Leveraged buyouts face a number of opportunities and challenges in today’s turbulent marketplace. In the face of persistent global macroeconomic uncertainties, the speakers will discuss current investment strategies and industry sectors and geographies where they find compelling and proprietary investment opportunities. At the same time, they will discuss the numerous challenges private equity firms currently face, including limited credit availability, increased competition for quality assets and the difficult fundraising environment.
Panelists:
Mr. Banker joined Bain Capital in 2004. Previously, he was a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, leading teams in the media and technology industries.
Mr. Banker received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
John Maldonado has ten years of private equity experience and focuses on buyouts in the healthcare, financial and business services sectors. His previous private equity experience includes positions at both Bain Capital and Parthenon Capital. John began his career as a consultant with The Parthenon Group, a leading strategy consulting firm.
Mr. Maldonado earned his BA summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and his MBA with high distinction as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School.
Andrew Marino is a Managing Director focused on U.S. buyout opportunities in the industrial and transportation sectors. He is based in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Marino was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley where he focused on mergers, acquisitions and restructuring assignments in a variety of industries in both the U.S. and Europe. For four years prior to business school, Mr. Marino lived and worked in Hong Kong identifying private equity investments in China and Southeast Asia.
Mr. Marino is a graduate of Dartmouth College and received his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Mr. Marino currently serves on the Board of Directors of PQ Corp.
Mr. Oh joined Apollo in 2008 from Morgan Stanley’s Commodities Department where he managed principal investments in various sectors including oil and gas, electricity generation and transmission, dry freight, alternative energy, refineries, and carbon. While at Morgan Stanley Mr. Oh launched an oil and gas fund, Helios Energy/Royalty Partners, and sat on the board of several portfolio companies. Prior to joining the Commodities Department, Mr. Oh was in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley from 1999 to 2000 and was a foreign exchange trader with Lehman Brothers and HSBC from 1994 to 1998.
Mr. Oh serves as a Director of Parallel Petroleum and Athlon Energy, LP. Mr. Oh received a BS from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mr. Satvat joined KKR in 2012 and is a member of the Healthcare industry team. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Satvat was a Principal at Apax Partners, where he also focused on investments in healthcare. Mr. Satvat’s previous investing experience includes positions at Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (J&J;’s venture capital subsidiary), Audax Group and The Blackstone Group.
Mr. Satvat has participated in a number of investments, including Affymax, Ascent Healthcare Solutions, Emergent BioSolutions, Esprit Pharma, Kinetic Concepts, MagnaCare Holdings, Novacea, Prometheus Laboratories, RITA Medical Systems, SkinMedica, The TriZetto Group, Voyager HospiceCare and ZymoGenetics, and has served on the Board of Directors of Kinetic Concepts and Boston Sarl (The TriZetto Group).
Mr. Satvat earned an A.B. in History and Science magna cum laude from Harvard College and an M.B.A. in Health Care Management and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Emerging Markets private equity has been gaining favor from the investor community and is morphing into a distinct asset class. In an increasingly competitive private equity universe, finding growth and sustainable strategies to improve portfolio performance can be a critical source of differentiation. This panel will discuss best practices in identifying the right targets and the reasons why the popularity of investing in the emerging markets. Is Emerging Market private equity a temporary fad which took off during a booming economy and which has only sustained due to the recent turbulence in the developed markets? What are the major pitfalls funds commit when trying to identify opportunities in Emerging Markets? Which are the non-BRIC Emerging Markets that funds should focus on in the next five years?
Panelists:
Manuel Iraola is a Managing Director with PwC’s Latin America Transaction Services Group based in Miami, Florida. He has fourteen years of experience providing acquisition advisory services to financial and strategic buyers in the U.S. and Latin America.
Mr. Iraola has led cross-functional financial and tax due diligence engagement teams on over 125 deals for investments of $2 million to more than $10 billion in every important major Latin American market. Mr. Iraola has assisted clients such as SABMiller, Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group, Caterpillar, the Coca Cola Company, AT&T;, and Wal-Mart. He has worked on numerous projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. Mr. Iraola has substantial experience in the food & beverage, consumer products, infrastructure, manufacturing, financial services and industrial products industries.
Mr. Iraola has a BA in Biology and Economics from Brown University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and speaks fluent English and Spanish.
Hurley Doddy is a Managing Director, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP). With seven funds and over $1.8 billion under management, ECP is a leading private equity manager focused exclusively on Africa. Headquartered in Washington, DC, ECP has six offices across Africa and over a decade of successful investing experience in companies operating in over 40 countries on the continent. Mr. Doddy, previously COO of ECP, continues to oversee the operations of Africa Funds I, II & III and is a member of ECP’s investment committee and executive committee.
Prior to joining ECP, Mr. Doddy was an Executive Director at Sumitomo Finance International in London, where he managed the operations of a $200mm equity risk arbitrage book, creating arbitrage and convergence strategies.
Mr. Doddy’s career in finance began at Salomon Brothers in 1984, lasting over 14 years with assignments in New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. While at Salomon, Mr. Doddy gained a wealth of experience in government bond trading, hedge management, fixed income derivatives, equity derivatives, and emerging markets trading. In 1997, Mr. Doddy was appointed as Managing Director of Salomon Brothers, responsible for managing all fixed income and equity risk positions for Banco Patrimônio, Salomon’s joint venture in Brazil. In this position, he also oversaw the asset management, equity underwriting and customer fixed income businesses.
Mr. Doddy received a bachelor’s degree in Economics with honors from Princeton University and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute. He has served on the boards of Financial Bank (West and Central Africa), Celtel International (Pan-African), Charaf Corporation (Morocco), Agromed S.A. (Tunisia), Continental Reinsurance (Nigeria), All Africa Airways (Mauritius), Air Ivoire (Cote d’Ivoire), Société Internationale de Plantations d’Hévéas (SIPH) (West Africa), and Horizon Portfolio Limited (Cayman Islands).
Raza Hasnani joined Abraaj in 2006 and has been involved in all aspects of the investment process from sourcing and execution to post-acquisition value-creation. He has 15 years of private equity and corporate finance experience in the US, Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Previously, he was with Exxon Mobil Corporation in Dallas and Houston where he led financing activities for upstream and downstream projects. Mr. Hasnani has also worked in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse First Boston in Los Angeles. He started his career at Deloitte in Philadelphia.
Mr. Hasnani holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.
