1990
The Formation of GlassRatner
Ian Ratner and Ron Glass met while dealing with a failed condo converter in the late 1990s. Ian was at Kroll Associates at the time and Ron was stepping back from his management position with Equity Office and the Sam Zell Organization and getting active as a real estate restructuring professional. As Ian transitioned data and information to the newly appointed Trustee (Ron Glass), they became fast friends. By the summer of 2001 Ron had become a business mentor to Ian and the two friends decided to form a partnership and GlassRatner was conceived.
From the beginning they shared a vision of delivering professional services that were priced fairly and led by senior practitioners with meaningful experience. The vision included seeking out messy and complicated advisory assignments that required hands-on assistance and creative solutions.
The firm has stayed true to its foundation, and its core service lines have not veered away from the firm’s roots. In the early days Ian could be heard saying “Restructuring & Forensic Accounting is not a side business for our firm, it is our business – that’s what we do.” As seen in some of the firm’s early marketing materials, GlassRatner’s restructuring practice covered the entire continuum from financial restructuring to operational restructuring and everything in between, including interim management, receiverships, and liquidations.
Additional early service lines included forensic accounting, litigation support and due diligence services – all which continue to be mainstays at the firm to this day.
Original Marketing Piece from 2001
Original Bios from 2001
2003
The Early Years
By 2003 GlassRatner started to build a following in its core service areas, and the founders were selected as Joint Liquidating Agents for Borden Chemicals & Plastics OLP in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. This was a complex and important engagement in the firm’s history because it established GlassRatner as a fiduciary in a national, high-profile engagement. Since the firms founding GlassRatner and its professionals have taken on numerous fiduciary roles such as CRO, Receiver, Chapter 11 Trustee, Chapter 7 Trustee, Liquidating Agent, Responsible Party, Special Master, Interim CEO and CFO, Independent Board Member, Monitor and Assignee in an ABC.
The Borden Chemicals matter turned out to be a milestone event for the firm because GlassRatner’s performance resulted in the award of success fees which were wholly reinvested in the growth of the company. The firm continued to add professionals, with its first geographic expansion into Florida.
2008
The Great Financial Crisis
The 2008 Great Financial Crisis (GFC) resulted in significant and exciting growth for the firm. By 2008 GlassRatner was well positioned with an expanded team, an established and impressive track record, a network of employees, referral sources, and business partners to call on for larger matters and sufficient infrastructure to seize the moment. Leaning on Ron Glass’s significant real estate experience gained from twenty years at the Zell Organization was uniquely positioned to compete with larger and more established firms. The firm was nimble, entrepreneurial, and operated on a 24/7 basis. The growth opportunities driven by the GFC were some of the most exciting years in the firm’s history. Reputationally, GlassRatner became a major player in the real estate restructuring community and played well above its weight class.
At the same time, GlassRatner became an FDIC Capital Markets consultant working on several FDIC bank closures and liquidations including Net Bank and the wind down of ANB. Based on this experience, the firm built a national receivership practice working with major CMBS Special Servicers and Financial Institutions like Fannie Mae, Hudson Advisors, Rialto, and Midland Loan Serving, among others. The firm represented dozens of home builders and condo developers in restructurings with their lenders. Some notable clients included major developers such as the Related Group and John Wieland Homes.
GlassRatner was sought out as an advisor to large intuitions, such as various CBRE real estate funds, that had invested in condo projects across the US and regional banks and financial institutions that were foreclosing on real estate assets. That era found GlassRatner working assignments throughout the U.S. and abroad on matters focusing on broken hotel resort deals in Italy to Singapore and Turks & Cacaos and other parts of the Caribbean.
Approximately 85% of the firm’s revenue was connected to real estate restructuring assignments during the GFC. The firm expanded beyond the South East and opened offices in key markets such as LA and NYC.
The firm regularly picked up large assignments such as their appointment as CRO for AmFin Financial, the holding company for AmTrust Bank. AmTrust had 66 branches in 3 states and in December 2009, the bank was placed into receivership by the FDIC, this led to a crisis at the holding company. Ultimately, AmFin filed Chapter 11, as CRO for AmFin GlassRatner liquidated several businesses and real estate investments, all creditors were repaid and the Holding Company emerged from bankruptcy with $50 million dollars and no debt.
