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EXECUTIVE BIOS
Alim Kassam
Mr. Kassam is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rama Capital Partners, LLC and Athas Capital Group, Inc., both companies that he co-founded in 2008. Athas has the distinction of being one of the nation’s largest non-prime mortgage lenders and has been credited for pioneering the re-birth of “sane” sub-prime lending. Rama Capital is Athas’ in-house financing arm.
Previously, Mr. Kassam joined Quality Home Loans as its Chief Executive Officer one week after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of the company, Mr. Kassam was responsible for navigating the bankruptcy process and architected a $167M securitization.
Prior to Quality Home Loans, Mr. Kassam was the Senior Credit Analyst at Pacificor LLC where he focused on investing in stressed, distressed and special situation credit opportunities. Over his tenure, Pacificor’s returns outperformed the high yield indices by over 10% per year and the firm’s assets under management grew to $600 million from $200 million. Before joining Pacificor, Mr. Kassam was an Investment Analyst with Capital Source Finance LLC where he focused on making secured debt and mezzanine investments in healthcare companies.
Mr. Kassam began his career as an Investment Banker with Lehman Brothers, Inc. where he worked with private equity firms to source and finance leveraged acquisitions and to develop strategic alternatives for their existing portfolio companies. He also worked with global industrial companies across a broad range of corporate finance projects including mergers and acquisitions, all tranches of debt offerings/underwriting, and both public and private equity offerings
Mr. Kassam graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied Business Economics and Accounting.
Brian O'Shaughnessy
Mr. O’Shaughnessy is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rama Capital Partners, LLC and Athas Capital Group, Inc., both companies that he co-founded in 2008. He is a second generation private mortgage lending expert, beginning his career as a teenager working at his father’s company, Title West Mortgage Inc., where he grew to become President. During his tenure, he helped Title West grow from 20 employees to a company with 250+ employees and $160 million per month in production. Mr. O’Shaughnessy is also credited with building a wholesale division and pioneering subprime loans with Bank One in the days before credit scores were prevalent.
In 1998, Mr. O’Shaughnessy established his own company, Bankers Express Mortgage, with the vision of running a smaller subprime shop that put profit above production numbers. For 9 years, the entire span of its existence, Bankers Express Mortgage never had a quarter that did not post a profit. In June 2007, Mr. O’Shaughnessy sold his company to Quality Home Loans, his largest competitor, and joined the combined entity as its Chief Operating Officer.
Subsequently, Mr. O’Shaughnessy was involved in the sale of the combined company to Michael Klein, a successful entrepreneur and the manager of Pacificor, LLC, a $600M hedge fund. After the change of guard, Mr. O’Shaughnessy helped QHL successfully securitize a pool of $167 million of mortgages.