Mike is a Managing Director at Hamilton Lane where he is responsible for due diligence of primary fund investment opportunities. Previously, Mike was responsible for managing the client relationship and reporting activities of the firm, as well as the analysis of venture investment opportunities. He is a member of Hamilton Lane’s Investment Committee and serves on a number of fund advisory boards.
Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 1994, Mike was a Financial Analyst for InterMountain Canola Company and a Financial Analyst for DNA Plant Technology.
Mike received an MBA from the College of William and Mary and a BS from Trenton State College.
Mr. Peterson joined Aureos in November 2001 as Regional Managing Partner for the Latin America Region, where Aureos currently manages the Aureos Latin America Fund, the Aureos Central America Fund and the Emerge Fund.
Prior to joining Aureos, Mr. Peterson was responsible for US$150 million of Bank of America’s equity portfolio in Latin America, which was primarily invested in the financial services, forestry and energy sectors. He also advised clients on the first power privatizations in Peru and Colombia, as well as clients in the oil, gas and telecom sectors in other parts of Latin America. Mr. Peterson has over 15 years of experience in private equity and investment banking.
Mr. Peterson is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board for the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas Business School at the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Peterson holds an MBA, with a concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management, from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in International Studies (LatAm) from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Raised in Panama, Mr. Peterson is bilingual and speaks English and Spanish.
Alexandre Pierantoni is a PwC Corporate Finance Partner based in Sao Paulo/ Brazil. He has more than 20 years of experience in mergers & acquisitions, economic valuations and viability studies. Mr. Pierantoni joined PwC 15 years ago and has advised clients in a wide range of industries, across a range of transaction types and sizes. Mr. Pierantoni has international secondments with PwC in UK/ London and US/ NY.
His experience includes acquisitions in Brazil and Latin America, representing national and multinational companies and financial investors in cross border transactions, representing investors such as Amaggi Group, Apax Partners, Bacardi-Martini, BTG Pactual, Bunge Group, Damovo Group, Diebold Inc., Ericsson, IDB/International Development Bank (in investments analysis for EBX Group), Kikkoman, Mars Inc., NEC, Rakuten and Unilever.
Mr. Pierantoni currently leads Corporate Finance efforts of PwC Brazil in the Private Equity industry, Agribusiness sector (Americas Corporate Finance Leader) and specific opportunities within Capital Projects and Investments (CP&I;) and Private Company Services (PCS) groups.
Mr. Pierantoni holds an MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas - FGV in Brazil and has bachelor degrees in Germany (Business Administration) and in Brazil (Economics). He is a ENDEAVOR Brazil volunteer since 2005.
Stephen M. Sammut has a career that is both commercial and academic. Outside of Wharton, Mr. Sammut is Venture Partner, Burrill & Company, a merchant bank and venture capital fund focused on the life sciences and health care. His role there is general management of overseas venture capital funds, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
Academically, he currently holds an appointment as Lecturer, Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs and Senior Fellow, Wharton Health Care Management. During his 18 years at Wharton, he has created eight courses throughout the University that he has taught to over 5000 students. Mr. Sammut’s primary areas of research coincide with his venture activity: health care and biotech capacity building in the emerging markets; private equity and venture capital approaches to economic development; and, the role of the private sector in addressing needs in global health.
During his private sector career, Mr. Sammut has been involved in the creation or funding of nearly 40 biotechnology, Internet, and information technology companies globally. He is on numerous Boards of Directors including HealthRight International, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Dynamis Therapeutics, Combinent BioMedical Systems, and serves as a senior advisor to Mitsubishi Corporation’s Life Science Business Unit, and the Royal Bank of Canada Strategic Technology Fund. He is also a member of the publications board of the European Venture Capital Association and the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology. He is also lead editor of Scientific American Lives, a new magazine on innovation in global health.
Mr. Sammut is founder and chair of the International Institute for Biotechnology Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organization that offers intensive training programs throughout the world. His activity with the World Bank/International Finance Corporation (IFC) includes co-authorship of their Bioindustrial Investment Ethics Framework, leader of a major project on global academic technology transfer, the pilot project of which is focused on India. In addition, he is lead contractor on a World Bank project addressing the design of Chinese government-backed venture capital fund.
Mr. Sammut previously held the positions of Vice President of Development of Teleflex Incorporated and Vice President, S.R.One, Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline’s venture fund. During his career he was Managing Director of the Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Pennsylvania, and held a similar position at Thomas Jefferson University. At the start of his career, Mr. Sammut co-founded and served as CEO of the Delaware Valley Organ Transplant Program over an eight year period building it into one of the largest organ banks in the world.
He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Villanova University in biological sciences and philosophy, attended Hahnemann Medical College for two years, and holds an MBA from the Wharton School.
2011 proved to be an eventful year in the distressed market, presenting many unexpected challenges for investors to navigate. In addition to the U.S. Government downgrade and near meltdown in Europe, domestic regulatory changes have significantly pressured market liquidity, driving volatility even higher. This panel will seek to discuss strategies for finding and evaluating investment opportunities in this new and untested environment. We will also explore the long-term outlook for distressed investing as an asset-class, given the changing regulatory and competitive landscape in traditional markets like the U.S. and Europe. Panelists will share their unique perspectives on distressed value creation and the importance of risk management in today’s market.
Panelists:
Mr. Terlevich has over 10 years of asset management experience in alternative investments and special situations. LL Funds is an independent investment manager focused on opportunistic investments in residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) and special situations fixed income opportunities. LL Funds is the Sub-advisor of the Permit Capital Mortgage Fund, a specialized, buy-and-hold, private equity fund. LL Funds manages over $1billion.
Mr. Terlevich joined LL Funds in March 2010, after playing a key role in the creation of the Permit Capital Mortgage Fund, L.P., and LL Funds during 2009. Prior to becoming a Partner at LL Funds, Mr. Terlevich was a Partner at Permit Capital, leading its manager selection and special situations investments. These investments included alternative, traditional and emerging markets. Permit Capital, LLC is an independent private investment firm and a registered investment adviser with the SEC.
Prior to Permit Capital, Mr. Terlevich was an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager of Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. During 2003 to 2007 he led or co-led investments for $700 million; including direct private equity secondaries, co-investments, and primary fund investments in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. He monitored over $1 billion of private equity and real estate investments globally and actively participated in a $2 billion fundraising effort. He was a Principal with Advent International Global Private Equity’s London office, where he worked from 2000 to 2002, having initially joined Advent’s Latin America Private Equity Fund in 1999. He started his professional career at McKinsey & Company in 1996.
