Distressed Investment Expert Returns to Watermill Group as Partner
Lexington, MA – Dale Okonow has many skills and talents as a business executive. He has been a President and Chief Operating Officer, a Managing Partner and a corporate lawyer. But his greatest value in this economy is his expertise in the “ turnaround” of businesses –acquiring, financing and operating manufacturing and distribution businesses and restoring them to become viable entities which contribute to the economy. That is why The Watermill Group, which has a proven track record of success in just such turnarounds, as well as re-engineering companies with strong assets, has chosen this time to bring Okonow back to the firm he helped found.
Okonow was on the ground floor of the Watermill Group’s predecessor company, HMK, twenty years ago. Okonow served as Managing Partner of the private equity firm where he was responsible for overseeing the acquisitions, financing and operations of several diverse industrial businesses throughout the United States.
“Dale is an excellent addition to an already stellar team,” said Steve Karol, Managing Director of the Watermill Group. “Watermill already has excellent relationships in the financial community, and Dale’s presence will help us develop even broader connections. Those relationships are crucial in this unique financial environment which actually provides significant new opportunities for Watermill to assist companies with excellent assets which are experiencing challenges in this economy.”
“In one way this feels like returning to my roots,” said Okonow, “However, the financial markets are so dramatically different from the last time that I was involved with Watermill that I think there are opportunities the likes of which have never been seen in the financial world.”
Okonow was most recently the President and Chief Operating Officer of Sawyer Realty Holdings, LLC, a fully integrated multi-family real estate investment and management firm. During Okonow’s tenure, the company, along with institutional equity partners, acquired and managed over $2.25 billion of real estate with over 35,000 rental units in twelve states and the District of Columbia. Okonow oversaw the day-today operations at Sawyer which included acquisitions-related financing and divestitures as well as property and asset management.
He started his career as an attorney with the law firm of Proskauer Rose, LLP, in New York, working as a corporate lawyer with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and related financing. Okonow holds a BS from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and a JD and MBA also from Cornell. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston where he founded the Parkinson’s Family Support Program. He also serves on the Visiting Committee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston where he helped establish the Okonow/Lipton Family Lymphoma Research Fund.
Okonow joins Watermill this month.