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EVENT DETAILS |
World Financial Symposiums is bringing the Growth and Exit Strategies for Software and IT Companies conference back to New York on October 22.
New York is the epicenter of financial activity and growth, and technology M&A transactions and valuations are at a peak. Take all opportunities into consideration and hear from experienced executives on the road to, and through, the M&A process.
The conference brings together executives and investors in software, IT, Internet, mobile and related technology companies. You'll hear from major buyers, private equity investors, venture capitalists, angel investors, analysts and CEOs who have recently sold, plus have an opportunity to interact with some of the top names in New York's tech and finance communities.
Use coupon code WFSNY2015 for $100 off your registration fee. Offer ends Friday, October 2, 2015.
Speakers
P. Andrew Bilbao
VP, Planning & Development - John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Andy is Vice President, Planning & Development at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. a publicly-traded, global provider of content and content-enabled workflow solutions in the areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research; professional development; and education.
Prior to Wiley, Andy held a variety of roles with Nielsen Business Media (NBM), a division of The Nielsen Company. His most recent position there had him as Senior Vice President of the Brand Media Group. Markets served included: Travel, Training, Real Estate, Retail Food, Jewelry and Photography. His portfolio contained some 15+ publications, five expositions and more than a dozen websites. Prior positions at Nielsen had Andy as Chief Operating Officer of the Media & Entertainment Group (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Back Stage, Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, etc.) and the Vice President/General Manager of NBMs eMedia division.
Before joining The Nielsen Company, Andy was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of EMAZING.com, a SONY Group Company. As a push technology, consumer-facing website, EMAZING had more than 12 million subscribers to its proprietary, subscription-based content. Before EMAZING.com, Andy was the General Manager of Popular Science Properties and Director of Corporate Development for Times Mirror Magazines, Inc. (TMM). During his stint at TMM, Andy successfully completed several significant magazine acquisitions and helped guide Popular Science through two buyouts of its parent company.
Early in his career Andy was Director of Finance at IDG Newsletter Corporation and Business Manager at Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. Andy also held a variety of posts with investment banks including J.T. Moran Financial Corporation and Shearson Lehman Brothers.
Andy has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and Sociology from Skidmore College and a Masters degree in Business Administration from Boston College.
Kevin Bhatt
Partner - Long Ridge Equity Partners
Kevin Bhatt is a Partner of Long Ride Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on growth capital opportunities in the financial services sector. As an active financial services investor since 2002, Kevin has partnered with founders and management teams to build some of the most successful growth companies in the financial sector. Prior to joining Long Ridge in 2010, Kevin was a Vice President with AEA Investors, a leading middle market private equity firm, and an Associate at TH Lee Putnam Ventures, a $1.1 billion growth capital fund. Kevin began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he was a member of the Financial Services Group. Kevin received a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Ward Carter
Chairman - Corum Group Ltd.
Ward Carter's technology background includes a variety of management positions with the Burroughs Corporation (later Unisys). Later, as vice president of a Wall Street investment firm and as principal in a regional venture firm, Ward raised capital for ventures in computer hardware, software, and biotechnology. As an executive for a Seattle-based archival storage software company, he attracted venture capital and assisted with the eventual acquisition of the company by a larger competitor. As president of InfoMatrix, and later Discovery Sales + Marketing, Ward provided sales and marketing consulting support to executives of emerging software companies.
Ward joined Corum in 1997 and has successfully managed numerous software company mergers and acquisitions worldwide. He graduated with Honors from Seattle University with a BA in Business.
Cian Cotter
Managing Director - Insight Venture Partners
Cian Cotter joined Insight in 2003 and leads Insight's capital markets activities. Cian focuses on creating strategic outcomes for Insight's portfolio companies including IPO preparation and execution, recapitalizations and M&A advisory. He leads Insight's relationships with strategic acquirers in the software and Internet sectors and helps strengthen corporate and business development activities on behalf of Insight's portfolio companies. Cian maintains relationships with the global investment banking community and also manages Insight's inbound private placement investment opportunities.
