back to search

George Ackert

Senior Managing Director | New York
Global Advisory | Strategic Advisory | Mergers and Acquisitions

George Ackert is a senior managing director and co-heads the Financial Sponsors Group at Evercore. He is also an internationally recognized advisor to companies in the transportation sector.

At Evercore, Mr. Ackert’s advisory assignments include advising the Canadian Pacific Railway Board of Directors on its $29 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern; Qualcomm on its $4.5 billion acquisition of Veoneer; Burlington Northern Santa Fe on its $44 billion sale to Berkshire Hathaway; Virgin America on its sale to Alaska Airlines; Baring PE Asia and PAI Partners on their acquisition of World Freight Company International; Jet Linx on its strategic recapitalization and minority equity sale to Redbird Capital Partners; Trinity Industries on the spinoff of Arcosa; San Miguel Corp. on its $500 million investment in Philippine Airlines; Carlyle on its acquisition of Landmark Aviation; Garrison Investment Group on the sale of Premier Trailer Leasing; and GE Railcar Services on the sale of its boxcar division to GATX.

Other notable deals include advising Canadian Pacific Railway’s sale of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad to Genesee & Wyoming; Wesco Aircraft’s acquisition of Haas Group International; Pamplona Capital Management’s acquisition of Beacon Rail Leasing; Universal Truckload Services on its acquisition of LINC Logistics; Carlyle on its sale of RMI to GE Transportation; Indigo and consortium on the acquisition of 50% of Volaris; I Squared Capital’s acquisition of FlexiVan Leasing; debtor-in-possession loans for LATAM Airlines Group and Avianca; GE on the $30 billion sale of GE Capital Aviation Services to AerCap; USPS on its restructuring; AFL Private on its sale to FedEx Express; Coinmach Service on its sale to Pamplona Capital Management; Coinmach on its acquisition of Mac-Gray; and the defense of United Airlines and Trinity Industries.

Previously, he was the global head of transportation and infrastructure at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he also advised on a number of other significant transactions, including the sale of the DM&E Rail to Canadian Pacific Railway, the merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the sale of Pegasus Aviation Finance by Oaktree Capital Management to Terra Firma, the SkyWest acquisition of ASA from Delta Air Lines, and the sale of Spirit Airlines, as well as private equity transactions for Hertz and PODs. Mr. Ackert was also instrumental in the merger/initial public offering/chapter 11 reemergence of America West Airlines and US Airways, as well as the full recapitalization of AMERCO (U-Haul).

At both institutions, Mr. Ackert was involved in hundreds of equity and debt transactions, including lead managing the IPOs of Air China, AerCap, ALL (Brazil), Allegiant, FLY Leasing, Gol, Hertz, JetBlue, Lan Chile, Republic Airways, Academy, and Ortho.

Mr. Ackert began his career as an associate attorney in M&A and structured finance at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

He is the former chairman of the advisory board of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, a founder and former chairman of McCombs for Wall Street, and a member of a variety of other boards at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Ackert holds a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, an MBA from Baylor University and a B.B.A. with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin.