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Denise Warren joined Capella in 2005 as Chief Financial Officer. She was chosen from among many candidates because of her direct experience with capital formation and her track record at major Wall Street banking institutions. Because of this experience, she has been successful in negotiating favorable financial terms for Capella’s start-up debt financing as well as its most recent acquisition refinancing. She has worked successfully with Capella’s lead underwriting bank to develop a consortium of over twenty banks that have taken an investment in Capella through capital lending and providing adequate debt capacity for future needs.Prior to joining Capella, Denise was Director of Equity Research for Avondale Partners, LLC, where she was in charge of a research staff of over twenty professionals. Her department provided analytical research on over 100 publicly-traded companies, including companies in healthcare, consumer products, restaurants, retail and technology. She was also part of the senior management team responsible for running the day-to-day operations of Avondale.Denise began her career in 1980 with Ernst & Young in Raleigh, North Carolina. She then worked for a series of financial firms, including E.F. Hutton, where she was a Registered Representative, Ford Capital, LTD, where she was Assistant Treasurer, and CS First Boston, where she was a lead Financial Analyst for leveraged buy-outs and other financial transaction. While at CS First Boston, Denise led a team for a $65 million secondary offering in the multi-media industry and worked with the team that served as co-manager in an initial public offering of another multi-media company. She left private business in 1994 to attend the Harvard Business School at Harvard University.After graduating from Harvard, Denise joined Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York as Director and Senior Equity Analyst. Her coverage base of companies included the lodging, stocks, the lodging REITs, the timeshare stocks and the gaming stocks. In her role, she was responsible for directing due diligence on covered companies , authoring in-depth analyst reports and conducting marketing trips with equity investors. She also was honored by her selections to the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team and the Wall Street Journal All-Star Research Team.In 2000, Denise was appointed as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Gaylord Entertainment Company, a hospitality and entertainment company based in Nashville. Gaylord is best known for country radio and television as well as large-scale hotels branded under the Gaylord Opryland name. While at Gaylord, she was named Financial Executive of the Year by the Institute of Management Accountants for her contributions as Chief Financial Officer to Gaylord. Denise returned to her role in equity research when she joined Avondale in 2001.Denise graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Southern Methodist University and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School at Harvard University. Denise is married to Michael Warren and has one daughter. She has been active and has held board positions with the non-profit Fannie Battle Day Home for Children. | 