Harold Simmons

Harold Simmons has over 30 years domestic and international experience as the financial and operating executive at three New York Stock Exchange companies, leading activities including mergers, acquisition, and divestiture. As Chief Restructuring Executive for multi-billion dollar Chapter 11 reorganization, he brings extensive bankruptcy insight.

Mr. Simmons has significant financial accounting experience as controller of a $1 billion+ company. He is a CPA with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA in Economics and Finance.

Choose Taurman

Chastain “Choose” Taurman III landed in Louisiana in 1971, after completing his military service as a captain in the U.S. Army. He received the MBA degree from Tulane’s A.B. Freeman Graduate School of Business and subsequently worked for Bryan Bell, a New Orleans Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, and Real Estate entrepreneur, as a troubleshooter. Three years later, he rejoined the Freeman School as an Assistant Dean. With the birth of his third child, he left academia for DigiCourse of New Orleans, which sold its products nationally and internationally. In 1984, Choose and his wife Liz partnered with Marc Samuels to found SIA, providing factory and plant automation across the South.

Choose and his wife sold their business in the mid-1990s and ventured into real estate and small business consulting. He also joined the Tulane School of Continuing Studies, where he worked as Director of Business Studies for part-time students and manages the Real Estate education department at that school.

The Real Estate Development business started with the purchase of land and then developed into the acquisition of buildings with the purchase of an office building in the CBD of New Orleans. After partnering with Geoffrey Lutz, the partnership developed a condo conversion in the French Quarter and started redeveloping an apartment complex in the Lake Terrace area.

After Katrina, Choose and Clayton White began advising fast-growth companies on raising equity capital. Their efforts revealed a need for a business and lenders forum, aimed at advancing their mutual goals through dialogue. With the encouragement of Mark Lewis of the Louisiana Technology Council, the LTC-SIG “Capital Access” was formed. Choose & Clayton networked with the Irish Angels of Chicago and the PAN Fund in Greensboro, NC, and subsequently formed the South Coast Angel Fund.

Choose consults regionally with businesses in transition.

Choose is married to Liz; they have five grown children.

Scott Uffman

Uffman brings to Simmons and White more than twenty years of consulting, management, and sales experience in the technology and information industry. His career began with Credit Bureau of Baton Rouge, where he gained experience in business process, application development, and program management capabilities in the financial services industry. Uffman subsequently held a senior role with APPRO Systems where he developed consulting and education products for the IntelliTrust division, focusing on helping clients leverage their investment in APPRO technology and products.

As a facilitator Uffman, leads, motivates and guides clients to their objectives. An alumnus of Miller Heiman, Xerox sales training schools as well as GE’s Voice of the Customer programs, Uffman is a valuable resource for getting sales and operational staff working as a team.

Uffman is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s of General Studies Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.