Jonathan Hurst
High-agency executive operator and right-hand to CEOs, CFOs, and boards for 20+ years. I take on the problems where the probability of success is low — distressed businesses, broken lender relationships, written-off assets, money-losing partnerships, and crises — and convert them into outsized, durable outcomes through first-principles thinking, rigorous analysis, and total ownership. Generated $950M+ in enterprise value as VP of Finance at a vertically integrated public utility, and held ultimate accountability for a $180B+ state budget across 200+ agencies. Columbia / London Business School dual-degree MBA. U.S. Marine Corps.
What I’m Good At
Turnarounds, restructurings & crisis leadership — distressed businesses, broken lender relationships, covenant constraints, and cash-flow emergencies, repaired and rebuilt.
M&A, divestitures & deal architecture — full sell-side and buy-side processes, carve-outs, and complex multi-party negotiations (including a ~29x cash-flow divestiture of assets others called worthless).
Capital markets & project finance — credit-agreement and covenant engineering, debt structuring, refundings, and non-recourse financing for capital-intensive infrastructure.
Complex financial modeling & valuation — multi-scenario, multi-year linked models, cash forecasting, sensitivity analysis, and board-level budgeting.
Strategy & value creation — operating-model design, GTM and growth strategy, KPI and dashboard systems, and translating executive intent into shipped outcomes.
Policy, regulatory & infrastructure — energy markets (ERCOT), public finance, and large-scale budget and policy architecture.
First-principles problem-solving — decomposing hard problems to their underlying constraints and designing the structure the situation actually requires.
AI-enabled operating systems — production-grade Python and Node.js pipelines, statistical anomaly detection, and supervised ML built to compress the cycle without losing judgment.
Signature Outcomes
$103M divestiture, closed end-to-end — Ran the full sell-side execution for 77 telecom/tower sites, from valuation model and per-site due diligence through the closing settlement statement and wiring.
~29x cash flow on “worthless” assets — Reevaluated a portfolio written off at ~$5M, led the M&A process, and negotiated a ~$100M divestiture while preserving operational access and strategic control.
Covenant engineering the bank syndicate approved — Authored credit-agreement language on a post-bankruptcy asset that gave the borrower near-total flexibility while reducing lender default risk — approved by JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.
A Fortune 10 partnership turned profit engine — Restructured a chronically money-losing EMEA/APAC partnership into a durable 15–20%+ margin floor, scaling it into the company’s highest-margin, most predictable line.
$255M reservoir, refinanced from first principles — Rebuilt the debt and capex structure from actual cash flows, delivering ~$56M in cost reductions and freeing ~$83M in cash over four years.
A statewide crisis program in 48 hours — Stood up a wildfire hotel-voucher program — messaging, legal review, and funds flowing — start to finish in two days, while families were still sleeping in cars.
How I Engage
Turnaround & Crisis Leadership — When a business is distressed, a lender relationship is broken, or a deadline is impossible, I step in as the operator who owns the outcome — stabilizing, restructuring, and rebuilding until the numbers and the relationships hold.
M&A, Divestitures & Deal Architecture — I design and run sell-side and buy-side processes end to end: valuation, due diligence, negotiation, and close. I find value where others have written it off, structure the deal around the real constraints, and get it across the line.
Capital Markets, Strategy & AI-Enabled Operating Systems — From covenant engineering and project finance to operating-model design and production-grade analytics, I build the financial and decision-making machinery that turns executive intent into durable, compounding results.
THE DIFFERENCE