Meet TRON's CEO René Ortiz Morentin, Managing Partner Pantheon Partners
Mr. Morentin is primarily responsible for investment banking activities, which includes mergers and acquisitions, private placements, senior debt financings, and Latin American ventures. Mr. Morentin has spent his entire business career in the investment banking, merchant banking and commercial banking fields. Mr. Morentin has structured and obtained financing on leveraged buy-out transactions such as: Hammermill Paper Paper Company ($500 million); Lorimar Telepictures Corp. ($300 million); Cluett-Peabody, Inc. ($165 million); Pandick Press Company ($150 million); Princeville Development Corp. ($70 million); US Home ($75 million); Northwest Airlines ($20 million); Carlos Murphy’s Restaurants, Inc. ($18 million); American Restaurants Group ($255 million); The Wright Companies, Inc.($15 million); and California Sports, Inc../Dr. Jerry H. Buss ($40 million). Additionally, Mr. Morentin arranged initial senior debt capital for The Bho-Ngam Resort Co., Bangkok, Thailand ($50 million), and McNall Entertainment, Inc., film production financing ($310 million). Santa Rosa Project – Project Finance for Mexico’s first private cargo airport, dam and industrial complex north of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Pantheon arranged in excess of $300 million in equity and $800 million in debt financing
Mr. Morentin served as Director and Special Advisor to Wei-Chuan Food Corporation, the largest Taiwanese food manufacturer, focusing upon Concord Securities Taiwan and Wei-Chuan China (1998–1999). From 1997–1998, Mr. Morentin served as U.S. Investment Advisory to Ta Yung Hsing Yeh Co., a $5 billion Taiwanese holding company, which has amongst its holdings the Hua Nan Bank, a supermarket chain, a drug store chain, and is one of the largest owners of real estate in Taipei.
Prior to founding Pantheon, Mr. Morentin has served as Managing Director of The Kensington Group, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm; a Vice President of Manufacturers Bank (1992- 1994); Senior Vice President at Trafalgar Holdings, Ltd., a Los Angeles-based merchant bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions and off-shore project finance (1987-1989); Partner at Trafalgar Partners (1997-1989); Corporate and Institutional Services – Emerging Growth Group, Merrill Lynch (1985-1986); and with The Bank of America in Corporate Banking (1981- 1983). Mr. Morentin received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1983 and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Arizona in 1981. In June 2000, Mr. Morentin was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in international law from the “Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanas” (The Mexican Academy of Human Rights). Mr. Morentin is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico and is fluent in both English and Spanish.
