William "Billy" Perez

William C. Perez is an independent director of Avala BDC.  Mr. Perez is Managing Director of Audere pllc, a boutique transactional corporate and securities legal and business advisory firm. Mr. Perez has been a licensed attorney since 1994 with comprehensive experience in corporate and securities law with a particular emphasis on private securities transactions for public and private entities; advising start-up, emerging growth, and middle market companies in connection with business organization, financing, strategic contracts, and business transactions; mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures of public and private entities; corporate governance, including as special board counsel; managing domestic and cross-border business and transactions; and advising on the developing body of law for impacting investing. Mr. Perez has considerable representation of issuers, institutional investors, investment funds, and venture capital and angel investors.

Mr. Perez is also General Counsel for Swoop In Technologies LLC, which is developing next generation web authentication and security tools. Prior to Audere, Mr. Perez was co-founder and President of Data Evolution Corporation, an international computer hardware manufacturing company, and a private practice attorney with prestigious law firms Morgan Lewis & Bockius (Washington, DC), Jones Day (Dallas), Locke Lord (Dallas), and Adams and Reese (New Orleans and Washington, DC).

Mr. Perez received his LL.M. in Securities and Financial Regulations from Georgetown Law Center in Washington, DC; Juris Doctor from Loyola University School of Law and Master of Business Administration from Loyola University, both in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.

In the community, Mr. Perez is passionate about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a member of St. Jude’s ALSAC Leadership Board; served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Propeller: A Force for Social Change, which tackles tough environmental and societal challenges in the greater New Orleans region through incubating and launching new social ventures, and was a founding member of its Social Venture Fund, which makes financial investments in social ventures with societal and environmental missions that possess a significant focus on at-risk or underserved communities; and is a founding Board member of the Paul F. Cressy Foundation, which raises scholarship funds for children of families burdened with a cancer diagnosis.

We believe Mr. Perez’s extensive legal, securities and business experience are directly related to the core duties as a director of the Company and the Investment Committee and make him qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors.