James Carmichael is a Managing Director at American Securities where he is responsible for managing deal origination and relationship management activities. In this capacity, James oversees M&A activities across American Securities’ portfolio companies as well as managing the relationships with intermediaries and investment banking firms.
Prior to joining American Securities, James was a Director in the Global Consumer Products and Retail Group with Deutsche Bank Securities. Prior to Deutsche Bank, James was a Vice President with UBS Investment Bank. During his 12 years of investment banking, James executed over $100 billion of mergers & acquisitions, equity capital markets and leverage finance transactions. He began his career as an Analyst with Fonterra Co-Operative Group in its Corporate Finance group in Auckland, New Zealand.
James received a BSc in Mathematics and Finance from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.
David joined Solebury Capital in 2007 after a 16 year career at Goldman Sachs in the Equity Capital Markets Group. Over the course of his career, he has led more than 500 equity IPOs, follow-ons, block trades, and private placements – in the U.S. market as well as globally, particularly in Latin America. At Goldman Sachs, David was a deal captain in multiple sectors, a lead financial services banker, and a leader in the structuring and execution of landmark transactions such as the MetLife, Prudential, CIT, Intercontinental Exchange, Principal, Stancorp and Anthem IPOs. At Solebury, he has been the advisor on multiple IPOs including Avantor, Vantiv, Five Below, Artisan Partners and Ping Identity.
Earlier in his career, David was a consultant at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a staff member for New Jersey Governors Tom Kean and Jon Corzine. David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College with a B.A. in Economics and received a M.A. in International Economics from The Johns Hopkins University. He also received a certificate in European Studies from The Johns Hopkins Bologna (Italy) Center.
Jonathan Haas leads Clarion’s Healthcare and Business Services groups.
He joined the firm in 2000 having worked earlier in the investment banking group at Credit Suisse First Boston and in management consulting at A.T. Kearney, Inc. Jon currently serves on the board of Harris & Harris and he previously served on the board of directors of Moravia, HROI, Strategic Outsourcing Inc, Reliant, and Ametros. Jon graduated from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management with an MBA in 1998 and from Dartmouth College with a BA in 1993. He is a member of the Young President’s Organization.
Amy Kadomatsu is the Chief Executive Officer of COMPLY. As a global market leader in regulatory compliance solutions, COMPLY combines the power of regulatory technology, services and education to empower Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) and compliance professionals to easily navigate the regulatory landscape. Under Amy’s stewardship, COMPLY attracted a $120m investment from K1 Investment Management in 2021 alongside prior investor Vista Equity Partners and has completed three subsequent acquisitions. Amy has long served the financial services industry. Prior to joining COMPLY, Amy was the President of ROKO Labs, a Managing Director at S&P Global, and the Chief Product Officer at TheMarkets.com, which Capital IQ acquired.
One of the most experienced and respected figures in the world of global private equity, Chip Kaye will bring his unequalled perspective on what this moment requires from leaders in PE-backed businesses. He started his career at Warburg Pincus in 1986 and for the past two decades has served as the firm’s CEO. Chip led Warburg Pincus’ entry into Asia in 1994, building one of the first global private equity firms to enter the region. He has continued the firm’s long-standing reputation as a growth investor, establishing Warburg Pincus as a strong partner for management teams at all stages of development across industries and geographies.
Tom Kemp joined Northstar Travel Group in January 2009. He has a unique combination of experience as a senior operating executive and private equity investor in business-to-business information, events, and media. Tom has provided the strategic vision and leadership to transform Northstar to the leading high growth, multiplatform, information, marketing solutions and e-commerce Company serving the global travel industry.
In 2008, Kemp founded Oakstreet Media, a company formed to invest in and acquire lower-middle market business-to-business media and information companies. From 2004 to 2008, Tom was a Managing Director at Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a leading private equity firm investing in the media and communications industry. Prior to VSS, he was the Chairman and CEO of Penton Media Inc., an NYSE listed public company and one of the largest business-to-business information companies in the U.S. Prior to Penton, Tom was President and COO of Miller Freeman Inc. a market-leading business to-business information, events and media company headquartered in San Francisco.
Kemp has extensive experience in sourcing, negotiating, closing, and integrating more than 100 transactions in his career as well as successful exits. Kemp has experience as a public company CEO including successful execution of equity, high yield bond, and senior secured debt offerings.
Tom is currently a board member of SISO, The Society of Show Operators, the leading global association for event and exhibition for-profit producers. He was recently a board member of Destinations International, the global association for destinations and CVBs, as well as Connectiv, the association for B-to-B marketing services and information providers. Tom has previously served on the boards of several business media companies and industry associations, including American Business Media, SIIA, and BPA International. In June 2010, Tom was honored as the CEO Top Innovator in business publishing by BtoB Magazine. Kemp was honored by American Business Media as the 2014 McAllister Top Management Fellow. Kemp was named a C-Level Visionary by the 2015 Folio: 100 Honorees. Tom was inducted into the B-to-B Media Hall of Fame in February 2023.