Mr. Terlevich holds BS and MS degrees (magna cum laude) from Universidad Católica Argentina and a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Terlevich serves as a Trustee and Treasurer of Wharton Private Equity Partners and is a former Trustee and Treasurer of The Baldwin School. Mr. Terlevich lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, with his wife, and two children.
From 2000 to 2007, Mr. Libassi was a Senior Managing Director at GSC Group where he focused on sourcing, evaluating and executing distressed debt transactions. From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Libassi was Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Mitchell Hutchins, a subsidiary of PaineWebber Inc. where he was responsible for managing approximately $1.2 billion of high yield assets for Paine Webber Mutual Funds.
In 1998, Mr. Libassi developed and launched the $550 million Managed High Yield Plus Fund, a leveraged closed-end fund that was ranked number one by Lipper in its category in 1999. From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Libassi was a Vice-President and Portfolio Manager at Keystone Custodian Funds, Inc., managing diverse institutional high yield assets in excess of $250 million.
Mr. Libassi is on the Board of Directors of Mach Gen. Mr. Libassi earned an MBA from The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and a BA in Economics and Government from Connecticut College in 1981.
Jason New is a Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group and Head of Distressed Investing for GSO Capital Partners. Mr. New focuses on managing GSO’s public investment portfolio with a specific emphasis on stressed and distressed companies and on sourcing direct distressed investment opportunities. Mr. New is a member of the GSO Investment Committee. Before joining GSO Capital in 2005, Mr. New was a senior member of Credit Suisse’s distressed finance group. Mr. New joined Credit Suisse in 2000 when it acquired DLJ, where he was a member of DLJ’s restructuring group. Prior to joining DLJ in 1999, he was an associate with the law firm Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood where he practiced law in the firm’s corporate reorganization group. Mr. New received a JD from Duke University School of Law and a BA, magna cum laude, from Allegheny College.
Jason Perri is a partner of the Strategic Value Fund, the flagship hedge fund strategy under Apollo’s $39 billion capital markets segment. Mr. Perri concentrates on stressed and distressed credit, special situations, deep value and event-driven investments throughout the capital structure. Previously, Mr. Perri was a principal at H.I.G. Capital, focusing on control-oriented distressed debt investments. He began his career at The Blackstone Group working on complex restructurings, reorganizations and bankruptcies. Mr. Perri graduated with an A.B. cum laude in economics from Harvard University, and received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
David Robbins is a Managing Director of Bayside Capital. Mr. Robbins is involved in all aspects of the investment process, including sourcing, transaction structuring, financing, and execution of post-closing growth strategies. He has over thirteen years of experience in private equity, special situations, and credit investing.
Before joining Bayside, Mr. Robbins was with GSC Group, a middle-market focused special situation and corporate credit investment firm. While at GSC, he was co-head of the control distressed strategy and led investments across a variety of industries. Mr. Robbins also sat on the Board of Directors of several GSC portfolio companies. Prior to GSC, David was with The Blackstone Group, in the Principal Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions Groups, where he worked on a variety of private equity and advisory transactions.
Mr. Robbins received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
h Matthew Wilson is a Managing Director with Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. in Los Angeles, where he leads the origination, evaluation, management and execution of private equity investments, including leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, and control distressed debt transactions. Prior to Oaktree, Mr. Wilson was with H.I.G. Capital, LLC, a leading middle market private equity firm. While at H.I.G., Mr. Wilson was a founding member of Bayside Capital, Inc, a fund focused on control distressed debt investments. Prior thereto, Mr. Wilson was with J.H. Whitney & Co., where he was an associate in the firm’s middle market buyout group. Mr. Wilson has over a dozen years of distressed M&A; and private equity experience, working with firms ranging from mid-market, privately-held organizations to multi-national public companies. Mr. Wilson received BA degrees with Distinction in Economics and History from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
The situation in the European sovereign markets has reached a melting point, with contamination of the financial sector and the broader economy looming. Investing in these turbulent times requires careful navigation of the macroeconomic situation as well as dealing with constrained sources of funding. Whilst it remains unclear exactly what impact these forces will have on the European private equity market, radical changes to the landscape appear ever more likely. Our panel of active investors in Europe will examine how investors and funds have prepared for the current situation and how they are creating value opportunities to generate returns through the cycle. Additional topics will include the longer term investment strategy and outlook in the European market.
Panelists:
Patrick holds 16 years of global private equity and venture capital, finance, business development, and consulting experience.
Patrick focuses on investments in the healthcare, technology, consumer, and retail sectors. His international focus includes the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Prior to co-founding the Consumer and Retail Group at Roberts Mitani, he founded The PEGA Group, a New York based consultancy focused on advising investment firms, family offices, entrepreneurs, and senior industry executives across a variety of industries.
He previously worked as an investment banker in Salomon Smith Barney's Global Communications Group and its European M&A; Group as well as at the International Finance Corporation.
Patrick received a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School, cum laude, and an MBA from INSEAD. He has lived and worked around the globe and is fluent in French and proficient in Spanish and Arabic.
Patrick is Co-President Americas of the INSEAD Private Equity Network, and his active community involvement includes New York Cares and other non-profits.
Sankaty Advisors, LLC is the fixed income affiliate of Bain Capital, LLC and currently manages approximately $16 billion of assets in North America and Europe. The majority of Sankaty’s capital is deployed by purchasing syndicated loans, high yield bonds, and various securities relating to private middle market transactions. Based on our flexible fund structure and locked-up capital, Sankaty has the ability to invest across the entire breadth of the capital structure, including senior debt, second liens, mezzanine/subordinated debt, preferred stock, and common equity co-investments.
Mr. Charchut joined Sankaty Advisors in 2011. He is an Executive Vice President and member of Sankaty’s Middle Market Group where he is responsible for new business origination. Previously, Mr. Charchut was a Senior Director at Cerberus Capital where he structured and syndicated senior and subordinated financing for private equity sponsors. Prior to Cerberus, Mr. Charchut was a Vice President in Merchant Banking Syndications at Heller Financial and originated and structured leveraged loan transactions at BT Alex. Brown and First Chicago NBD. Mr. Charchut received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from Northwestern University.
