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Eileen M. Burke
Managing Partner

Eileen M. Burke is the founder and President of West End Capital and Advisory. A senior finance executive with deep relationships in the investment community and many years of experience creating debt and equity investments, since 2009 she has led West End's investing and advisory practice, making structured investments and assisting financial services, technology and media and entertainment companies with capital raising, restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions, while being a frequent speaker on finance industry panels.

At West End Eileen has completed a wide range of assignments. She recently structured and raised capital for an $18 million loan secured by Puerto Rican film tax credits; has completed numerous advisory assignments for film company debt facilities and equity investments; and established a strategic partnership between a digital film production company and a national concert promoter. As Exclusive Financial Advisor for a leading Canadian specialty finance company, she obtained a $20 million DIP loan commitment and completed an initial $130 million recapitalization for this leading specialty finance company; 18 months later she negotiated an upsize in the company’s credit facility to $250 million. Other notable transactions include a $60 million joint venture she conceived and negotiated between an entrepreneur and alternative asset management fund to acquire medical receivables; structuring and negotiating a $20 million joint venture between a church and a real estate developer to build a Charter School in New York City; arranging debt facilities for manufacturing company buyouts and to finance a roll-up for a for-profit education company; and valuations and strategic advice.

Recognized as a pioneer and leader in the field of media and entertainment investing, Eileen was previously a Managing Director at DB Zwirn & Co., an $8 billion alternative investment firm, where she founded the first entertainment-focused investment vertical in the alternative asset industry. Leveraging her specialized knowledge and extensive industry relationships Eileen made debt and equity investments in the film, music, broadcasting and video game sectors and created a profitable investment strategy with a wide range of notable transactions, including the first second-lien loan in the entertainment sector for Initial Entertainment, a joint venture with Summit Entertainment to acquire Latin American film assets, and a mezzanine and founding equity investment in Legendary Pictures, where as member of the board, she guided management and the Board through a major recapitalization.

While at DBZ Eileen established meaningful relationships with other investors in the alternative investment community through making investments together. She also completed numerous restructurings, managing bankruptcies, DIP loans, negotiations with unsecured creditors and arbitration proceedings. She developed expertise in tax, regulatory and balance sheet requirements of asset management firms, and assisted in various initiatives related to the firm’s wind-down, including asset valuations and dispositions.

Prior to DBZ Eileen was a Managing Director at FleetBoston Financial for six years where she established Fleet as a major force providing debt capital and advisory services to entertainment companies, founding a new Entertainment Finance Group where she originated a ground-breaking $1 billion asset securitization for DreamWorks, LLC that obtained the first true-sale opinion ever for a film securitization, creating a new financing technique – loans structured against film ultimates – that is now a mainstay of the entertainment finance market. As a senior banker at Banque Paribas she structured floating rate debt and private equity investments for broadcasting, cable, publishing and telecommunications companies.

Eileen began her finance career at Chemical Bank and its predecessor institutions, where she originated and structured debt investments and marketed a full range of financial products and advisory services. She successfully oversaw the bank's efforts on a major $8 billion restructuring for The News Corporation, created a seminal film finance structure for Silver Screen Partners, and structured various film finance vehicles affiliated with The Walt Disney Company including Touchwood Pacific Partners. She began her finance career lending to middle market companies in the retail, garment and manufacturing industries.

Eileen graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Boston College and received an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is very active in the community and is a Founding Member and the Treasurer of the Board of Directors of The Actors Theatre Workshop, an award-winning non-profit theatre and community center that serves homeless children through an innovative and highly effective theatre and education program.