A Letter from the President January

January 13, 2021

Dear Fellow ACG Member:

First, I would like to take a moment and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021. Twenty twenty started, as most prior years, with a sense of optimism and economic prosperity, but before the first quarter ended, COVID-19 caught the world by surprise and turned both our professional and our personal lives upside down. Now with the vaccines here and more therapies on the near horizon, it is clear that this too shall pass and the world will move beyond this difficult time. However, it is clear that the future will never look exactly like it has in the past.

We’ve all been faced with challenges over the past year, but I also believe most of us have been able to overcome them and, in some cases, have risen above. With the start of a new year we need to ask ourselves: What are the lessons learned? What have I achieved? What new opportunities have presented themselves to me? With these in mind, we can establish new goals and implement the behaviors learned that will help us be successful in 2021 and beyond. As a result, I am optimistic about what the upcoming year has in store.

At ACG Arizona, we have also worked to turn those challenges into opportunities. We are connecting with our members and other professionals in the M&A field in new and innovative ways, and will continue to do so in the first half of 2021.

ACG Arizona is developing dynamic programs for the first part of this year designed to educate, inform, and engage you with other professionals in the middle market:

Our monthly meetings will focus on providing exceptional content and networking opportunities
Our Women in Business and Leadership and our Young Dealmakers groups will help women and young professionals expand their reach
Our ACG Arizona “M&A 101” series is helping young professionals increase their knowledge of the industry
Our “Cup of Coffee” series will provide a quick and easy way to stay in touch with the M&A market, the local economy, and impact to local businesses
And if the public health environment allows for it, we’ll have smaller, outdoor in-person gatherings designed to provide safe, socially distanced opportunities to connect with other professionals

Combine our local programming with the exceptional benefits ACG Global provides our members, and it’s clear that there’s never been a better time to be an ACG Arizona member.

I look forward to seeing you in person later this year, but in the meantime, I encourage you to stay connected with ACG Arizona virtually through one of our upcoming events. You can see the full schedule at www.acg.org/arizona.

Thank you for your support of ACG Arizona, and again, happy new year!

Cordially,

Elise Thorpe

Chapter President