John L. Palmer, Ph.D, CTP

John L. Palmer, Ph.D, CTP
Managing Director

Dr. Palmer, a Managing Director at NachmanHaysBrownstein, Inc., has specialized in turnaround management for over eight years. Dr. Palmer’s turnaround experience includes serving as acting CEO of a pharmaceutical equipment manufacturing company and a Philadelphia-based boutique investment bank. After joining NachmanHaysBrownstein, Dr. Palmer played a leadership role in a successful turnaround of a failed multi-national telecom roll-up, and in the restructuring of a multi-billion dollar professional employment organization. He has led NHB’s turnaround teams in such diverse business areas as temporary staffing, equipment service providers, product distribution, printing and biotech/pharmaceuticals. In these assignments, Dr. Palmer developed the turnaround plan and obtained the support of key stakeholders, buying valuable time for the restructuring activities to take effect.

Dr. Palmer’s bankruptcy experience includes preference investigation for a creditor’s committee, serving as the restructuring consultant to The Museum Company, both before and after it Chapter 11 filings, and serving as the Chief Restructuring Officer during a dot.com liquidation. Dr. Palmer is the team leader of NachmanHaysBrownstein’s engagement as the Plan Administrator for Montgomery Wards’ Chapter 11, the largest retail liquidation in U.S. history.

Dr. Palmer began his career as a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Unit, where he authored the first of his twelve US patents. He moved to the biotechnology industry when it was in its infancy, in the early 80s, where he commercialized one of the biotech industries first recombinant products at Repligen Corporation. Dr. Palmer founded Enzymatics, Inc., a point-of-care medical diagnostic company in 1985, which he led through three rounds of venture capital financing and an IPO. Enzymatics developed and commercialized the first FDA approved quantitative saliva diagnostic under his leadership. He later assisted in the sale of the company in the early 90s.

As a private consultant, Dr. Palmer has formed and raised financing for two additional biotechnology companies. One company, Dynamos, is developing a pharmaceutical aimed at the prevention of diabetic complications, based on technology that Dr. Palmer located and licensed from the Fox Chase Cancer Institute.

Dr. Palmer has a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from the University of California at San Diego and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional and a member of the Turnaround Management Association.