During Cian's tenure at the firm, 6 of Insight's portfolio companies have achieved an IPO. Cian has influenced several strategic acquisitions of portfolio companies including IBM's acquisition of DWL, Oracle's acquisition of Primavera, Thomson Reuters' acquisition of Paisley Software and Nordstrom's acquisition of HauteLook.
Cian also leads Insight's capital formation activities and is responsible for coordinating Insight's relationships with potential and existing investors. During his time at the firm, Insight has raised approximately $3 billion in capital commitments to augment prior assets under management.
Prior to joining Insight, Cian was a Product Marketing Manager with Canon, Inc. and a Product Strategy Manager with Cable & Wireless, plc.
Cian has a BBS from the University of Limerick, Ireland and an MBA from HEC, France. He is fluent in French.
Kevin Delaney
CEO - Decade Software
Kevin has over 30 years of experience in the software industry.
Prior to starting Decade Software Company, LLC in 1986, Kevin was a Systems Analyst at Fiserv, Inc. as well as a consultant to numerous businesses and governmental agencies developing data processing applications. He formed Decade Software Company, LLC to focus on environmental health and public health nursing, an underserved niche in the governmental arena.
Kevin bootstrapped Decade, relying on his abilities and resourcefulness to form, develop, grow and maintain the business from its inception. Initially, he performed all design, programming, documentation, sales, and marketing. He designed the flagship product, EnvisionConnect, a comprehensive and extremely integrated system that incorporates automated billing, receipting, inspection, violation, complaint, and service request tracking for regulatory agencies of any size and mission.
At the sale of his business, he had 40+ employees, clients from Alaska to the Cayman Islands, and several marquee customers including LA County Environmental Health Department, Southern Nevada Health District, Seattle-King County, and Suffolk County, New York. Moreover, Decades products are licensed by private industry, with clients such as the Corvias Group and Brookshire Brothers.
He was instrumental in the development of several environmental health laws and regulations as the California legislature asked Decade to provide technical and real-world experience on such matters as the state-wide hazardous materials data exchange system, public water system data management, and field computing for inspectors. He also negotiated partnerships with the California Conference of Environmental Health Directors and the National Environmental Health Association.
Kevin designed and conducted in-depth courses on data management best practices that are in use by several county and state agencies to this day. For the last several years, he was a guest speaker at California State University, Fresno, his alma mater, on matters ranging from entrepreneurship and leadership, to managing people and projects.
Rizvan Dhalla
Managing Director - Morgan Stanley
Rizvan Dhalla is a Managing Director and Head of Technology Equity Capital Markets on the east coast for Morgan Stanley. He has spent more than 15 years at Morgan Stanley focused on equity and equity linked products including IPOs, follow-ons and convertibles. Recent IPOs include Rapid7, Shopify, Etsy, HubSpot and GrubHub. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Jim Fulton
Partner - Cooley, LLP
Jim Fulton is a partner in the Emerging Companies practice group. He joined the Firm in 1995 and is resident in the New York office. Prior to his tenure in New York, Jim spent 17 years practicing in Cooley's Palo Alto office where he was firm-wide Chair of the Emerging Companies practice group and chair of the Clean Energy and Technologies group.
Jim focuses on representing both emerging and established technology, healthcare and biotechnology companies and the venture capital firms that invest in those companies. Concentrating in corporate and securities law, he counsels companies throughout their lifecycle on matters ranging from company formations, private financings, employee equity incentives and executive hiring, to complex spinouts, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and SEC reporting and compliance. In the last 10 years alone, Jim has worked on more than 350 venture capital transactions, raising more than $4 billion dollars. In addition, Jim has closed venture capital funds raising in excess of $5 billion, public offerings of nearly $1 billion in equity and M&A transactions valued at more than $3 billion.