Tom received his BA with honors from Amherst College; he lives with his family in Mill Valley, California.
Vikram Mahidhar is Data & Digital Transformation Operating Partner within the Apollo Portfolio Performance Solutions (APPS) group at Apollo, where he leads the Data, Analytics, and Digital team. Prior to joining, Vikram held leadership positions at Genpact, where he led global digital transformation business across industry verticals and created its Artificial Intelligence Business. Previously, Vikram was an entrepreneur, building AI solutions business at RAGE Frameworks that was acquired by Genpact. Before that, Vikram was with Deloitte in various leadership roles.
Marshall Phelps currently serves as Managing Director, Business Services on the Private Equity Investment Team. Prior to joining the firm, Marshall was Managing Director and senior member of the Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment group at Lazard.
Marshall’s interests outside of work include tennis, live music, and outdoor adventures.
Paul Aversano is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal and the Global Practice Leader of the firm’s Global Transaction Advisory Group. For over 25 years, Mr. Aversano has specialized in leading both buy-side and sell-side financial and accounting due diligence projects for complex public and private company transactions, as well as transactions in the capital markets.
Mr. Aversano works to deliver the firm’s services to clients not only in North America but throughout Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and Latin America as well. He leads the group’s efforts in the cross-border delivery of services to private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds and family offices as well as to corporate and strategic buyers around the world across a wide-spectrum of industries. Mr. Aversano specializes in assessing quality of earnings and GAAP accounting, providing accounting and transaction structuring advice for leveraged buyouts as well as purchase accounting and SEC reporting.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Aversano was a Partner and Director of Middle Market Private Equity with Ernst & Young in New York. In this role, he led financial accounting due diligence projects for private equity investor groups, and the development and coordination of the firm’s go-to-market and service delivery strategies focused on the private equity market. Previously, Mr. Aversano was with Arthur Andersen’s Transaction Advisory Services and Audit practices in New York.
Mr. Aversano earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University, School of Management. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York, and is an active member of the American Institute of CPAs, the New York State Society of CPAs and is also a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Answer the Call (New York Police & Fire Widows’ & Children’s Benefit Fund) and PowerPlay NYC and is a former board member of Youth I.N.C (Improving Non-Profits for Children), the Audit Committee of the Manhasset School Board of Education and the Alumni Association Board of Directors of Binghamton University. In 2019, Mr. Aversano was also the recipient of the B. Jean Fairbairn Access Award in recognition of his efforts and contributions in improving the services and access for students with disabilities at Binghamton University.
In 2015 Mr. Aversano was named the “Service Professional of the Year” by The M&A Advisor and was formerly a finalist of The M&A Advisor’s 40 Under 40 Award in recognition of outstanding achievements in the M&A and financial industry. Mr. Aversano is a regular contributor to FOX Business Network, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, TD Ameritrade Network and many other broadcast and print media outlets, and is a frequent guest lecturer at industry conferences and universities.
Ted Bililies is an internationally recognized expert on leadership and organization development and the Chief Talent Officer of AlixPartners. Ted launched the first commercial practice in leadership and human capital at AlixPartners which advises investors, CEOs, and boards on the selection and development of leaders and the alignment of culture for maximum and sustainable value creation. Ted’s career spans three decades as a psychologist, human resources executive, management consultant, and executive coach. He holds academic degrees from Loyola University of Chicago and Harvard University. Ted taught at Harvard University for many years, is currently on the Executive Education faculty of the Harvard Business School and is a board member of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. Ted has helped leaders around the world achieve enduring change in their organizations, their teams, and themselves by expanding their psychological, behavioral and organizational insights into leadership.
Dave Clement is a Partner in Simon-Kucher’s New York office, where he has supported top-line growth strategy design and implementation for clients in a variety of industries, including industrial services, professional services, manufacturing and franchise organizations for the past 10+ years.
Dave’s areas of expertise include customer segmentation, price setting, sales implementation and customer incentive programs. He is a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, Simon Business School and other MBA programs, regularly speaks at industry and business association events and authors content focused on customer segmentation, product and service offering, and go-to-market strategies.
Dave is a native of Philadelphia and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown University, where he was a three-year varsity football letterman.
Bhavin is a Partner in Simon-Kucher’s North American B2B practice based in New York City. For the past 18 years, Bhavin has supported clients in boosting their top line growth by developing and implementing growth strategies, value-oriented pricing concepts, and designing programs that optimize sales effectiveness.
