Michael Sheehan

Director Michael Sheehan, an expert in debt restructuring, has extensive business experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. After graduation from law school and joining the Pennsylvania Bar, he worked as a Senior Associate at Naegele & Associates in Washington, D.C., specializing in failed thrift acquisitions and bank receivership litigation.

In 1989, Mr. Sheehan moved to Kinshasa, Congo, where he represented a wide variety of corporate clients and not-for-profit organizations while working at Mitchell, Friedlander & Gittlemen.

Mr. Sheehan returned to Washington, D.C. in 1991 to take a position as General Counsel at the Debt-for Development Coalition, Inc., a U.S. Agency for Interntional Development-funded non-profit organization established to reduce the debt burden in developing countries using debt-for-equity swaps. While at the Coalition, Mr. Sheehan helped structure many debt-for-development swaps, including an arrangement that allowed NGOs to purchase Zambian external debt and generate local currency for investment in Zambia’s health, child welfare, education and agricultural sectors.

In 1996, Mr. Sheehan left the Coalition and, together with a group of partners, established Debt Advisory International, LLC (DAI). A Washington, D.C.-based limited liability company, DIA provides debt related advisory services to private and sovereign creditors and debtors, and to funds, banks and companies investing in emerging market corporate and sovereign debt.

Donegal International Ltd.

Donegal International Ltd., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on December 18, 1997, was established for the purpose of holding and managing the distressed debt purchased from Romania and owed by Zambia. Creating a separate company for such purposes is a common practice and is used to limit potential cross-liability issues and to facilitate additional investment by third-party partners that might joint venture in investment projects involving the conversion of debt into equity or local currency.