Sessions

Mon May 8 | 2:30 p.m. PT

In a year that will offer change and uncertainty, business development professionals are adapting their approach and innovating to win deals. Hear from these well-known business development experts as they discuss their innovative approaches to business development, focusing on changes to their approaches and processes to the use of technology and business intelligence data.

Speakers: Jason Cunningham, VP, Business Development, Argosy; Cory Mims, Managing Director, Audax Private Equity; Meaghan O’Grady, Director, Business Development, Palladium Equity; Adam VeVerka, Partner, New Spring Capital

Mon May 8 | 3:30 p.m. PT

Hear from industry insiders on the latest M&A trends and market updates, including data updates from GF Data, that impact your dealmaking and M&A in the middle market.

Speakers: Dyana Baurley, Director, MiddleGround Capital; Bob Dunn, Managing Director, GF Data; Bruce Goldstein, Managing Director, BDO; Emily Hak, Managing Director, Private Capital Markets, Insperity; Steve Higgins, Managing Director, Delancey Street Partners

Tue May 9 | 8:45 a.m. PT
This breakfast panel is complimentary, however, pre-registration is required.

Hosted by the DealMAX Women’s Committee, this complimentary breakfast panel session is open to all attendees and will address how PE buyers, strategics, lenders, investment bankers and attorneys are seeing shifts in deal structure, negotiations, sourcing, closing, lending terms and more due to a changing economy. 

Speakers: Trish Renner, Managing Director, Medical Products and Industrial Technology, Baird; Kelly Cornelis, Partner & COO, LaSalle Capital; Desiree Castillejos, VP, Business Development & Strategy, EMEA & Latin America, Johnson Controls; Kristina Heinze, Partner, ParkerGale Capital; Amy LaBan, Managing Director, US Financial Sponsors Group, Canaccord Genuity LLC

Tue May 9 | 10:00 a.m. PT

Learn how to best support portfolio companies in challenging financial times with new and dynamic financing solutions, including borrower and lender-side challenges and solutions, leverage issues and strategies, and fund level perspectives and insights.

Speakers: Marilyn Adler, Managing Director, Mizzen Capital; Gus Atiyah, Partner, Shearman & Sterling; Rafael Castro, Partner, Hark Capital; Matt Shafer, Managing Director, Global Head of Direct Private Equity, Northleaf Capital

Tue May 9 | 1:00 p.m. PT

Learn what strategies your deal team peers are implementing to leverage a difficult economic climate and remain aggressive to win deals and grow their businesses.

Speakers: Francis Carr, Managing Partner/Co-Founder, Milton Street Capital; Milwood Hobbs, Jr., Managing Director and Head of North American Sourcing & Origination, Oaktree Capital; Dan Krasner, Managing Director, Global Head of Direct Private Equity, Platinum Equity; Mike Murray, Managing Director, Peloton Capital

Tue May 9 | 2:00 p.m. PT

What valuation trends are your peers seeing in the market and how are they adapting their strategies accordingly? Learn what these experienced panelists are seeing in the middle market and how they are adjusting their approaches to manage risk, evaluate companies, and ultimately win deals.

Speakers: Ryan Anthony, Partner, Longshore Capital Partners; Brian Crosby, Managing Partner, Traub; Dan Lee, Partner, Comvest Partners; Bobby Sheth, Managing Director, Salt Creek Capital

Tue May 9 | 3:00 p.m. PT

Limited Space/By Invitation. Please contact Ben Greenwood for more information. 

Abacode Cybersecurity and Compliance will moderate a conversation with Brent Wilner, Assistant Regional Director for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who will provide valuable insights into the latest SEC enforcement actions and the newly proposed cybersecurity rules for private equity and advisories, highlighting the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures in the investment industry.

Speaker: Brent Wilner, Assistant Regional Director, SEC
Moderator: Mark Harless, Partner Alliance Executive, Abacode

Mon May 8 | 10:30 a.m. PT

Speakers: Brian Myerof,  Partner, FORVIS; Brian Alas, Managing Director, Boxwood Partners

Mon May 8 | 10:30 a.m. PT

Abacode Cybersecurity and Compliance, ACG’s endorsed partner for cybersecurity, will discuss the critical role of cybersecurity in enhancing the efficiency of private equity dealmaking, mitigating cyber risks, and ultimately increasing the deal success.

Speakers:
Michael Ferris, CEO, Abacode; Mark Harless, Partner Program Account Executive, Abacode; Devin Bender, Cybersecurity & Compliance Solution Advisor, Abacode

Mon May 8 | 1:30 p.m. PT

Discussion of the increased industry specialization among private equity firms and the impact on deal flow and portfolio performance.

