Deborah Midanek Bailey

Founder and president at Solon Group Inc. and principal at Prevail Investments LLC, Deborah Midanek Bailey has also served as director, lead director or chairman as well as committee chair (audit, compensation, governance, special independent) for public and private companies. Those include HCC Insurance Holdings, Signature Group Holdings, MB Holdings, Phosphates Holdings, Inc., Rodman & Renshaw Group, Inc., and Tricapital, Ltd., among others.

A trustee of the Committee for Economic Development since 1992, she is also on the advisory board of family owned Biltmore Companies. Deborah chaired the board of Standard Brands Paint and American Homestar, and The Solon Funds, registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. She also served as de facto lead director for Drexel Burnham, deemed an inadvertent investment company, during its bankruptcy, where she organized the shareholders to achieve recognition in the bankruptcy and restructured the incumbent board to favor independent directors. She joined Drexel Burnham to start its derivatives function, which grew to $50 billion in contracts; she then formed and led the firm’s structured products group. She is a 2011 NACD Board Leadership Fellow, the first year such designations were available.

Deborah earned her MBA from the Wharton School and an AB from Bryn Mawr College. A frequent writer and speaker on governance, strategy, and leadership, she is deeply involved in promoting entrepreneurship.