Jim's clients represent a wide range of industries including internet, digital and social media, mobile, software, retail, healthcare IT, medical device, telecommunications, semiconductor, clean technologies, and life sciences. Representative clients include Web.com, AAA, Blurb.com, Cloud Physics, Dialogic, Inc., eASIC Corporation, Ecomotors and Segetis. Jim also represents many leading venture capital firms in their financings, including InterWest Partners, Mayfield Fund, NEA, Norwest Venture Partners, Panorama Capital, Scale Venture Partners, and Versant Venture Capital.
Jim was named on the 2012 AlwaysOn Power Players in Greentech list and one of the Top 25 Clean Tech Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal in 2011. He was also recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in the category of corporate law, securities/capital markets law and venture capital law in 2008-2015 and Northern California Super Lawyer in the category of securities and corporate finance in 2007-2013. Jim received recognition as a leading lawyer in the 2015 US edition of Legal 500 in the category of M&A/Corporate and Commercial - Venture Capital and Emerging Companies. Prior to joining Cooley, Jim was a senior budget analyst with the U.S. Government's Office of Personnel Management for six years.
Blair Greenberg
Vice President - Bregal Sagemount
Blair Greenberg is a Vice President at Bregal Sagemount. Prior to Bregal Sagemount, Blair was a Vice President at Technology Crossover Ventures where he focused on investing in technology and financial services companies. Prior to TCV, Blair worked for UBS Investment Bank in the Financial Institutions Group. At UBS, Blair focused on mergers & acquisitions and capital raising transactions for financial technology, asset management, and specialty finance companies. Blair received a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, graduating with High Distinction, and an MBA with concentrations in Finance, Management & Strategy, and Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Previous investments include: HomeAway, FXall, Interactive Brokers, MarketAxess, Orbitz, RiskMetrics, Travelport
Current investments include: Accela, Yapstone
Habib Kairouz
Managing Partner - Rho Capital Parnters
Habib Kairouz is a Managing Partner of Rho Capital Partners, Inc. (www.rho.com), a private equity firm with $1.5 billion under management and offices in New York, Palo Alto and Montreal. Rho's business units span various classes of private equity investments, including venture capital, growth equity and buyouts in technology and healthcare companies (Rho Ventures, Rho Canada and Rho Acceleration), and fund investments in all classes of venture capital and private equity funds (Rho Fund Investors).
Habib is a General Partner in Rho Ventures, the direct venture capital arm of Rho, focusing on multi-stage investments in information technology, new media, telecommunications, alternative energy and healthcare companies. Habib is also a General Partner in Rho Acceleration, which focuses on buyouts in the software and digital media sectors. He is also a member of the Investment Committees of Rho Fund Investors, a private equity fund of funds as well as Rho Canada, an early stage venture capital fund focused on Canadian companies.
Habibs current and select past investments include August, CommerceOne (NASDAQ:IPO), Dashlane, Everydayhealth (NYSE:EVDY), Intralinks (NYSE:IL), iVillage (sold to NBC), OMGPOP (Sold to Zynga), Philo, ReachLocal (NASDAQ: RLOC), Tacoda Networks (sold to Time Warner), Tripod (sold to Lycos), Verified Person, and Yantra (sold to AT&T).
Habib received a B.S. in Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.
Michael B. Kessler
Partner - The Riverside Company
Michael B. Kessler is a Partner at The Riverside Company. In 2013 Mr. Kessler and four colleagues joined Riverside as a team to manage a new fund family, the Riverside Strategic Capital Fund (RSCF). The RSCF seeks to make non-control investments in companies with $5-25 million of EBITDA for acquisition financing, liquidity events, growth initiatives, buyouts and recapitalizations.
