate and approve a potential transaction. The first-day declaration describes the committee's exclusive authority over potential transactions and over an investigation of claims the debtors may hold, including against current and former managers, equity holders, officers and other insiders, covering the company's prepetition factoring and other off-balance-sheet financing; the investigation began before the petition date with the company's counsel and financial adviser. ^{1 2}

analysisOther records identify the two independent managers only by name and professional profile, and they predate or do not mention First Brands. An SEC filing describes William Transier as chief executive officer of Transier Advisors, LLC, an independent advisory firm serving companies in stressed operational situations, turnarounds, restructurings or in need of interim executive leadership; Helix Energy Solutions Group's board page, where Transier is chairman, gives the same principal occupation. Neal Goldman is described in an SEC filing as managing member of SAGE Capital Investments, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in independent board of director services, strategic planning and transformations, and on a company board page as its chief executive officer and managing member since 2016 and a former managing director of Och Ziff Capital Management and founding partner of Brigade Capital Management. ^{3 4 5 6}

analysisThe amended joint liquidating plan filed on June 5, 2026, as summarized in a press report, named Benjamin Duster together with William Transier as members of the special committee, and Neal Goldman and Duster in their capacities as independent managers, among the parties covered by the plan's release and exculpation provisions. The retained record does not give the date or document of Duster's appointment, and the plan was not confirmed. An SEC filing that does not mention First Brands describes Benjamin Duster as chief executive officer of Cormorant IV Corporation LLC and Mobile Technologies Inc., with more than 45 years of experience and past or present board seats at Expand Energy, Weatherford International, Republic First Bancorp and Alaska Communications Systems; the link to the First Brands independent manager rests on name and professional profile only. A commercial market-data profile also lists Duster as a director of Cardone Industries, Inc., the First Brands automobile-parts subsidiary, without a start date; no court or registry record of that appointment was retained. ^{7 8 9}

analysisSchedule I to the January 9, 2023 Offer to Purchase for Horizon Global shares, filed with the SEC, describes the leadership of First Brands Group, LLC at that time. Patrick James had been a director and its chairman and chief executive officer for more than five years. Ed James had been executive vice president for more than five years, after earlier roles in finance, accounting and working capital solutions with the company and its predecessor. Stephen Graham had been chief financial officer since April 2014, after more than 20 years as chief financial officer of other companies including Dura Automotive, Shiloh Industries, Truck Components and Associated Materials. Michael Baker became a director and chief corporate strategy officer, and Shekhar Kumar corporate finance manager, in August 2021. Both had been partners at the law firm Paul Hastings LLP, where their work included serving as outside finance counsel to First Brands Group, LLC. ^{1 2}

analysisThe same executives held the posts of the acquisition vehicle and then of Horizon Global. PHX Merger Sub, Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of First Brands Group, LLC that was the purchaser under the offer, had officers and directors appointed in December 2022: Patrick James as controlling person, director, president and chief executive officer; Michael Baker as director, chief corporate strategy officer and secretary; Ed James as executive vice president; Stephen Graham as chief financial officer and treasurer; and Shekhar Kumar as corporate finance manager. Horizon Global Corporation's Form 8-K reporting events of February 8, 2023 states that, when the merger took effect, Patrick James and Michael Baker joined Horizon Global's board of directors, Patrick James became its chief executive officer and president, and Stephen Graham its chief financial officer. ^{2 1}

analysisAt the petition date the first-day declaration listed three executive officers: Patrick James, chief executive officer; Stephen Graham, chief financial officer; and Shekhar Kumar, senior vice president for mergers and acquisitions. Patrick James signed the omnibus consents filed with the petition for First Brands Group, LLC as its President and Chief Executive Officer, including in its capacity as the member of FRAMAuto Holdings, LLC that executed that subsidiary's consent to the filing. ^{3 4}

analysisRecords differ on Edward (Ed) James's last title at First Brands. The SEC-filed 2023 Offer to Purchase and the debtors' November 2025 complaint describe Edward James as executive vice president, while the U.S. Attorney's Office description of the indictment and First Brands' own statement on the indictment call Edward James a former senior vice president. The records do not explain the difference; both titles are shown as recorded. ^{5 6 2 7 1}

analysisAccording to the debtors' complaint of November 3, 2025, Michael Baker, the chief corporate strategy officer and a board member, and Ed James, Patrick James's brother, executive vice president and a board member, each resigned on September 25, 2025 from all positions held as an officer, director, manager or board member at all First Brands entities. On October 30, 2025 Stephen Graham, the chief financial officer and a board member, retired from all positions at all First Brands entities, and Andy (Peter Andrew) Brumbergs, vice president, finance and a board member, was terminated from all positions; the complaint says both had stopped working as of September 22, 2025. ¹