Speaker: Steve Brady, Partner, Withum; Kevin Bodnar, MBA, Principal, Head of Investment Banking, Withum

Mon May 8 | 1:30 p.m. PT

The recent bank failures have spotlighted the liquidity crunch in the sector. How will instability in the financial space affect M&A activity?  Even before the trouble with banks, economic uncertainty weighed on dealmaking, especially M&A and IPOs. But there is still plenty of capital chasing deals. Private equity funds are still sitting on a mountain of dry powder, and corporates with strong balance sheets are finding good opportunities to expand. Who is out there deal hunting and which sectors are seeing the most activity?

Tue May 9 | 9:30 a.m. PT

Is the PE middle market finally having its moment? Middle-market funds, which we define as between $100 million and $5 billion in size, have opened a positive performance gap versus mega-funds in back-to-back quarters. This has not occurred since 2020 and is in stark contrast to Q4 2021 when mega-funds were trouncing all other funds by a wide margin. Equally encouraging is the middle market’s share of all PE buyouts in Q4 2022, which rebounded to its best quarterly level in five years. Median PE deal sizes in general are getting smaller, from $70M in ’21 to $50M in ’22. Much of this reflects the increased share of growth equity deals, which don’t require leverage, smaller add-ons and smaller carve-outs from larger companies. PEs are keeping deal sizes low to make them more digestible and easier to finance, with access to debt in particular growing scarce. This session will look at how the last year has played out, how deals are getting done, and the future outlook for the middle market PE space.

Speaker: Tim Clarke, Lead Analyst, Pitchbook

Tue May 9 | 9:30 a.m. PT

Negative corporate information is rarely self-reported. Dedicated monitoring tools allow us to track global news and social media ESG references to millions of companies, people, and activities in real-time. Learn how such tools can help you prevent unfortunate deal surprises.

Speakers: Matthew Toole, Director, Deals Intelligence, Refinitiv; Richard Peterson, CEO, MarketPsych; Daniel Hartnett, Director, Risk Intelligence, Refinitiv

Tue May 9 | 10:30 a.m. PT

Employees transferring to a buyer as part of an acquisition have no control over this change in employment. Naturally, this can lead to concerns, which may have an effect on employee performance and ultimately ROI for the buyer. This session will seek to highlight ways in which buyers can mitigate these employee concerns and incentivize employees to embrace the challenge of the change the transaction represents.

Tue May 9 | 10:30 a.m. PT

With over 15 years of enabling data-driven investment decisions, join us to discover the keys to surviving the financial downturn. Our experts will explore the current market turmoil, the hunt for a realigned investment thesis, and the strategic framework you need to thrive in the new world order.  Don’t wait for disaster to strike – reassess your readiness and gain the insights you need to succeed in uncertain times.

Speakers: Vinkal Chadha, EVP, Financial Services; Justin Lurie, Founding Partner, Sterling Concord Partners; Lauren Ratcliff, Account Manager, Jasper Colin; Christopher Manske, Founder, Manske Wealth Management

Tue May 9 | 3:00 p.m. PT

Listen to one of the founders of a highly successful buyout fund group and a pair of veteran PE deal lawyers talk about how to build and retain a top performing management team. Learn how the smartest folks, using a combination of old fashioned techniques of mentoring and team building and cutting edge tools, create the right environment for long term success and avoid disruptive turnover.

Speakers: Paul Gajer, Partner and Head, Private Equity and Investment Funds, Denton; Chris Heller, Partner, Corporate, Dentons ; Sean White, Partner, Spire Capital

Mon May 8 | 10:00 a.m. PT

Outsourcing is always a challenge—especially finding the right partners. This session will offer strategies to help you determine when to outsource, how to find and select the right outsourcing partner, and how to work with them to achieve the best results.

Speakers: Kunal Mehta, Expert Partner, Bain; Gabe Mesanza, Partner, Huron Capital; Nick Moscaritolo, Director, Portfolio Company Operations, Platte River Equity; Gordon Wong, Senior Partner, West Monroe 

Mon May 8 | 11:00 a.m. PT

As operating partners get pulled more into the due diligence process, what metrics become essential to look at during the due diligence process and how do operating partners use that due diligence work to get a head start on value creation? This panel will do a deep dive and deliver some answers and solutions for attendees.

Speakers: Joe DeLuca, Operating Partner, NewSpring Capital; Drew Scielzo, Operating Partner, ACON; Brit Yonge, Operating Partner, Corsair Capital

Mon May 8 | 1:00 p.m. PT

How do you determine how to invest in R&D and how to assess the value of that investment and your R&D initiatives overall? This experienced panel will deliver strategies and advice on how to measure and track the value of R&D and some of the pitfalls others run into when doing so.

