Kelly Hughes

Senior Director

Kelly Hughes is a Senior Director with Kugman Partners with over 20 years of broad industry experience in the areas of healthcare, manufacturing, and service and distribution-related businesses. Kelly is highly skilled in strategy development and financial planning, including the development of business models and implementation of operational improvements for companies experiencing financial stress and distress.

Kelly has marked expertise in implementing workout and profit improvement strategies for healthcare clients. His healthcare experience includes serving as a Restructuring Project Leader to a number of acute care hospitals, multi-specialty physician practice groups, and senior care operations (assisted living, skilled nursing, continuing care retirement communities, home health care, and hospice care). Kelly is well-versed in developing and implementing resource allocation models using software platforms such as Fast Tract Surgery Scheduling Programs, physician-hospital integration strategies, financial forecasting and capital budget models, as well as turnaround plans for healthcare service providers.

Kelly recently served as a Director for a financial and operational advisory firm, where he led workout and liquidation initiatives, negotiated strategic acquisitions and new equity/debt infusions and provided financial strategy expertise to clients in a wide array of industries. Other recent specific examples of his diverse experience include serving as Project Leader for the successful Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization of two separate private acute care hospitals in Los Angeles County. In addition, Kelly led a UCC Article 9 sale/auction on behalf of several secured lenders to a North Carolina based fork-lift rental/sales company. Kelly negotiated and implemented a secured lender cooperation agreement as the subsequent auctions significantly exceeded lender expectations.

Kelly also previously held a position with Kugman as Director and provided professional services to healthcare, manufacturing, media and other service related industries. During this time, Kelly represented a railcar manufacturer, the largest private bottler in North America, and managed numerous stressed and distressed transition plans and business sales. Specific examples of Kelly’s initiative included the successful workout of an Atlanta based home health care company with a seven figure Medicare Overpayment liability and associated workout and negotiation and implementation of a vendor compromise agreement resulting in a successful out-of-court reorganization. Other examples include the successful negotiation with Medicare in order to gain an extremely rare exemption from Medicare for non-payment to a mental health provider in bankruptcy with a significant overpayment liability. Medicare resumed payment and this company continues to exist and thrive to this day in the extremely challenging mental health care market.

Kelly graduated with honors from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance. He holds a Graduate Level Managed Care Certificate from Benedictine University.