Private equity leaders and operators are navigating a more complex environment than any point in the last decade. In this opening conversation, we’ll explore how sponsors are reading the year ahead and how CEOs should be thinking about capital allocation, leadership decisions, and value creation when timelines, expectations, and markets are under pressure. Expect a candid discussion that sets the context for the decisions PE-backed leaders will be making through the end of 2026 and into the new year.
Chair and CEO, Bank of America
Stepping outside the four walls of your business is often the hardest—and most valuable—thing to do. This session cuts through macro noise to focus on the economic and capital market signals that actually affect PE-backed companies: rates, refinancing risk, exit windows, and second-order effects that show up in operations before they appear in forecasts.
Chairman & CEO, Charter Next Generation
President & CEO, Melinta Therapeutics
Partner & Managing Director, AlixPartners
In volatile markets, value creation isn’t just about growth—it’s about durability. This session will explore what truly protects competitive advantage in private equity–backed and middle-market companies. We’ll explore how advantages such as pricing power, customer stickiness, workforce capabilities, and operational resilience hold up under pressure—and how strategic risks, from cyber to talent to regulatory change, can quietly erode them. The discussion will connect strategy and risk in a practical way, helping leaders identify which advantages truly protect downside risk, which are more fragile than they appear, and how PE-backed CEOs can pressure-test competitive positioning as part of value creation and exit readiness.
Managing Partner, Aquitaine Capital
Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Standard General
CEO, Equitable Capital
In this discussion, CEOs and private equity partners will debate how value creation expectations are shifting in today’s environment. We’ll surface real tensions around growth versus margin, speed versus stability, and investment versus discipline—exploring where CEO–sponsor alignment most often breaks down and how tradeoffs get made when conditions change mid-hold.
The goal is not consensus, but clarity—equipping participants with sharper questions and perspectives to carry into peer discussions that follow.
Managing Partner, Aquitaine Capital
Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Standard General
CEO, Equitable Capital
Lunch will be structured around small-group discussions with peers facing similar leadership and ownership dynamics. Peer groups will be organized by business context to encourage candid conversation and comparison of approaches, rather than surface-level networking.
Private equity continues to lean into equity incentives as a way to align the growth and profitability interests of the sponsor and PortCo management team. Join Carta for a deep dive into the types of equity incentives that PE sponsors are issuing to PortCo management teams by leveraging our data for 40,000+ PE and VC backed companies.
Insights Manager, Carta
In the high-stakes world of portfolio company leadership, talent decisions often raise the toughest and least straightforward questions. This roundtable invites CEOs to explore the unknowns shaping their people strategies today: How do you foster leadership steadiness through transitions? What signals that it’s time to evolve your executive team or stay the course? Whether you’re integrating new C-level talent into legacy cultures, navigating a founder-to-professional CEO shift, or structuring incentive plans amid private equity dealmaking, you’re not alone in confronting these challenges. Connect with fellow leaders on pressing issues, emerging strategies, and the human dynamics at the core of value creation.
Managing Partner, JM Search
Managing Partner, JM Search
In today’s volatile economic landscape, CEOs must act decisively to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and position their companies for sustainable growth. The real game-changers for mid-market companies lie in accessible, high-impact tools that deliver results NOW. This dynamic session will unveil a practical playbook for leveraging cutting-edge technologies to optimize operations, streamline costs, and outpace the competition.
Key takeaways include:
Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal
Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal
These interactive workshops are designed for peer discussion and practical problem-solving. Each session will focus on a specific challenge PE-backed leaders face today, with guided discussion and real-world examples drawn from participant experience.
Workshop topics may include:
Private equity transactions present unique challenges and opportunities for management teams. This roundtable will delve into critical considerations for executives, focusing on compensation structures, rollover equity and upside equity participation through incentive arrangements. Engage with your peers in a candid discussion about negotiation strategies, timing, and the nuances that distinguish management’s role and needs in these deals. You’ll gain actionable insights to advocate effectively for your interests and align with investor expectations in the evolving private equity landscape.
Partner of Morgan Lewis
Partner of Morgan Lewis
Partner of Morgan Lewis
This deep dive discussion will allow the audience to join in on the conversation and touch on the below:
Partner and Board Member, Simon-Kucher
PE ownership changes the clock and the playbook. In this roundtable, we’ll pressure-test planning around five dynamics that matter most:
Bring live issues—you’ll leave with a sharper 12–18 month plan and peer-tested guardrails for execution.
CEO, Chief Executive Group
Participants will select a second topic and continue the conversation with a different peer group, allowing for deeper perspective and cross-pollination of ideas across industries.
Private equity transactions present unique challenges and opportunities for management teams. This roundtable will delve into critical considerations for executives, focusing on compensation structures, rollover equity and upside equity participation through incentive arrangements. Engage with your peers in a candid discussion about negotiation strategies, timing, and the nuances that distinguish management’s role and needs in these deals. You’ll gain actionable insights to advocate effectively for your interests and align with investor expectations in the evolving private equity landscape.
Partner of Morgan Lewis
Partner of Morgan Lewis
Partner of Morgan Lewis
This deep dive discussion will allow the audience to join in on the conversation and touch on the below:
Partner and Board Member, Simon-Kucher
PE ownership changes the clock and the playbook. In this roundtable, we’ll pressure-test planning around five dynamics that matter most:
Bring live issues—you’ll leave with a sharper 12–18 month plan and peer-tested guardrails for execution.
CEO, Chief Executive Group
In private equity–backed companies, value creation rarely breaks down because leaders lack ambition or insight. It breaks down because leadership teams misread signals, move too slowly, or fail to align around what actually matters as pressure mounts.
Drawing on decades of experience working with PE-backed CEOs and boards, Ted Bililies will examine how high-performing leadership teams operate differently—and how small misalignments quietly erode value over time. Using real-world examples, the session will explore how leaders interpret performance signals, decide where to intervene, and distinguish between noise and true early warnings across the life of an investment. We’ll look at the leadership system as a whole—how decisions get made, how priorities are reinforced, and how execution either accelerates or stalls when stakes are highest.
Managing Director and Global Practice Leader, Global Transaction Advisory, Alvarez & Marsal
Running a business at scale fundamentally changes how leaders see risk, competition, capital, and time. Yet many mid-market CEOs continue to apply decision frameworks that worked earlier in their careers—without realizing where those instincts begin to break down.
In this closing conversation, a CEO who has led at significant scale will share how perspectives shift as organizations grow larger and more complex. The discussion will examine the assumptions mid-market leaders most often get wrong—from overconfidence in internal data to underestimating external forces, misjudging decision speed, and confusing activity with progress.
This session will challenge how you think about leadership, risk, and value creation as the stakes rise—and leave you with a sharper sense of the game you’re really playing.
Global Head of Transformative Leadership practice and Managing Director, AlixPartners
Businesses today are hyper-focused on data. But the true value of information lies in its effective extraction and application. Based on his extensive experience as former Chief Marketing Officer at Marketo and now advising portfolio companies in his role as Senior Vice President at Warburg Pincus, Sanjay Dholakia understands the challenges leaders face in harnessing internal data for strategic advantage.
Sanjay will provide tips to help shift your organization’s data approach from top-down to bottom-up. He will show you how to unearth critical market-focused information embedded within your systems to enhance capital allocation decisions, refocus sales strategies to your biggest opportunities and gain a clearer, more detailed understanding of your business operations. Don’t miss the opportunity to unlock your company data’s potential and drive tangible value creation.
Senior Vice President, Warburg Pincus
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.