James D. Dunning, Jr.,
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
New York, NY

James D. Dunning, Jr. founded The Dunning Group Inc. in 1992, a private company specializing in media, energy and other leveraged investments. In February 2014 he was selected by the SEC and appointed by the US Southern District Court of New York as the Independent Monitor over the Harbinger Capital Partners entities. In January 2014 he co-founded GK Acquisition LLC. Mr. Dunning was the Chairman and CEO of Global Cornerstone Holdings Limited (ticker: GHCSF) and the former Chairman of Freedom Communications Holdings, Inc., a diversified media company with 82 newspapers, including the Orange County Register, 8 broadcast TV stations and internet products. Freedom Communications was sold in five transactions in 2012. In 2010 Mr. Dunning became a Senior Advisor and Principal at Arc China Holdings, Ltd. a Shanghai, China based private equity and merchant bank.

From 2007 to 2009, he was President and Director of China Holdings Acquisition Corp. ("CHAC"), a SPAC. In November 2009 CHAC merged with Jinjiang Hengda Ceramics, Co., Limited, a leading manufacturer of ceramic tiles used for exterior siding, interior flooring, and design in residential and commercial buildings in China. The merged entity is now called China Ceramics Co., Ltd. and trades on the NASDAQ Global Market with the symbol CCCL.

From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Dunning was the Chairman of Doubledown Media, LLC, a multimedia platform and database company targeting high net worth individuals.

From 2003 to 2004, Mr. Dunning was a partner at Michaelson & Co., a hedge fund. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Dunning was Chairman, President and CEO of Ziff Davis Media, Inc., a leading technology and Internet magazine publisher in the United States. Mr. Dunning led the management team that acquired Ziff-Davis Publishing Inc. from Ziff Davis Inc., and Softbank in 1999. Also, in 1999 Mr. Dunning led the purchase of USA Pubs, Inc., a magazine subscription database and business acquisition company, and until 2001 he served as the Chairman and CEO of USA Pubs, Inc.

From 1999 to 2000 Mr. Dunning was the Chairman and CEO of EMAP Petersen. From 1996 until it was acquired in December 1999, Mr. Dunning served as Chairman, President and CEO of The Petersen Companies, Inc. He led the management team that purchased Petersen Publishing in September 1996 from its founder, Robert E. Petersen. During Mr. Dunning's tenure at Petersen it developed from a publisher of special interest magazines into a complete marketing solutions company and one of the largest publishers of special-interest magazines in the U.S.

In 1992, Mr. Dunning led the group that purchased Transwestern Publishing Company (a division of US West, Inc.) a yellow pages and database company. From 1992 to 1997 Mr. Dunning served as Chairman and CEO of Transwestern Publishing Company. While at Transwestern Publishing Company, Mr. Dunning led the buyout of SRDS, a media database and directory business and served as the Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 1995. In 1986 he led a buyout of Yellow Book, which went public in 1987 as Multi-Local Media Information Group (Yellow Book), a public yellow pages and directory company and served as Chairman, President and CEO until 1992.

From 1985 to 1986, Mr. Dunning served as Executive Vice President of Ziff Davis Communications, Inc. Prior to establishing his buyout businesses, Mr. Dunning was an investment banker from 1982 to 1985 at Thomson McKinnon Securities, Inc., one of the leading investment banking firms during that time. He served as Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Finance and was in charge of the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice, corporate finance, venture capital and leveraged leasing groups.

Mr. Dunning is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and is currently an Overseer of Athletics at the University. He is also a former member of the Board of Trustees of Deerfield Academy. He is a Director of TeenAIDS Peer Corps. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 with a B.S. in Economics.

Back