Eileen Burke

Eileen M. Burke is the founder and President of West End Capital and Advisory. Since 2009 she has led the firm’s advisory practice, assisting entertainment companies and financial services firms on capital raising, restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, and strategy formulation.

Recognized as an entertainment finance pioneer, Eileen established the first entertainment-focused investing strategy ever for a hedge fund and has developed seminal entertainment financing techniques. Drawing on her successful track record at leading asset management firms and commercial banks, she intimately understands how to meet investor priorities while fulfilling her advisory clients’ goals.

At West End, Eileen has completed a wide range of assignments. As Chief Restructuring Officer and Exclusive Financial Advisor to a leading specialty lender, she obtained a $20 million DIP loan, completed a $130 million recapitalization, and subsequently negotiated an increase in the firm’s credit facility to $250 million. She structured and raised capital for an $18 million loan secured by Puerto Rican film tax credits; established a partnership between a digital film company and national concert promoter; conceived and negotiated a $60 million joint venture for an alternative asset manager to acquire medical receivables; structured a $20 million joint venture to build a NYC Charter School; arranged debt facilities for manufacturing company buyouts and a for-profit education company roll-up; and completed valuations and provided strategic advice.

Prior to West End, Eileen founded the first entertainment investing vertical in the alternative asset industry at DB Zwirn & Co., creating a profitable strategy making debt and equity investments in the film, music, broadcasting and video game sectors. Notable transactions include the first second-lien loan in the entertainment sector for Initial Entertainment; a joint venture with Summit Entertainment to acquire Latin American film assets, and a mezzanine and founding equity investment in Legendary.

Eileen was previously a Managing Director at FleetBoston Financial, which she established as a major force in entertainment lending through the Entertainment Finance Group she founded. She originated a ground-breaking $1 billion asset securitization for DreamWorks, creating a new financing technique – loans structured against film ultimates – that is now a mainstay of entertainment finance. Eileen began her finance career at Chemical Bank, where she oversaw the bank’s efforts on News Corporation’s $8 billion restructuring, and created seminal film finance structures for Silver Screen Partners and various film finance vehicles of The Walt Disney Company.

Eileen graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Boston College, received an MBA from Columbia University, and holds Series 63 and 79 Securities licenses. For 29 years she has been a Founding Member and Treasurer of the Board of The Actors Theatre Workshop, an award-winning non-profit that provides conservatory theatre training, develops new plays, and helps NYC homeless children fulfill their potential through an innovative and highly effective theatre and education program, the Builders of the New World.