Prior to joining Oaktree in 2001, Mr. Kruse was an Associate for three and one-half years at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and venture capital/private equity. Mr. Kruse received a BA degree in History and Government from the University of Virginia and a JD from the Northwestern University School of Law where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and served as a Note and Comment Editor of the Law Review. Mr. Kruse is a member of the State Bar of Illinois.
Mr. Lohr joined Apollo in 2007 after having been a Founding Partner at Infinity Point LLC, Apollo’s joint venture partner for the financial services industry, since 2005. Before that time Mr. Lohr spent eight years in financial services investment banking at Goldman Sachs in New York. Mr. Lohr also worked at McKinsey & Company and B. Metzler Corporate Finance in Frankfurt. Mr. Lohr serves on the Board of Directors of Athene Re, Brit Insurance and Countrywide. Mr. Lohr graduated from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a joint Master’s Degree in Economics and Engineering and holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Mr. Jain has been a Partner at Triton since 2008. Mr. Jain has both an MBA and a BSc in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
We have experienced an unprecedented opportunity in the secondaries market during the past few years, yet the number of deals that have closed has not met industry participants’ expectations. There was a wide gap between perceived values for buyers and sellers, and as a result, investors were not able to take advantage of this unique investment environment. Has this bid-ask spread started to close? Are we headed for another period of transition? What is the outlook for this industry in an increasingly volatile and uncertain environment?
Panelists:
Nigel Dawn leads the Secondary Market Advisory Team. Mr. Dawn established the Secondary Market Advisory team in 2004 and has advised approximately $30 billion of secondary transactions. Clients have included leading US public investors, university endowments, banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and leading private equity general partners. He joined the firm in 1997 within the fixed income area before taking responsibility for making direct equity investments to support the strategic aims of UBS Investment Bank business areas as part of the e-commerce function. Most recently, he was head of UBS Investment Bank’s Third-Party Private Equity Funds Team. As part of this role, Mr. Dawn structured and executed a $1.3 billion joint venture between UBS and HarbourVest Partners, Tresser, L.P., and reduced private equity exposure by selling third-party funds. Prior to joining UBS, Mr. Dawn worked in the Financial Services Practice at Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York and prior to that was based in Asia with Standard Chartered Bank. Mr. Dawn graduated from Newcastle University with a BA degree in East Asian Politics and earned his MBA at Columbia Business School.
Michael Hacker is a Principal in the Secondary Investment team of AlpInvest Partners, where he is responsible for sourcing and evaluating secondary investment opportunities.
Prior to joining AlpInvest, Mr. Hacker worked in the Private Funds Group of UBS Investment Bank, where he played an active role in the development of the firm’s Secondary Advisory business and was responsible for providing secondary market advisory services to institutional private equity investors. At UBS, Mr. Hacker was involved in the execution of over $4 billion of secondary transactions across more than 250 funds and direct private equity interests. Previously, he worked in the Leveraged Finance Group at CIBC World Markets where he focused on the structuring and execution of high yield, leveraged loan and mezzanine financings, primarily for financial sponsor related companies, as well as merchant banking investments.
Mr. Hacker graduated cum laude from Williams College and received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. McCabe focuses on secondary investments, US-based small market managers, Latin American investments, and co-investments.
Prior to StepStone, Mr. McCabe co-founded SilverBrook Private Equity, an independent secondary and fund advisory platform. Prior to that, Mr. McCabe worked for Hamilton Lane, where he helped oversee the firm’s secondary and co-investment practices, representing over US $3 billion in committed capital from institutional investors. He was a member of Hamilton Lane’s co-investment investment committee and an active participant in their secondary and primary investment committees. Mr. McCabe also worked at CEMEX SA de C.V., a global building materials company, where he was a Director on the due diligence team.
Mr. McCabe received his BS from Drexel University and MBA from Columbia Business School.
Seth Katz is responsible for the research, selection and ongoing monitoring of all managers on the global Barclays Wealth private equity and private real assets platform.
Prior to Barclays Wealth, Mr. Katz served as the Director of Fund of Funds at Pomona Capital with responsibility for over $2.5 billion of assets in the European and US private equity portfolio. Previously, Mr. Katz was Manager of Private Investments at The Rockefeller University Endowment responsible for a $600 million portfolio across venture capital, leveraged buyouts, special situations and real assets globally. He began his career at von Braun & Schreiber Private Equity Partners in Munich, Germany.
Mr. Katz holds an AB from Princeton University in Politics and was a Fulbright Scholar to Spain.
Rajesh Senapati first joined HarbourVest as an associate in 2005 focused on secondary investments. He rejoined the Firm’s secondary investment team in 2010 after receiving his MBA. Mr. Senapati currently focuses on global secondary private equity opportunities, including portfolios of limited partnership interests, portfolios of direct investments, and structured transactions. He took a lead role in HarbourVest-managed funds acquisition of Absolute Private Equity, an investment company listed on the Swiss SIX Exchange, in 2011. In addition to his time at HarbourVest, Mr. Senapati’s prior experience includes working for Castanea Partners, a private equity firm targeting investments in the consumer, publishing, and information service sectors. He also worked at J.P. Morgan in Chicago as an investment banking analyst in the diversified industrials group. Mr. Senapati received a BA cum laude in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2003 and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2010.
Mr. Wu is a principal of Lexington primarily engaged in the evaluation of secondary purchases of buyout, mezzanine and venture capital partnership interests. Prior to joining Lexington in 2001, Mr. Wu was an analyst in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Wu graduated from the University of Michigan Business School with a BBA and from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with an MBA.
In an increasingly competitive private equity universe, finding sustainable strategies for improving portfolio companies can be a critical source of differentiation. This panel will compare and contrast approaches towards portfolio management in an effort to understand how different firms realize outsized returns. Do firms rely on dedicated portfolio management groups or on identifying top management teams? How much can portfolio companies of the same private equity firm learn from each other? What types of strategies for adding value are most popular? What strategies are the most successful and challenging to implement?
Panelists:
Mark E. Thierfelder, chair of the New York corporate and securities group, concentrates his practice on private equity transactions and domestic and international mergers and acquisitions throughout the U.S., Europe, and Canada. In particular, Mr. Thierfelder represents leading private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a full range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, leveraged financings, restructuring, and reorganizations. In addition, he negotiates, structures, and executes corporate transactions for strategic buyers and sellers, and has significant experience representing banks and other institutional lenders in leveraged financings and restructurings.
