Speakers

Babette has more than thirty years of direct equity investing experience. Before co-founding Linx, she was a Senior Managing Director of Bradford Ventures Ltd., a private equity fund focused on investing in middle-market manufacturing and distribution companies.

EDUCATION

M.B.A. from Columbia University; A.B. from Princeton University.

BOARD AFFILIATIONS

Babette is currently Chairman of the Board of Northeastern Bus Rebuilders and is a member of the Board of Carolina Precision Technologies, Clover Telecom, and Gullett & Associates.  Babette is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Speech School and of the Committee of 200. She serves on the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center. Babette is a Lifetime Trustee of the Atlanta Botanical Garden and has served as Trustee of several other nonprofit organizations.

Babette previously served as Chairman of the Board of several private companies including Gullet & Associates, Carolina Precision Technologies, Metaltech Service Center, Stafford Logistics, and Snowden Pencer. She has served as Chairman or Director of over 30 private and public companies.

Colby W. Smith is a partner in the Corporate, Business and Transactions Practice of Morgan Lewis, resident in the Philadelphia Office.  He counsels financial and strategic clients in business law matters, with an emphasis on public and private merger and acquisition transactions.. He also represents private equity funds and seed, institutional and strategic investors in investment and portfolio company transactions. Colby represents clients in a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, aerospace and defense, construction and consulting services, retail and consumer products.

Colby was named a 2017, 2018 and 2019 Acritas Star™, a 2015 40 Under 40 by The M&A Advisor and a 2014 Lawyer on the Fast Track by The Legal Intelligencer. He received the 2013 Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) New York Champion’s Award for Cross-Border Deal of the Year (more than $250 million).

He serves as chair of the Philadelphia office Pro Bono Committee.

Linnea joined PDI in 2018 and brings over 15 years of global experience spanning operations, investing, strategy and corporate development. Linnea oversees all product management and professional services operations and is responsible for developing and executing strategies and offerings to drive growth and competitive positioning across global markets.

Prior to joining PDI, Linnea served as an independent adviser to several private equity firms and management teams. She also spent several years in operating roles with Radiant Systems, as a venture capitalist with Arcapita and most recently served as head of Strategy and Corporate Development for NCR Corporation. Linnea is actively involved in the Atlanta community and serves on the Board of Directors for Venture Atlanta and re:Imagine/ATL.

In 2012, Andrea co-founded CRH Healthcare, a Southeastern-focused urgent care business that currently has 40 centers in three states.  As CFO, Andrea brings significant corporate finance experience to advise the clinic and regional levels on capital efficient operations. Her substantial M&A expertise also enables CRH to execute best-in-class transactions in accordance with our buy, build, and run strategy. For this, she was a Finalist for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s CFO of the Year in 2015.

Prior to CRH, Andrea was a Director at Arcapita, a Bahrain-based private equity firm with $9 billion in assets under management, and focused on investments in the U.S. healthcare sector, where she served as the Healthcare Sector leader since 2010. While at Arcapita, she served on the Board of Directors of Meridian Surgical Partners (ambulatory surgery centers), PODS, Smart Document Solutions (now CIOX), TLC Health Care Services (home health), Caribou Coffee, Cirrus Aircraft, and Cypress Communications. Prior to joining Arcapita, she was an Analyst at Bowles Hollowell Conner (now part of Wells Fargo Securities). Andrea holds a BS in Analytical Finance, magna cum laude, from Wake Forest University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she graduated with Distinction.

Moderator Tim Ayres joined the founders of Moore Colson CPAs and Advisors in 1985 and brings over 30 years of consulting experience to the clients he advises. He works closely with business owners, CEOs, CFOs, Strategic Investors, Private Equity & Mezzanine Funds, and the Banking/Finance Community to provide an extensive array of transaction-related due diligence, transition management and consulting services.

As the leader of Moore Colson’s Consulting Practice, Tim oversees the firm’s Transaction Advisory, Restructuring, Workout and Turnaround, and Lender Services.  Tim has led and managed over 250 buy-side/sell-side transaction-related engagements in a wide variety of industries including manufacturing, distribution, business services, retail, transportation, construction, healthcare and staffing.

Prior to joining Moore Colson, Tim began his career with the business assurance group of KPMG principally serving closely-held businesses, and then worked with the middle-market lending group of Citizens and Southern National Bank (currently known as Bank of America). 

Tim received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management and a B.S. in Accounting from The University of Alabama. He is involved in numerous industry and non-profit organizations including Trinity Community Ministries and Eagle Ranch.