Breakfast Breakout - “The Rising Prominence of the Independent Sponsor in a Hypercompetitive Market: Identifying Strategies that Work”

Fact or Myth? Independent sponsors exist today because they cannot raise blind-pool funds. Join us for the answer. Practitioners will also shares insights into how the industry has evolved in recent years. Learn the best practices in deal sourcing, adding value to a transaction, partnering with capital providers, economics, and governance.  Hear about current trends and what the future holds for the independent-sponsor-investing model.

Claudio Calado, Managing Director, Doeren Mayhew Capital Advisors, LLC

Claudio Calado is a Shareholder with Doeren Mayhew and Managing Director of the Investment Bank. From overseeing all stages of the merger and acquisition process, to developing strategic and operational business finance plans through the valuation of a business, Claudio draws on his experience to help clients with their advisory needs.

Throughout his career, Claudio has assisted clients in a wide variety of industry and service sectors with their due diligence activities, optimizing capitalization structures, purchase price allocation for financial accounting and tax, and restructuring and post-merger integration. In addition, he has assisted clients with a multitude of litigation services including calculating damages, analyzing data and evaluating other experts' reports.

Attributed to his prior employment with an international manufacturer, Claudio has gained extensive knowledge in the manufacturing sector. While in this position, he was responsible for managing any mergers and acquisitions, budgeting and forecasting for all of North American operations, managing cash flow and evaluating financing avenues for the operations.

Gretchen Perkins, Partner, Huron Capital

Gretchen is responsible for managing Huron’s business development and investment sourcing activities and is also involved in investor relations. These activities include outreach to deal professionals such as business brokers, investment banks, attorneys, accountants and consultants, and outreach to potential limited partners.

Gretchen has over 30 years’ experience in the finance and business development sectors serving a variety of capital market participants. Prior to joining Huron, Gretchen led the acquisition sourcing efforts at Long Point Capital, a middle market private equity fund. Gretchen also served as Vice President – Business Development for IRN, Inc., a market research firm, and has held senior business development positions at Fleet Capital Corporation and GE Capital Corporation, where she originated and structured senior debt packages for buyouts of middle-market companies.

Gretchen has received numerous awards over her career including Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine Dealmaker of the Year (2015), Private Equity Analyst’s 2017 Women to Watch, multiple year nominations to Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine List of Most Influential Women, and Crain’s Detroit Business Most Influential Women 2016, among others.  

Douglas Song, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Prodos Capital

Mr. Song has a diverse background with over 25 years in principal investments, investment banking and operational experience.  Mr. Song is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Prodos Capital (“PC”), an investment firm focused on investments in the lower middle market.  Prior to PC, Mr. Song was the head of investments and corporate finance for Verus International, a boutique merchant banking firm that was co-founded by Citigroup.  At Verus, Mr. Song led investments in both private and public companies in the emerging growth and middle market.  Prior to Verus, Mr. Song was SVP of Corporate Development at On2 Technologies.  At On2, Mr. Song led all aspects of strategic planning, financial analysis, mergers & acquisitions, financings and the capital markets.  Prior to joining On2, Song was a Managing Director at Bluestone Capital Partners, where he was a senior banker and a manager in that firm's Corporate Finance Department.  At BlueStone, Mr. Song was responsible for the execution of public offerings and private placements as well as merger and acquisition transactions.  Mr. Song was a member of BlueStone's Management Committee and Commitment Committee.  Previously, he held positions as an investment banker at Smith Barney in the Global Energy and Power Group and Chase Manhattan Bank in the Workout and M&A Groups.  During his career as an investment banker, Mr. Song has executed over a billion dollars in public offerings, private placements, cross border mergers and acquisitions, and restructurings transactions.  Mr. Song received a B.S. Degree from the School of Management at Boston University.  

Moderator - Lilies Lanway, Senior Vice President, Accord Financial, Inc.

Lilies Lanway is a member of Accord Financial’s Executive Team.  She joined Accord 18 years ago, and her primary responsibility is business development.  Her core competencies include quickly grasping business concepts, determining business viability, and providing solutions to complex credit requirements.  She has extensive experience working with private-equity firms, investment bankers, and family offices in structuring and recapitalizing underperforming companies as well as structuring acquisition financing across the United States.

Lilies has 26 years of experience in asset-based lending.  Her work experience includes founding a factoring company and personally investing and successfully exiting a wood-utility manufacturing company in the Midwest.  Before that she worked for her family office that invested in apparel manufacturing companies in Asia.  Her responsibilities were products sourcing and securing contract manufacturing from major US buyers. 

Originally from Indonesia, Lilies studied in Indonesia and Singapore before completing her education at the University of Nebraska with a business major.