Mr. Thierfelder has been recognized as a leading corporate and merger and acquisition lawyer by the legal directory Chambers USA, where he has been described as “one of the most sophisticated lawyers” who “possesses a command of the entire deal process, has great commercial awareness and a good temperament for negotiating with the other side.” He has also been listed as a top private equity and merger and acquisition lawyer for the past four years by The Legal 500 (U.S.), which has cited him as being “creative, hardworking, and client oriented” with “very good commercial sense.” He is also a frequent speaker on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate and securities topics, and has been featured on CNBC as well as in The Deal Pipeline, Mergers & Acquisitions magazine, Investment Dealers’ Digest, Private Equity Online and other prominent media outlets.
Mr. Thierfelder has extensive industry experience representing clients in sectors including energy, infrastructure, retail, media and communications, healthcare, fishing, semiconductors, manufacturing, and food and beverage. As a result, he can anticipate and address industry-unique issues that often arise in the transaction process and structure the transactions efficiently.
Mr. Thierfelder holds a B.A. from Duke University and a J.D. from the Rutgers University School of Law.
Andy Africk has been with Apollo Global Management, L.P. since 1992 and is a Senior Partner at the firm. Apollo has about $75 billion of assets under management, focused primarily on alternative investment strategies. Andy makes and manages private equity investments on behalf of Apollo and has 20 years of experience in guiding, financing, analyzing and investing in public and private companies. Andy is responsible for Apollo’s technology related investments. On behalf of Apollo, Andy was responsible for Intelsat, the world’s largest provider of commercial fixed satellite services, and Hughes Communications, the world’s largest manufacturer and operator of VSATs, among other companies. Among other corporate boards, Andy serves on the Advisory Board of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Andy graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics; magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School with a degree in Law; and with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business with an MBA.
Todd Cooper is a Director in KKR’s Operations Group (“KKR Capstone”) and leads all procurement & strategic sourcing activity, including leading initiatives within specific portfolio companies and driving volume aggregated contracts across KKR’s portfolio of 65 global companies. At KKR Capstone, Mr. Cooper serves as the Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Subject Matter Expert and has worked with Capsugel, Del Monte, Energy Future Holdings, First Data, and U.S. Foodservice, in addition to leading KKR Capstone’s cross portfolio indirect procurement effort.
Prior to joining KKR Capstone in 2008, he was the Vice President of Global Sourcing in Honeywell’s Aerospace Division where he managed an organization of over 950 employees with responsibility for greater than $5 billion in annual spend. Prior to Honeywell, Mr. Cooper held various management roles at Storage Technology Corporation, McKinsey & Company, and served as a Captain in the U.S. Army.
Mr. Cooper graduated as a Distinguished Cadet from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also holds a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering and MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
David Hooper is a Co-founder and Partner of Centerview Capital. Prior to joining Centerview in 2006, Mr. Hooper was a Managing Director, Head of the Consumer Group and Chairman of the U.S. Investment Committee at Vestar Capital Partners. Mr. Hooper played a lead role in Vestar’s Birds Eye and Sheridan Healthcare investments and was also involved in a number of other successful investments. During his tenure at Vestar, Mr. Hooper was actively involved in fundraising and communications with Vestar’s limited partners. Prior to joining Vestar in 1994, Mr. Hooper served as a financial consultant to GPA Group plc and was a member of The Blackstone Group’s Principal Investment Group and Drexel Burnham Lambert’s M&A; department.
Mr. Hooper holds a BSBA from Georgetown University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Del Monte and Richelieu Foods.
Bob Juneja is a Senior Managing Director of Irving Place Capital. His areas of investment focus include financial and healthcare services. Prior to joining Irving Place Capital in 2000, Mr. Juneja was a Vice President of Destia Communications. Previously, he was a Senior Associate with Sagaponack Partners L.P. and an Associate with Madison Dearborn Partners. He has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan. He currently sits on the boards of Caribbean Financial Group Holdings, L.P., Cavalry Investments, LLC, Manifold Capital Corp., National Surgical Hospitals, and Universal Hospital Services, Inc.
Justin Miller is a partner at Bain & Company’s New York office. He is a leader in Bain’s New York private equity practice, assisting financial investors with acquisition diligence and portfolio company strategy and performance improvement. He is also a member of Bain’s financial services practice and has served clients in segments including banking, asset management, insurance, and brokerage on issues of growth strategy and performance improvement.
Mr. Miller graduated from Cornell with a Bachelors in Science in 1995 and a Masters in Engineering in 1996, both in computer science. He then served five years in the US Navy as a submarine warfare officer stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI. After leaving the Navy, he earned an MBA with honors from the Wharton School. Mr. Miller was a Summer Associate at Bain in 2002 and joined Bain full-time in 2003.
The middle market panel will explore ways to achieve competitive advantage amidst strong levels of competition in the middle market. Due to the changing macroeconomic landscape, future success in private equity investing will be driven more by investing acumen than by financial engineering. Panelists will explore trends and challenges in middle market investing and discuss how funds should best position themselves to source, fund and manage deals going forward.
Panelists:
Henry N. Nassau is a Partner and Chair of the firm’s corporate and securities group. His areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, private equity and venture capital transactions.
Mr. Nassau has been recognized for eight consecutive years as a leading corporate/mergers and acquisitions lawyer by Chambers USA, a referral guide to leading lawyers in the United States based on the opinions of their peers and clients. Chambers has noted that Mr. Nassau is a “terrific, responsive and pragmatic attorney” who “provides ‘wise advice’ on M&A; and private equity transactions” and is “always there when [we] need top-drawer legal analysis.” Mr. Nassau has also been recognized for his work in M&A; as well as private equity in The Legal 500 (U.S.), which, in a recent edition, cited him as “a superstar—smart with great attention to detail.” In addition, he has been recognized for his work in corporate governance and compliance law, corporate law, and mergers and acquisitions law by The Best Lawyers in America, which also named him the Corporate Governance and Compliance Lawyer of the Year in Philadelphia in its 2011 edition.
A former chair of Dechert’s Business Department, Mr. Nassau left Dechert in 1999 for Internet Capital Group to serve as General Counsel. He most recently served as ICG’s Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel, and Secretary.
Les Brun is a Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations in the New York office of CCMP. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Brun founded and was Chairman Emeritus of Hamilton Lane, a Private Equity advisory and management firm, focusing on the firm’s strategic initiatives and direction, as well as its investment decision-making through his participation on the firm’s Investment Committee. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Richcourt Group, a Hamilton Lane company specializing in hedge fund of funds management.
