Ryan Adds 4 New Members to Its Board of Managers

Dallas-based global tax services and software provider Ryan announced that Matt Cwiertnia, Zach Levitt, Rahul Merchant, and Abraham Zilkha have been named to its board of managers.

“The addition of these four accomplished professionals will bring instant value to our global network and further strengthen our leadership team,” Ryan Chairman and CEO G. Brint Ryan said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome these talented executives from diverse backgrounds to our Board of Managers and look forward to their valuable input as we continue to focus on our global growth strategy.”

Cwiertnia is a partner and co-head of Ares Management’s Private Equity Group. He serves on the Ares executive management committee and as a member of the Private Equity Group’s corporate opportunities and special opportunities investment committees. Before joining Ares in 2005, he worked in the Financial Sponsors Group at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he focused on providing advisory and financing services to financial sponsors and their portfolio companies.

Levitt is a senior principal at Onex Partners and is in Onex’s software and business services vertical. Snce joining in 2016, he has worked on Onex’s investments in Imagine Learning, PowerSchool, Convex, Ryan Specialty Group, and Ryan LLC. Before joining Onex, he worked in the Financial Sponsors Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.

Rahul Merchant is a senior leader with a breadth of experience as an operating executive and a board member across several industries at a global level. He retired as a senior executive vice president with the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, a diversified financial services organization with more than $1 trillion in assets under management for 11,000 educational institutions. Before TIAA, Merchant was a senior executive with Merrill Lynch, city of New York, and other financial services firms. He sits on the boards of Juniper Networks, Kyndryl, and Convergint Technologies.

Abraham Zilkha is a partner in Ares Management’s Private Equity Group. Before joining Ares in 2008, Zilkha worked for the Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on advising financial services and consumer goods companies in the U.S. and Canada. He serves on the board of directors of Guitar Center Holdings, Inc. and the parent entity of Convergint Technologies.

Ryan is the largest firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. It provides an integrated suite of federal, state, local, and international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including tax recovery, consulting, advocacy, compliance, and technology services.