Based in Vienna, Austria, Jon Nighswander is a partner at Schottentor Capital, and a distressed debt investor with over two decades of experience working with lenders and debt-holders seeking to recover value from special situations. Jon began his career in Central and Eastern Europe leading privatization and advisory projects in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the Balkans. He subsequently spent a decade as a Managing Director at FTI Consulting, a global business advisory, where he advised private equity sponsors and other stakeholders in a number of high-profile restructurings and acquisitions in the US, Europe and Asia. In 2011 Jon returned to Central Europe to join a private equity group acquiring distressed assets in the region, including investments in Poland and Romania. He led the acquisition of Famed Zywiec, Poland’s leading manufacturer of operating tables and hospital furniture, out of insolvency, and as interim CEO had it on track to positive EBITDA and double-digit annual growth within two years.
In 2017 he and a partner teamed up with New York-based Chatham Lane Capital to create Schottentor Capital, an alternative asset management platform focusing on distressed debt in CEE and Southern Europe. Schottentor seeks to take advantage of the attractive pricing for non-performing loans and UTPs across the region, and has designed an investment strategy that leverages the team’s ability to actively manage assets and source exceptional opportunities.