Eric R. Abel, CFA, CAIA is a founder of and has served as a principal of ValStone Partners since its inception in 1998 and currently serves as its Chief Financial Officer.  Prior to co-founding ValStone Partners, Mr. Abel was a principal at CMP.

Prior to CMP, Mr. Abel spent five years as an investment banker with Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc., last serving as an Associate Vice President in Public Finance in the Healthcare Capital Markets Group. In these two previous roles, Mr. Abel was the investment banker or financial advisor on over $6.0 billion of public market financing transactions.

Mr. Abel has over 26 years of finance and investment experience, including portfolio management, commercial loan workout, bankruptcy reorganization, investment banking, financial advisory services and other commercial loan and capital market transactional experience.

Other experience includes leading workouts, in and out of bankruptcy, of distressed real estate finance transactions, developing strategic partnerships with multi-family real estate and senior living (independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and continuing care) management companies, leading repositioning efforts of senior living properties, providing financial advice on unwinding asset-backed financial obligations, and reviewing, underwriting and recommending collection strategies on loans made under regional growth and development programs.

Mr. Abel received his BS in Economics from the University of Delaware, cum laude.  Mr. Abel is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, a holder of the right to use the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst^SM designation, a member of the CFA Institute and a member of the Baltimore CFA Society.  Mr. Abel also is the former chair of the Advisory Board for the Baltimore Chapter of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).