Speakers: Bobbi Komminemi, Operating Partner, Terminus Capital Partners; Audrey Pang, Operating Principal & SVP Operations, Ionic Partners; Cici Zheng, Partner, ParkerGale

Mon May 8 | 2:00 p.m. PT

How do you measure the effectiveness of your operating partner group and whether it’s structured to provide peak performance? What KPIs and measures do you implement to ensure you are adding peak value to your value creation strategies?  This panel discusses why their organizations chose the structures they did for their organizations and how they measure their effectiveness.

Speakers: John Broderick, Operating Partner, Argosy; Jessica Castillo, Operating Partner, Sovereign’s Capital; Joe McDougall, Operating Partner, Trive Capital; Scott Phillips, Director, ORIX Capital Partners 

Mon May 8 | 3:00 p.m. PT

How are strategic acquirers adapting their acquisition and financing strategies to leverage and navigate economic uncertainty? Hear what tactics these highly successful panelists have adopted and what issues they’ve faced as they’ve done so.

Speakers: DJ Marshall, Managing Director, P4G Capital; John Kirk, Deal Partner & Operating Advisor, Tuckerman Capital; Darryl Smith, Managing Director of Operations, Pacific Avenue Capital

Mon May 8 | 10:00 a.m. PT

What strategies are your operating partner peers using to find, incentivize and retain talent at their portfolio companies? As talent management issues continue to be an issue, especially in the middle market, this session will discuss solutions on how to navigate human capital issues to ensure you are getting peak performance from your people and portfolio companies.

Speakers: Gus Faucher, Senior VP and Chief Economist, PNC Bank

Mon May 8 | 11:00 a.m. PT

What strategies are your peers using to successfully source deals? Learn from some of the top corporate development people in the middle market on what strategies and tools they are using to find and close the right deals  in the middle market.

Speakers: Vince Castiglione, Global Head of Corporate Development, Epicor; Ryan Newth, Director of Business Development, Tremco; Nevin Raj, Co-Founder and COO, Grata; Jeremy Segal, Senior VP, Corporate Development, Progress; Peter Troup, VP, Corporate Development, Veritiv

Mon May 8 | 1:00 p.m. PT

With often limited resources and time to act on potential deals, how can you compete with private equity to win deals at a higher rate? Hear from these experts on the strategies they’ve used to help them improve their success rates and win the right deals.

Speakers: Ken Bond, Head of Corporate Development, Cetera; Adam Boscoe, Head, Corporate Development & Strategy, Granicus; Jonathan Kern, Chief Development Officer, E78 Partners; Ryan Mullin, Manager of Corporate Development, Rheem; Trish Renner, Managing Director, Baird

Mon May 8 | 2:00 p.m. PT

Ok —you closed the deal. Now, how do you know your post-close strategies are working? What is success and how do you measure and track it? These panelists will discuss how they ensure they are staying on course for success and what key metrics they follow to indicate when there are issues—before they become too big.

Speakers: Taha Ahmed, VP, Corporate Development & Strategy, Forbes; Seth Collins, AVP, Corporate Development, AT&T; Yvanna Perez-Morel, Senior Director, Corporate Development, Ulta; Kevin Rozsa, EVP, Business Development, Transtar Industries

Mon May 8 | 3:00 p.m. PT

This roundtable will discuss some of the pitfalls and successful strategies other strategic acquirers implement and encounter when working towards a smooth and successful post-transaction integration. From culture to processes and technologies, what do you need to be wary of—especially in this economic climate—and what tactics can you adopt to make for the most effective integration possible? These panelists offer some ideas and advice.

Speakers: Anders Bialek, VP, Strategy & Corporate Development, Irobot; Desiree Castillejos, VP, Business Development and Strategy, EMEA & Latin America, Johnson Controls; Mark Dendle, CEO, Growers Express; Jeff Giles, Vice President, Corporate Development, Core & Main

Speakers: Vikash Magdani CEO, NorthEast, ACG & Executive Director, ACG NY; Vishal Verma, Senior Advisor, Edgewood Ventures, LLC

Tue May 9 | 9:00 a.m. PT

Speakers: Dina Said Dwyer, Founder & Managing Partner, Eden Capital; Marcia Nelson, Family Office President, Freedom Capital Markets; Vishal Verma, Managing Partner, Edgewood Ventures; Morgan Yaping Wang, Venture Partner, BHR Partners

Tue May 9 | 11:00 a.m. PT

Speakers: David Acharya, Managing Partner, Acharya Capital; Mike Shein, Founder & Managing Partner, CHIEF Capital; Andy Baldridge, Founder & Partner, Westward Partners; David Gershman, Partner and General Counsel, Trivest Partners; Rush Harvey, Director of Private Capital Advisory, Raymond James