Prior to joining Riverside, Mr. Kessler was a Managing Director at Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), and a member of the firms investment committee. At VSS, Mr. Kessler was responsible for the origination, underwriting, structuring and management of portfolio investments. Prior to joining VSS in 2003, he worked for 17 years as an investment banker at CIBC World Markets, Oppenheimer & Co. (acquired by CIBC in 1997), Barclays Capital and Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Kessler has extensive experience advising and investing in technology-enabled business services companies, and is currently a board member of Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. and Select International. He has been an investor in, and board member of numerous other companies, including Tax Credit Co., SHL, TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communication, Market Strategies International, BrandShop (formerly SureSource) and Vault.com.
Mr. Kessler holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, and a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mark Malis
CEO - QQ Solutions
Mark Malis is QQSolutions CEO and co-founder, as well as the original developer of the company's first Rating and Agency Management System (AMS) products. Mark has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and software industries, including working as an agent for an insurance agency.
Mark developed QQSolutions original AMS, AutoFile, in a computer science class while attending the University of Florida. At the time, the initiative was intended for a senior class project, but after his fathers insurance agency implemented the system, the response was overwhelming. Upon graduating UF with his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer & Information Engineering, Mark continued to advance the AMS, and sell it to other insurance agencies.
Under Marks leadership, QQSolutions has become one of the top solutions providers in the Independent Insurance agency market, with more than 22,000 users nationwide. Without any outside funding, he has led QQSolutions to increased revenue growth every year for the past 25 years since its founding.
Mark has also focused on creating a positive work environment, with bagel Fridays, team lunches, birthday celebrations, as well as supporting the QQ Fun Zone a group of employees who create events to foster teamwork and camaraderie.
Mark runs the company with his wife Candace, who helps with strategic planning, operational management, marketing and finance.
Outside of work, Mark and Candace enjoy spending time with their son, Jake.
Bruce Milne
CEO - Corum Group Ltd.
Prior to starting Corum in late 1985, Bruce Milne owned three software firms including, RoseSoft, and Accountants Microsystems, Inc. (AMI), the nation's largest supplier of vertical market microcomputer applications to practicing accountants. He raised over $11 million in equity to build AMI to #52 on the INC. 500 during the company's first five years.
Bruce has spent over 28 years in the computer industry. He started with UNISYS as one of the youngest managers in their International Division and progressed to Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as National OEM Development Manager. Bruce was instrumental in developing dealer recruiting, training, and planning. He was part of the team that developed the DEC distributor channel and managed the software effort for the DEC Computer Stores, OEMs and dealers. In 1978, Bruce joined Alpine Data Systems, a large, national mini-computer VAD, as Vice President.
His industry participation includes serving as a past advisory board member for Apple, COMDEX, Microsoft, and IBM. Bruce is the founder and past chairman of the Washington Software Association and a past director of the Washington Technology Center at the University of Washington. He has also served on various other civic and corporate boards and advisory councils, including the Governor's Business Advisory Board, the Puget Sound Business Journal Advisory Board, and several software companies. Bruce is one of the leading experts in the software and Internet merger field, and is a frequent author and lecturer on valuations and software acquisitions. Through Corum he has published three books including Power Planning: Structuring Your Software Company for Success.
Bruce is an honors graduate in International Business from the University of Washington, and holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Mark Mitchell
Principal, Technology - Safeguard Scientifics
Mark has more than 15 years of experience in early and growth-stage equity financing, mergers & acquisitions and strategic consulting for technology companies. Mark joined Safeguard in 2005 and is responsible for identifying and evaluating new technology companies for Safeguard and supporting Safeguards existing partner companies.
Prior to joining Safeguard, Mark helped build Wachovia Securities East Coast Technology group, where he focused on M&A and IPO transactions for Internet & software companies. He also previously worked at Broadview International, providing M&A advisory services to companies in the Internet, software and communications infrastructure markets. Earlier in his career, Mark served as a consultant at PTG, a strategy and growth management consultancy, where he provided strategic advice to both Fortune 500 and early-stage technology companies. Mark holds B.A. degrees in Physics and Philosophy from Duke University, and received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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