Equus Announces New Leadership
Appoints John Hardy as Executive Chairman
June 09, 2010 04:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time
HOUSTON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Equus Total Return, Inc. (NYSE: EQS) (“Equus” or the “Fund”)
today announced that, effective immediately, John Hardy has been appointed as its Executive Chairman and Robert
L. Knauss has been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman.
Mr. Hardy has had extensive experience in the insurance, finance and banking sectors, as well as mergers and
acquisitions. Mr. Hardy practiced law as a Barrister from 1978-1997, representing, amongst others, multi-national
insurance companies and financial institutions. While practicing law, Mr. Hardy was also an adjunct Professor
lecturing in insurance law at the University of British Columbia from 1984-2000. For the past 13 years he has been
the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Versatile Systems Inc., a technology consulting company.
“We need to undertake a detailed review of the Fund’s capital requirements and current portfolio and determine the
extent to which we can add value to the Fund’s Investee Companies,” stated John Hardy, Executive Chairman.
“Given the challenging and uncertain global economic conditions, we will examine the cost structure of the Fund and
take steps to align same with the Fund’s operations.”
Mr. Knauss was Chairman of the Board of Philip Services Corp., an industrial services company, from 1998 to
2003, and Chairman of the Board and CEO of Baltic International USA, Inc. from 1995 to 2003. During the past
twenty years, he has served on the Boards of Directors of eight public companies. Mr. Knauss was the former Dean
and Distinguished University Professor of University of Houston Law School and was also Dean of Vanderbilt Law
School. Mr. Knauss replaces Richard Bergner, who had previously served as the Fund’s Non-Executive Chairman.
Fraser Atkinson was also appointed the Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Atkinson was a partner at KPMG,
LLP for over 14 years, having le