Mr. Brun is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. and Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Merck & Co., Inc. and NXT Capital. In addition, he was Chairman of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s S.B.I.C. Advisory Council, and a member of the Committee for the Reinvention of the S.B.A.
With over 30 years of investment banking, commercial banking and financial advisory experience, Mr. Brun began his career as Assistant Vice President with Chemical Bank in Seoul, South Korea, followed by Managing Director and cofounder of the investment banking group of Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia, Vice President in the Corporate Finance Division of E.F. Hutton & Co. in New York, and Vice President of Lloyds International Corporation.
Mr. Brun holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus, and is a fomer Trustee of the University at Buffalo Foundation, Inc. Les is also a former Trustee of The Episcopal Academy in Merion, PA. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Garland joined Sterling in 2001 and has led investment in HydroChem Industrial Services and Hudson Products and Express and is on the boards of CST Industries, Roofing Supply Group, and Express. In each of these companies, Mr. Garland has been focused on value creation through the strategic and operational improvements of these businesses.
Prior to joining Sterling, he was at Enron Corp. for seven years, where he was most recently a Managing Director responsible for Enron’s private equity business. Mr. Garland began his career in investment banking at Stephens Inc., followed by two years in mergers and acquisitions at Parker and Parsley Petroleum. Mr. Garland received a BA from Rhodes College and an MBA. with honors from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
Mr. Schoenthal joined Harvest in 2005. Prior to joining Harvest, he worked as a Vice President at Charlesbank Capital Partners and as a Senior Associate at J.H. Whitney & Co. Mr. Schoenthal also worked at Morgan Stanley & Co. as an Associate in the Global High Yield Group. Mr. Schoenthal serves on the Boards of Cycle Gear, Encanto Restaurants, Green Bank and Document Technologies, Inc. He has a BA in Economics from Emory University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dave Tolmie is a Partner of Edgewater Growth Capital Partners. Prior to joining Edgewater, Mr. Tolmie was the CEO and President of Yesmail, Inc., a leading marketing services provider. Mr. Tolmie led Yesmail to a highly successful IPO and subsequent sale for $720 million. Prior to joining Yesmail, Mr. Tolmie was the CEO in Residence with Platinum Venture Partners. Previously, Mr. Tolmie was Senior Vice President of Operations for Bally Total Fitness, overseeing the company’s $650 million annual revenue and its 13,000-person sales and operations workforce. Mr. Tolmie joined Bally after building and selling a regional health club company to Bally in 1990 for $90 million. Prior to this, Mr. Tolmie worked as a Consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York. Mr. Tolmie began his career as a Product Manager with General Mills, Inc.
Mr. Tolmie is active in civic and business leadership positions, including serving on the boards of the Field Museum, Illinois Venture Capital Association, Chicago Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and several Edgewater portfolio companies.
Mr. Tolmie received his BA from the University of Virginia, with distinction, and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Troiano is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of TBG. Mr. Troiano has extensive experience in private equity, finance, turnarounds and restructurings, and portfolio company management and operations. Mr. Troiano is the Chairman of the Investment Committee and has oversight responsibility for transactions in all four focus industry sectors and management of TBG’s Industry Partner network. Mr. Troiano is the Chairman of the Boards of Directors of TBG Food Acquisition Corp. (“TBG FAC”), TBG NMS Holdings (“TBG NMS”), TBG Anesthesia Management (“TAM”), and is a member of the boards of Viceroy Insurance Company and various Onex holding companies. Mr. Troiano also served as interim-CEO of TBG FAC during 2006 after its emergence from bankruptcy.
Prior to co-founding TBG in 2004, Mr. Troiano was Partner and Managing Director of Onex’s New York office where he was significantly involved in and managed some of Onex’s most successful investments, such as SKY Chefs, Hidden Creek Industries and Celestica. Prior to Onex, Mr. Troiano spent two years from 1992 to 1994 at Gleacher & Co., a mergers and acquisition boutique founded by Eric J. Gleacher, former worldwide head of M&A; for Morgan Stanley & Co., and spent one year at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in 1991 working in its Merchant Banking and Investment Group.
Mr. Troiano received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude, with concentrations in Finance and Accounting. Mr. Troiano earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Asia is a complex geography with each country and sub-region posing unique investment opportunities and challenges. Private equity in Asia today stands at an inflection point. The past few years has seen an influx of capital, the emergence of foreign players, expansion of regional players and sovereign wealth funds continuing to make significant investments. While the fundamental demographics of Asia point towards long-term growth and wealth creation, the macroeconomic outlook, financial markets, legal/regulatory hurdles and competitive landscape is fast-evolving. This panel seeks perspectives on trends, opportunities and challenges in the space of alternative investment across Asia and its implication towards the future development of the industry. The speakers will discuss: (i) Growth prospects and business outlook in Asia, (ii) Challenges in sourcing, financing, and investing in Asia, (iii) Competition from local funds and strategic players, (iv) Foreseeable changes to the business model (buyout vs. growth equity) and (v) Government policies and the regulatory environment.
Panelists:
Michael Sung Wook Chung is a Founding Partner, and Head of Distressed Strategies at Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP, a global multi strategy firm with offices in London and New York.
Before founding Arrowgrass in February 2008, Mr. Chung had been Head of Distressed and Special Situations at Omnis, a proprietary trading unit of Deutsche Bank in London since September 2005. He originally joined Deutsche Bank in May 2004 as a Senior Analyst on the Convertible Bond Desk, focusing on convertible securities, capital structure arbitrage, distressed situations and proprietary trading. He subsequently moved to Omnis at its inception in September 2004.
Prior to this, Mr. Chung had been a Senior Analyst in Distressed Research at Lehman Brothers in NY, where he began his career in 2001 and was quickly promoted to be a desk analyst responsible for advising the traders, hedge funds and other institutional clients on trading strategies across capital structures to facilitate proprietary and flow trading.
Mr. Chung holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University, Illinois. Mr. Chung is currently based in NY.
Young Gak (Ken) Yun is a Founder and Chairman of Samjong Group based in Seoul, South Korea. He has been with Samjong since he founded the firm in 1991 and has been involved with all aspects of the development of the firm including a joint venture with Houlihan Lokey during Asian financial crisis, an affiliation with KPMG, where he currently serves as its global board member and group chairman of KPMG Korea and establishment of a global investment advisory business.