Bhavin has deep expertise in M&A growth strategy, sales force effectiveness, pricing strategy, and process optimization. Bhavin has successfully led 15 pre-deal merger integration projects. He has guided management teams through large, complex scale transformations. He has served a broad base of B2B clients, and understands the complex environment within which B2B companies and intermediaries transact.
He has coached management teams of leading companies in the space to transform their businesses and increase their profitability by formulating business unit strategy, simplifying product portfolios, optimizing channels, restructuring list prices and optimizing discounts across project quoted work, and buying programs. He also has experience in digital topics, including the application of recurring revenue models, and two-sided marketplaces.
Prior to joining Simon-Kucher, Bhavin worked at a consultancy, where his primary focus was on pre-deal and integration planning for Mergers and Acquisitions. He is a frequent guest lecturer on pricing and marketing topics for full time MBA programs at Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School. He graduated with degrees in Economics and Finance from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia (USA).
Rob Haisch serves as a Partner at A&M Capital. A&M Capital is a multi-strategy private equity investment firm with over $4.5 billion in assets under management across 6 funds and 4 investment strategies. Since 2001, Mr. Haisch has led or co-led middle-market transactions across a variety of structures, including leveraged buyouts, mergers, corporate carve-outs, family/founder capital solutions, buy and builds, leveraged recapitalizations and growth equity investments.
His primary areas of industry focus have included healthcare services, tech-enabled services and environmental services. Mr. Haisch previously served as Principal at Charterhouse Equity Partners, Senior Associate at North Castle Partners and Analyst in the Syndicated / Leveraged Finance Investment Banking group of J.P. Morgan Securities. Mr. Haisch is currently a Board of Director member of Cardio Management Services (ie Nevada Heart & Vascular), Med-Metrix, PatientCare EMS, TalusPay and United Musculoskeletal Partners. Mr. Haisch is a member of YPO Metro and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.
Robert H. McCooey, Jr. is Vice Chairman, responsible for leading business development for new listings in both Latin America and Asia Pacific, as well as overseeing relationship management with companies throughout their corporate lifecycle. He also works closely with premier financial sponsors globally to optimize and integrate interactions across Nasdaq’s Corporate Services teams, ensuring long-term partnerships and relationships.
During his 15-year tenure at Nasdaq, Robert has held a number of key roles across New Listings and the Capital Markets Group, as well as building what is Nasdaq’s highly successful listings franchises in APAC and Latin America.
Prior to joining Nasdaq in 2006, Robert founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Griswold Company, a brokerage firm, from 1988 until 2006. He was a member of the New York Stock Exchange Board of Executives from 2003-2006. Robert served on the NYSE’s Group Market Performance Committee, was chairman of the NYSE’s Technology and Planning Oversight Committee and served on the Boards of the NYSE Foundation, the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC) and the Committee for Review, part of NYSE Regulation. He is a member of the National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP).
Robert is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
Kevin is a mold-breaking entrepreneur, executive search leader, Forbes contributor, and co-founder and managing partner of Acertitude, the executive search firm unleashing human potential for global investment firms and their portfolio companies.
Kevin’s 25-year career in search has earned him the role of trusted advisor to many of the world’s top private equity executives, board members, CEOs, and portfolio company leaders. He is passionate about solving significant leadership challenges to help businesses transform, grow, and restructure. He is an expert in the private equity, consumer, and industrial sectors, having led over 2,000 executive searches and built two firms ranked on the renowned Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies.
Launched in 2015, Acertitude – already a top 25 global firm – represents a new era in executive searchand leadership consulting and continues to expand rapidly. The firm was also recently recognized amongst Forbes’ Best Executive Recruitment Firms, Hunt Scanlon’s Top PE Recruiting Firms in 2022, and was recently honored on Hunt Scanlon’s PE Power 100 Ranking for the fifth consecutive year.
Acertitude’s success builds on Kevin’s leadership of search firm O’Neill Consulting, which he founded in 1996, specialized in recruiting upper- and middle-management talent across the business services, consumer, industrial, and private equity sectors. Before that, Kevin spent his early career with investment banks Merrill Lynch and Kidder and Peabody & Co, as well as serving as a top client partner with a major search firm in Philadelphia. He earned a B.A. in Political Science from Marietta College.
Kevin is a board member of Avishkar Holdings, a biotech investment firm, and was a board member and founder of Cargenix, a clinicalstage CAR-t cell immunotherapy company, which was sold to a strategic buyer.
Active in public service, Kevin serves as trustee of his alma-mater Marietta College, trustee of the Bryant University College of Business Deans Council, and director on the board of the World War II Foundation. Previously, Kevin served as regional Chairman of the Board for the American Heart Association and the YMCA of Greater Providence.
Kevin’s thinking on leadership and talent has been covered by Forbes, Entrepreneur, Chief Executive, CEOWORLD Magazine, Inc. Magazine, LEADERS Magazine, PE Hub, and many more.
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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.
