Christian T. Blackwell is a creative international business executive with extensive experience in both large multinationals and entrepreneurial ventures. He has conducted business in over 40 countries, and he speaks 4 languages. He is particularly interested in emerging markets, political risk and macroeconomic analysis. His industry experience includes energy, telecommunications, technology, financial services, natural resources, education and infrastructure. Mr. Blackwell has a Bachelor of Arts in political science and international affairs from Rice University, where he matriculated at age 16, and an MBA in international finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management; he completed both degrees by age 21.
As Managing Director at Opus Faveo, Mr. Blackwell focuses on strategy development, transaction structuring/support and crisis management for growth-oriented international companies. He divides his time between Boston and Dallas.
Mr. Blackwell is active in numerous organizations related to international affairs including the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, the Tower Center for Political Studies, the American Council on Germany, the Americas Society and the World Affairs Council. He is President of the Board of the Dallas Goethe Center, which promotes European-American relations through a rich variety of cultural programming and two German language schools with classes for children and adults. He also serves on the Board of the North Texas German-American Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Blackwell is also dedicated to teaching others. He has lectured at the SMU Cox School of Business and the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management, and he has served as a program moderator/interlocutor for the Tower Center. In addition, he is a member of the SMU Cox School of Business Associate Board, where he serves as a mentor to MBA and Executive MBA students.
After earning his MBA, Mr. Blackwell joined Deutsche Bank, working out of New York, London and Frankfurt, where he did cross-border transactions as part of the Project Finance & Structured Finance Group and the Telecom & Media Group. Mr. Blackwell was a leading proponent for expansion of the bank’s activities in Latin America after the retrenchment that arose from the 1980s debt crisis. He was involved in negotiations for some of the earliest post-crisis cross-border investments in the region. His clients included Pemex, PdVSA, Televisa, Teck Cominco, Placer Dome, Freeport McMoran, Grupo Mexico, Enron, El Paso, Siemens, Time Warner, Nynex, SBC Communications, CBS, and many other major multinational corporations.
Because of his Latin American expertise, Mr. Blackwell was asked to take on a Corporate Development role at Deutsche to determine expansion possibilities in Mexico after NAFTA ratification, and to lead the bank’s Corporate Finance practice there. After obtaining Board approval for a major investment, Mr. Blackwell led a team to obtain Mexican regulatory approval for a de novo broker/dealer – among the first foreign investments in financial services there since their prohibition in the 1920s. Mr. Blackwell also led a team to source prime office space and establish a major trading floor in Mexico City. Mr. Blackwell was nominated by Deutsche Bank as a Young Leader for the American-German Young Leaders’ Conference, co-sponsored by the American Council on Germany and the Atlantik-Brücke as a forum for the development of transatlantic relations through leaders in both countries.
Mr. Blackwell was recruited to join GTE/Verizon to lead the financing of all new international ventures as Assistant Vice President – International Projects during a period of unprecedented privatization of telecom assets and wireless license auctions. Partially as a result of closing several complex transactions, he then was promoted to Assistant Treasurer, making him one of the youngest senior executives at the company. His responsibilities included all international treasury and financing activities, macroeconomic and political risk analysis (over 20 countries), international banking relationships and partner due diligence. While at GTE/Verizon, he raised over $10 billion in non-recourse financing commitments for various international operations and closed 8 major transactions. He earned a Chairman’s Gold Team Leadership Award for his role in the $2 billion privatization and leveraged acquisition of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company and the establishment of the territory’s first leveraged ESOP.
Mr. Blackwell’s entrepreneurial experience includes being CFO and CEO, respectively, of two early-stage national outsourcing companies in the education industry. His transactional experience as a sponsor, banker and investor includes private and public market financings in debt and equity, M&A, and partnerships, most of which were cross-border in nature, involving both developed and lesser developed countries.
Having grown up immersed, through his family, in the international artistic community, he is also a lifelong supporter of the performing arts. During his studies, Mr. Blackwell trained and worked as a theatrical stage technician, including as a touring road technician. He is a past member of the International Alliance for Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), a member union of the AFL-CIO, and he participated in its national conference in New York.
Mr. Blackwell is married with two children.
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Please note that there was a complaint made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Christian D. Blackwell of Columbus, OH. Mr. Blackwell is not this person nor does he know or have any relationship with this person or any of the other persons cited in this matter. Mr. Blackwell has never had any complaints filed against him by the U.S. SEC or any agency of the U.S or any other government, nor has he ever been charged with a crime.