Prior to forming the firm, Mr. Yun practiced law in New York with Sidley & Austin LLP and with Arnold & Porter LLP. Mr. Yun is currently a member of the board including The Asia Society Korea, Internal Evaluation Committee, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, South Korea and UN Global Compact Korea. He was as a senior advisor to the Transition Committee for the 17th President of South Korea, Myung-Bak Lee. Among philanthropic involvements, Mr. Yun serves as the President of SIFE Korea and The Hope Institute.
Mr. Yun holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from University of Chicago and JD and LLM from Duke University. He is currently a President of the Penn Club of Korea and adjunct professor at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea. He is a member of the State Bar of New York and a Certified Public Accountant.
Tak Ishikawa has been with Mitsubishi Corporation since 1983 and is currently General Manager of the Financial Business Development Unit. His primary responsibilities include building Mitsubishi’s global asset management business drawing on the firm’s strength as an investor in all segments of industry and managing its financial product distribution subsidiary. He spent 15 years in New York as an investment director for Metal & Mining for the Americas and later as President & CEO of Mitsubishi’s alternative asset class investment subsidiary where he was responsible for direct and fund investments in private equity and various fixed income products. He was also the General Partner of a private equity fund sponsored by Mitsubishi.
He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, American Bankruptcy Association and holds various board seats, as well as being Chairman of the Board for MC Asset Management Holdings, LLC and TorreyCove Capital Partners LLC.
He is a graduate of Waseda University in Tokyo and has a MBA from Harvard Business School.
Attractive returns are increasingly difficult to achieve given macro uncertainties and buyout competition. This panel will focus on the key issues assessed by LPs today during the capital allocation process for private equity and venture capital firms. The panelists will discuss the characteristics of successful GPs and recent trends in the industry such as secondary direct investments and the focus on operational value creation.
Panelists:
Mr. Barry currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Retirement Fund, a private trust with $1.5 billion in assets and a membership in excess of 11,000.
Prior to this position, Mr. Barry spent 24 years with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. During his tenure at the MBTA, Mr. Barry became interested in labor issues and became an active member of the Boston Carmen’s Union, ATU Local 589. He was initially elected by the union membership to serve as a Shop Steward and eventually progressed in the Local Union Leadership and was elected Financial Secretary-Treasurer of the Boston Carmen’s Union ATU Local 589. In this position he served as a Labor Trustee to the MBTA Retirement Fund.
Mr. Barry has a broad spectrum of experience in financial, operational, management and supervisory roles. Whether overseeing the prudent investment of the Fund’s assets or sitting down at the negotiating table, Mr. Barry has the natural ability to consider all options and make informed decisions.
Throughout Mr. Barry career he has proven his ability to work in unison with diverse constituencies, including Board trustees, investment professionals, legal and audit professionals, organized labor and various governmental agencies.
Mr. Barry holds an MBA in Business Administration with a Concentration in Finance from Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr. Monagle is a senior private markets investment adviser with twenty years of leadership and experience analyzing private markets strategies and trends.
Mr. Monagle was a Partner and Senior Strategist with NEPC and led the firm’s private markets research, due diligence activities and performance monitoring efforts. Mr. Monagle was also a member of the Partners Research Committee, Alternative Due Diligence Committee and the Real Assets Advisory Group. The Private Markets Team constructed global private markets (private equity, real estate, infrastructure and illiquid real assets) investment programs for basic to complex clients who made commitments in excess of $8 billion during 2004 — 2011 with demonstrated success.
Prior to joining NEPC in 2004, Mr. Monagle was the Managing Director of Private Equity Research at Rogerscasey. He developed private equity investment structures for the firm’s clients and was responsible for the firm’s monitoring of approximately 150 private equity funds. Mr. Monagle authored the firm’s quarterly private equity market reviews and developed the firm’s private equity educational presentation.
Prior to joining Rogerscasey, Mr. Monagle was a Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors for the Hannah Consulting Group, Inc., responsible for private equity and real estate investment strategies. He conducted alternative investment searches, developed an alternative investments database, and monitored ongoing client performance.
Mr. Monagle earned an MS in Taxation from Bentley College and earned a BSBA degree majoring in Accounting from Northeastern University. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the AICPA and the MSCPA.
Ms. Morin joined Graham Partners in 1998. Ms. Morin, along with the other Managing Principals, shares responsibility for all major operational functions of the firm, including transaction sourcing, structuring, negotiating and divesting, working with portfolio companies and handling relationships with limited partners. Most recently on the investment side, Ms. Morin worked with Abrisa and oversaw an add-on acquisition campaign for this portfolio company. She was integrally involved with Graham Partners' acquisitions of Western and Eldorado Stone. In addition to working on investment opportunities and with portfolio companies, Ms. Morin oversees Graham Partners' relations with its limited partners. Ms. Morin’s past and present board directorships include: Abrisa, Eldorado and HB&G.;
Prior to joining Graham Partners, Ms. Morin held positions in Investment Banking at Goldman, Sachs in New York, where she worked on equity financings for companies such as American Standard and at W.Y. Campbell & Company (a subsidiary of Comerica) in Detroit, where she worked on divestitures for companies such as General Motors Corp., Dana Corp. and United Technologies. She also worked in strategic and financial planning at Borders, Inc. in Ann Arbor, MI.
Ms. Morin earned her BA with honors in Economics from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Lawn Resident honoree and a varsity polo player. She received her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Director's List student.
Mr. Wachter is a founding partner of W Capital Partners. Since Mr. Wachter and his partners founded the firm in 2001, W Capital has become a leading participant in providing private equity firms, financial institutions and corporations with liquidity for their private equity investments. Mr. Wachter is cited frequently and has spoken around the world regarding the growing market for liquidity in private equity and the secondary direct market. He was elected one of the 30 Rising Stars in Private Equity by Private Equity International.
Prior to the founding of W Capital in 2001, Mr. Wachter held senior roles as an investment banker and private equity investor for 15 years at Lehman Brothers, Jefferies and Unterberg. Mr. Wachter holds an MBA with distinction from New York University and a BS in Engineering, magna cum laude, with a major in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from Tufts University.
