Newark Star Ledger – When he isn’t dealing with distressed assets, Timothy Wheeler rocks.<\/p>\n
A bankruptcy lawyer with Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, Wheeler is the lead singer for the Subscribers, a rock group comprised mostly of professionals in the hedge-fund industry who play charity gigs.<\/p>\n
“It’s a chance to give back for professionals like us who, maybe, don’t have the best reputation for giving back,” he said.<\/p>\n
The group is named for a term that describes investors in a hedge fund, and it uses a stock certificate for its logo. The Subscribers have raised $500,000 in charitable donations during their two years of existence.<\/p>\n
That’s chump change in the hedge-fund business, but it’s enough to help a charity some of its members have founded. “A Leg to Stand On” (www.altso.org) pays for prosthetic limbs and corrective surgery for disabled Third World children.<\/p>\n
The rock-for-charity concept combines the international languages of music and money, according to founding band member Chris Heasman.<\/p>\n
“Someone called what we’re doing charity rock, but we think of ourselves as an arbitrage party band,” Heasman said. “We capture the spread between the cost of having a great party and making a charitable donation.”<\/p>\n