2024 ACG ASA October 9th lunch

Event Details

When:

October 9, 2024 11:30 AM - 1 PM CDT

Where:

Location Name

Westwood Country Club

Location Address

3808 West 35th Street
Austin, TX 78703
United States

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Overview

Body

Online registration for this event is now closed but walk-ins will be welcome and may pay at the door: ACG Member Rate @ $60./Non-Member Rate @ $95.

Join us on Wednesday, October 9th for our monthly lunch in Austin @ Westwood Country Club, 11:30AM-1PM. Our featured speaker will be Pete Smith, CEO of Aviat Networks. The sponsor of this lunch will be Precision Financial Insights.

Until 5PM on Wed. October 2nd: ACG Member Rate @ $50./Non-Member Rate @ $85. Late Registration Rates begin @ 5:01PM on Wed. Oct. 2nd thru 5PM on Tue. Oct. 8th (or until we sell out): ACG Member Rate @ $60./Non-Member Rate @ $95.

Location: Westwood Country Club, located @ 3808 West 35th Street, Austin, 78703. Free parking is limited, but available onsite & our lunch will be in Club’s building by the pool. We recommend arriving early for best parking availability.

Attire: Business or Business Casual.

Dietary Restrictions - While some dietary restrictions are based on medical conditions, allergies, or religious convictions that must be strictly observed, others may be based on personal preferences. It's important to differentiate between the two to ensure we address everyone's needs appropriately. Please ensure any dietary requests that are submitted are based on restrictions and not preferences.

Cancellation Policy – Cancellations received in writing to acgasa@acg.org by 5PM on Wednesday, October 2nd will receive a full refund. There are no refunds for cancellations received after 5PM on Wed. Oct. 2nd. If you are an ACG Member unable to attend, you can transfer your registration to another person for this same event. If the person attending in your place is not an ACG Member, they will need to pay an additional fee to bring them up to the non-member rate to attend.  

ACG Austin/San Antonio reserves the right to fill open seats at the respective event venues once the networking period has passed and the official event programming has begun. In rare instances this could mean that registered attendees arriving late will not have a seat readily available upon their arrival. In these instances ACG Austin/San Antonio will work to accommodate the attendee, and if not able to do so to the attendee's satisfaction, ACG Austin/San Antonio will refund their registration fee.

Your registration for this event acts as an audio/video release and includes your permission for ACG Austin/San Antonio to use your image and comments captured on audio, video or photographic formats while attending the event for marketing and promotional purposes.

If you have questions or need last minute assistance, please email Sara Singer, ACG Austin/San Antonio Chapter Executive @ acgasa@acg.org or send a text to 512-970-0417

Speakers

Pete Smith

Aviat Networks

CEO

An accomplished executive and board member, Pete Smith has been successful in publicly-traded and private equity settings at companies spanning specialty materials, electronics and semiconductors, energy, telecommunications and building materials. Pete’s early career was formed through functional experiences in R&D, operations, M&A, marketing and strategy. This broad base of expertise led to increasingly responsible P&L roles ( >$1B), CEO and board roles, in growth, turn-around and start-up environments.

Board-Level Accomplishments

Pete’s key contributions at the board level have focused on increasing valuation. As the CEO and board member at a PE backed specialty materials company, Pete increased company valuation from $100M to $260M by driving top-line growth and cost discipline, achieving 20% top-line growth and expanding EBITDA margins from 7% to 23%. He navigated Private Equity and Family Ownership to produce a successful exit. In addition, Pete added investors, executed a private placement, and steered the company through debt covenant challenges.

As a board member of a specialty materials private equity backed company, Pete assisted the CEO and board in tripling the value of the company upon exit. As the only independent director, he bridged the communication gap between the first-time CEO and the PE investors and leveraged his network to establish useful commercial links to grow the company.

Currently, as CEO and board member of publicly-traded Aviat Networks, Pete has driven profitable growth and successfully transitioned out of an activist situation and increased institutional ownership from less than 60% to greater than 80%. Share price has increased 4-fold.

Lastly, Pete recently completed a board assignment with Adaptive 3D, an additive manufacturing start-up company with strategic investors including Applied Materials, DSM and Arkema. Pete provided growth and deal advice to the management team and aided a successful exit.

Executive-Level Capability

Pete brings fundamental expertise centered on creating value by aligning customer needs with the features and benefits of product innovation and technology. In addition, Pete has deep experience with operational excellence, M&A (including public offers), team building, strategy and marketing. This combination creates a platform to drive enterprise value and offer perspective to boards and CEO’s in a variety of industries and business cycles.

Background

Pete completed B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in materials science at Rutgers University. Early in his career, he realized that technology, innovation, customer needs and business growth were linked. As a result, Pete completed an MBA at Arizona State University. Pete enjoys reading, sports and family.

Hosted by: ACG

Chapter

Austin/San Antonio