By 2010, the GlassRatner brand was firmly established as a leading multi-office financial advisor being ranked in industry publications.
2010
Building Out the Team After the GFC
As the economy began to stabilize, GlassRatner increased its investment in the growth of its Forensic Accounting & Litigation Support Practice. The firm focused on both the Fraud & Internal Investigations area and Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services. With major early assignments in these areas such as our retention by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago to investigate the collapse of CL Financial Limited whose holdings included CLICO, the largest Caribbean insurer at the time, and numerous real estate investments in the US , or our work for Dell Computers in a global royalty investigation, our reputation with major law firms started to extend beyond the restructuring area.
Our Expert Witness practice increased its profile in the litigation community, and we started working on matters for the DOJ including being retained as their “ability to pay” expert in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill case where the DOJ was seeking $18 billion in penalties from BP under the Clean Water Act.
Today, our Forensic Accounting & Litigation Support Practice is international in scale and covers every case type. We are working for some of the largest and most successful law firms in the country on important and serious matters. Our team of experienced professionals have extensive testifying experience.
2015
The Formation of BTG Global Advisory
Our taste for international work dates back to our days with Kroll and was reinforced by our success abroad during the GFC which led to continued focus on international assignments. In 2015 we became a founding partner in BTG Global Advisory, a multidisciplinary financial services group offering a broad range of professional services necessary to provide solutions to global business problems. BTG Global Advisory is one of the world’s largest, specialist, independent insolvency and restructuring alliances, with members throughout Europe, Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and various offshore jurisdictions. The BTG Global Advisory members include restructuring advisors and insolvency specialists; turnaround directors, workout and profit improvement consultants; forensic investigators and other litigation support professionals; and investment banking/M&A transaction advisors amongst other specialists.
All the partners in BTG Global Advisory were firms that we had prior relationships with such as the Farber Financial Group, one the leading restructuring firms in Canada. We continue to play a leading role in this global partnership and our connection to Farber ultimately grew to a merger in 2023.
2018
GlassRatner Joins B. Riley Financial
In 2018 GlassRatner joined B. Riley Financial. The transaction led to significant synergies with B. Riley Securities and GlassRatner continued to grow.
Eventually, GlassRatner started to operate as B. Riley Advisory Services, but the GlassRatner brand was strong and the team never lost its identity, uniqueness, or history.
Our relationship with Farber continued to grow under the BTG Global Advisory partnership leading to the successful acquisition of Farber in 2023. Farber had a 40-year track record and its leadership shared the same vision and collegial culture as GlassRatner. This acquisition expanded our restructuring practice well into Canada and added Retained Executive Search into the business.
Ultimately the Farber acquisition gave GlassRatner a major presence in Canada, an expanded management team and positioned the firm to offer its clients a seamless solution across North America with offices in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The legacy Farber leadership team continues to play a significant role at GlassRatner shaping our future.
GlassRatner successfully executed two other tuck-ins in 2023 and 2024. During 2023 the firm joined forces with Rod Crawford and Rob Winiarski. By acquiring Crawford & Winiarski, our firm established a terrific Litigation Support office in Detroit with deep expertise in accounting disputes and Rep & Warranty litigation, both growing areas. (Link to press release). With a foundation in Detroit from this acquisition, we added restructuring talent in the mid-west with a focus on the automotive business and supply chain. GlassRatner supplemented its construction litigation practice when, in 2024, an opportunity to acquire Interface International Consulting (“ICI”) presented itself. ICI was one of the leading Engineering & Construction Expert practices in the country.
2025
TorQuest Partners Backs GlassRatner Management Buyout
In late June 2025, in partnership with TorQuest Partners, a well-known Canadian Private Equity firm, GlassRatner executed a management buyout. So, the story continues to unfold, and the firm is stronger than ever and is poised for future success as it forges ahead in this new chapter of our history. We continue to believe we offer a unique mix of high value professional services in a manner consistent with our core values of providing sophisticated advice and solutions, in an independent, transparent and collegial manner.