analysisPatrick James, the founder, chief executive officer since the company's founding in 2013 and controlling shareholder, resigned on October 12, 2025 from all positions held as an officer, director, manager or board member at all First Brands entities, according to the complaint, which elsewhere gives October 13, 2025 as the end of James's tenure as chief executive. First Brands announced at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on October 13, 2025 that Charles Moore had been appointed interim chief executive officer and that James was resigning as chief executive officer effective immediately. ^{1 2}

analysisCharles M. Moore, a managing director of Alvarez & Marsal North America, LLC, had been appointed chief restructuring officer of First Brands Group, LLC and its affiliated debtors in September 2025, before the petition date; the omnibus consent recites resolutions of the boards of the four parent entities dated September 24, 2025 and, separately, September 26, 2025 appointing Moore chief restructuring officer of each of them. After Moore became interim chief executive on October 13, 2025, Daniel Jerneycic and Gaurav Malhotra were appointed co-chief restructuring officers on October 24, 2025, and Paul Kosturos was appointed chief financial officer on October 30, 2025, effective November 3, 2025, according to the complaint. The company's announcement of Moore's appointment said there were no other changes to its executive leadership team at that time. ^{3 4 1 2}

analysisAlvarez & Marsal's own profiles describe the four. Moore is a managing director in its restructuring and turnaround practice in Detroit who previously was a senior managing director at Conway MacKenzie, Inc. and chief financial officer of the automotive supplier Horizon Technology Group. Kosturos is a managing director in its private equity services operations group in Charlotte who specializes in interim chief financial officer assignments and joined the firm in 2009. Jerneycic is a managing director in the restructuring and turnaround practice in Detroit with extensive automotive-industry experience, previously a partner in EY-Parthenon's turnaround and restructuring practice, and Malhotra a managing director in the same practice in Chicago who serves on the practice's executive committee and previously led Ernst & Young's U.S. restructuring practice. ^{5 6 7 8}

analysisShekhar Kumar remained with the company after the bankruptcy filing: the WARN notice of First Brands Group, LLC dated December 29, 2025 on the closure of the Eagle Machining plant in Fayette, Ohio, sent to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, was signed by Kumar as senior vice president, M&A. ⁹

analysisCompanies House records for Trico Limited (company number 00234268) list among its officers since 2016 Stephen Edward Graham, director and company secretary from December 16, 2016 to October 22, 2025; David William Parker, director from October 4, 2018 to August 10, 2025 after an earlier term from January 15 to December 16, 2016; Shekhar Kumar, director from January 31, 2022 (active); and Michael Baker, director from January 31, 2022 to September 25, 2025. Kumar's and Baker's entries give the group's address at 127 Public Square, Suite 5300, Cleveland, also the correspondence address of two former directors, Jay Russell Machado (October 21, 2020 to June 13, 2023) and Brian Andrew Troyer (October 21, 2020 to January 31, 2022). Parker's four UK appointments recorded by Companies House are all in two Trico companies: director of Trico Limited and of Trico Suzhou Investments Limited from January 15 to December 16, 2016 and again from October 4, 2018 to August 10, 2025. ^{1 2 3}

analysisCompanies House lists six UK directorships of Shekhar Kumar: Trico Limited (from January 31, 2022) and Trico Suzhou Investments Limited (from January 18, 2022), both active; Qualitor Automotive UK Limited (from July 29, 2022; company dissolved); and, from February 8, 2023, Horizon Global Digital Limited (company dissolved), C.P. Witter Limited and Horizon Global European Holdings Limited, from both of which Kumar resigned on March 11, 2026. Michael Baker was a director of Qualitor Automotive UK Limited from July 29, 2022 (company dissolved) and of Trico Suzhou Investments Limited from January 18, 2022 to September 25, 2025, and Stephen Edward Graham a director of Trico Suzhou Investments Limited from December 16, 2016 to October 22, 2025; with Trico Limited these are their only UK appointments. ^{2 4 5}

analysisGerman register data, as rendered by an aggregator without appointment dates, list Shekhar Kumar, Michael Simon Baker, Stephen E. K. Graham and David William Parker as former managing directors of Ultinon Motion Germany GmbH (Aachen register HRB 19283), with Lumileds Holding B.V. as the company's former direct parent, and list Shekhar Kumar as a current managing director of Global Assets GmbH. The identification of these managing directors with the First Brands executives rests on matching names and the group context, not on a second identifier. ^{6 7}