Mark Yusko is the Founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management. Prior to forming Morgan Creek, Mr. Yusko was President, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of UNC Management Company, the Endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from 1998 to 2004. Throughout his tenure, he directly oversaw strategic and tactical asset allocation recommendations to the Investment Fund Board, investment manager selection, manager performance evaluation, spending policy management and performance reporting. Total assets under management were $1.5 billion ($1.2 billion in endowment assets and $300 million in working capital). Until 1998, Mr. Yusko was the Senior Investment Director for the University of Notre Dame Investment Office where he joined as the Assistant Investment Officer in October of 1993. He worked with the Chief Investment Officer in all aspects of Endowment Management. Mr. Yusko received his Bachelor of Science Degree, with Honors, in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago. He is an Advisory Board member of a number of private capital partnerships and alternative investment programs and has served as a consultant on alternative investments to a select group of institutions. Mr. Yusko is currently a Board member of the MCNC Endowment and The Weaver Foundation.
Mr. Barrett is the Director of Pension Investments Worldwide for Eastman Kodak. He joined Kodak in November, 2010 and is responsible for the investment programs for defined benefit, defined contribution, cash balance and hybrid plans globally.
Prior to Kodak, Mr. Barrett held a number of progressively responsible positions over a fourteen plus year period with San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association. His most recent position the Executive Director/Chief Investment Officer position.
Mr. Barrett received his BSBA from the University of Montana in 1992 and his MSBA from San Diego State University in 1994. He is also a Member of the CFA Institute and a CFA Charterholder.
Over the past few years, early stage investing has evolved in an unprecedented fashion and will emerge a transformed industry where select firms with a demonstrated track record will have a sustainable business going forward. The needs of early-stage companies have changed. Likewise, exit options for start-ups continue to evolve with market uncertainty: IPO markets have remained unpredictable while strategic acquirers have become more active.
The panelists will share their thoughts on the changing needs for venture capitalists, the attractiveness of funding new ventures, market uncertainties, portfolio value creation, attractive sectors for investment and discuss what their respective firms are doing to capitalize on these new opportunities.
Panelists:
Harry Gruner co-founded JMI in 1992 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently a Director of Autotask, Catapult Learning, Courion, Halogen Software, Navicure, PointClickCare and Studer Group. Prior to co-founding JMI, Mr. Gruner was a Principal in the Technology Group at Alex Brown. He also worked in marketing at Sigma Design, Inc. and in investment banking in the Technology Group at Blyth Eastman PaineWebber, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Gruner served as a Director of Hyperion Software. Mr. Gruner received a BA in History from Yale University and a MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Haque has more than 20 years of experience in the venture capital industry and currently serves as Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Mr. Haque joined NVP in 1990, and has invested in more than 60 companies since he began his venture career, producing nearly $30 Billion in exit values to date. More than 20 of his portfolio companies have gone public and nearly 35 have been acquired (or have gone public and been acquired). Mr. Haque was ranked as a top investor on the annual Forbes Midas List for nine years, and in 2004, Forbes named him as the #1 venture capitalist based on performance over the previous decade. In 2006, Mr. Haque was presented with a Global Leadership award from NASSCOM, and he was recently honored with the 2011 SV Forum Visionary Award based on his outstanding achievements and contributions to the technology industry.
Mr. Haque focuses on investments across a wide variety of sectors including systems and IT infrastructure, software and services. He was an early investor and a board member of Cerent (acquired by Cisco), Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM), Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks), OnDisplay (acquired by Vignette), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and Extreme Networks (Nasdaq: EXTR).
His current investments include Apigee, Appnomic Systems, Brite Semiconductor, CareCloud, Cyan, FireEye, PCH International, Persistent Systems (BSE & NSE: PERSISTENT), Sulekha, Veveo, Virtela and Yatra. Other notable investments and previous board seats include Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM), Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Kiva Software (acquired by Netscape), Information Advantage (acquired by Sterling Software), Arbortext (acquired by PTC), Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Showcase (acquired by SPSS), Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom), Amberpoint (acquired by Oracle) and ZettaCom (acquired by IDT).
Sumeet Jain is Partner with CMEA Capital. At CMEA, Sumeet leads the firms investments in software, internet and digital media companies. He has led and been intimately involved in the firms investments in companies such as Luminate, Blekko, Jobvite, Cafe Press, Apriso, Intermolecular and AWR.
Sumeet brings a perspective to investing that comes from having been intimately involved with entrepreneurship and technology from multiple angles - as a startup executive and operator, an engineer, a strategy consultant, and an investment banker.
Prior to CMEA he was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he focused on mergers and acquisitions as well as equity and debt financing transactions for many venture and private equity backed companies in the software, internet and semiconductor sectors. Sumeet also led sales and business development at iManage, a content management software company until its acquisition by Interwoven in 2003. Previously, Sumeet was with Personify, an early web analytics software company (acquired by Accrue Software), where he helped grow the company with roles in product management, business development, sales and professional services. Sumeet began his career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) where he worked on strategy for companies in Andersen Technology Ventures portfolio.
Sumeet has a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from Cornell University and an MBA, Entrepreneurial Management and Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Martino is the Founder and Managing Partner of Bullpen Capital. Bullpen Capital’s focus is on the structural hole that exists between the new generation of seed stage investors (Super Angels) and the traditional venture capital eco-system. Prior to forming Bullpen, Mr. Martino started four technology companies. He was the founding CEO of Aggregate Knowledge, whose investors include Kleiner Perkins, DAG, and OVP. He was the founding CTO of Tribe Network, one of the world's first social networks, and is the inventor of several key patents on social technologies. Mr. Martino’s investing career began in 1999 and his investments include Zynga, TubeMogul, and PayNearMe. Mr. Martino holds a BS in Mathematics from Lehigh University and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University.
Mr. Sindwani joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2009 and focuses on growth-stage investment opportunities in the media/communications and business services sectors. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ventures, Mr. Sindwani was a senior investment professional with Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), the venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corp., where he led several early-stage and growth-stage investments in the media and communications sectors, including Broadsoft (NASDAQ: BSFT), Jingle Networks (sold to Marchex), and New Global Telecom (sold to Comcast). Prior to CIC, Mr. Sindwani was a business development consultant to three media and telecom startups and a product manager at Lucent Technologies, where he helped launch a new web switching product. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sindwani was a co-founder of an Internet software startup and an investment banker with Credit Suisse’s Technology Group.
Mr. Sindwani received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, Mr. Sindwani led the solar-electric vehicle team and participated in 2 Sunrayces, started a fraternity, and was a board member at the student-run credit union.