Value Creation Panel: How the best owners create value for companies (PE and Strategics)

Brand name private equity firms take participants through the journey have how they created the best outcomes for their portfolio companies.
 

SPEAKERS:

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Richard Lawson is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HGGC. Based in Palo Alto, California, HGGC is a leading private equity firm with over $4.3 billion in cumulative capital commitments and oversees portfolio companies that employ more than 65,000 employees globally. Over its history, HGGC has completed platform investments, add-on acquisitions, recapitalizations and liquidity events with an aggregate transaction value of $25 billion. Mr. Lawson has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its inception and directs HGGC’s firm governance, investment decisions and investor relations.

Mr. Lawson currently serves or has served as a director or chairman on the boards of HGGC’s portfolio companies, including BIG, Monotype, AMI, Mi9, RPX, HelpSystems, IDERA, Denodo, Nutraceutical, Aventri, Davies Group, Integrity, FPX, Selligent, Dealer-FX, Dynata, Serena Software, AutoAlert, MyWebGrocer, hybris Software, Innovative Interfaces and Sunquest Information Systems.

Mr. Lawson also serves as a director, chairman emeritus or trustee of several philanthropic and cultural institutions including the Capital Impact Foundation, San Francisco Zoo, Wasatch Adaptive Sports and the Forever Young Foundation, the organization that is a primary benefactor of HGGC's carried interest proceeds used to support extensive philanthropic work in children's causes around the world.

Prior to leading HGGC, Mr. Lawson established predecessor private equity funds Huntsman Gay Capital Partners in 2007 with industrialist Jon M. Huntsman and Robert C. Gay, as well as Sorenson Capital in 2002 with medical products pioneer James LeVoy Sorenson.  Mr. Lawson also worked at Morgan Stanley in its mergers and acquisitions department and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of enterprise software company Found, Inc.
 

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Laurence Lederer is a Senior Managing Director and Member of the Investment Committee at Branford Castle Partners.  His responsibilities include sourcing and evaluating acquisition opportunities as well as conducting due diligence and oversight of Branford Castle Fund investments.  He is a board member of Earthlite Massage Tables, Vitrek and Drew Foam. Prior to joining Branford Castle, Laurence founded Rubicon Associates, an independent sponsor, where he invested in and took on senior operating roles in small, private companies. Prior to that, Laurence was a Principal at ACG Capital, where he sourced, evaluated and executed private equity investments for a family office. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley in New York and Singapore, and at Castle Harlan, the New York-based private equity firm.  Mr. Lederer received a B.A. from Carleton College and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of Riverdale Country School and the City Parks Foundation.

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Mark Jrolf founded New Heritage Capital in 2006 and has been investing private equity in founder-owned, lower middle market businesses for 26 years. With experience in healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, consumer and business services deals, Mark leads the firm’s investment teams.

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James Rosener focuses his practice on domestic and international transactions and corporate finance. He advises private equity funds and corporations pursuing growth in the U.S. and throughout the world, including Europe, Latin America and Asia. His clients are involved in a variety of sectors and subsectors such as fintech, software, software-enabled services, health care and life sciences, business services, industrial, and manufacturing.

Jim structures and negotiates major transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, platform and follow-on acquisitions; distressed buyouts, corporate carve-outs and restructurings. He represents U.S.-based companies in transactions throughout the world, and is particularly experienced in the United Kingdom, Europe, India and China. Companies based in Europe, India, South America and Asia rely on Jim’s guidance through mergers and acquisitions, financing and licensing transactions with domestic implications. He also works with management-led groups in the acquisition of businesses from divesting corporations.

Jim also advises corporations and financial institutions on all aspects of domestic and international public offerings and other capital markets transactions. He represents domestic and foreign issuers in public offerings in U.S. and foreign listings,  venture and mezzanine capital raising, and traditional bank financing transactions. His clients also include issuers and bondholder groups in debt restructuring, recapitalization and work-outs. Jim regularly serves as international legal counsel to issuers and underwriters on off-shore public offerings in India, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Jim is a leader in the international business and legal communities, and a well-known advocate for expanding cross-border economic ties. He is founder and president of the European American Chamber of Commerce in New York and co-founder of its Paris-based chapter. He has served as president of the Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats / International Association of Lawyers (UIA) since 2016.

Jim has decades of experience as a member of the board of directors of numerous companies, including several with international operations. He is president and a board member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, and is active in the Association for Corporate Growth, whose New York chapter named Jim “Lawyer of the Year” in 2015.

Long active in charitable and community matters, Jim is also founder and chairman of the board of the American Battle Monuments Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to augment and expand the work of the American Battle Monuments Commission, an independent U.S. agency that operates 26 cemeteries and 29 memorials, monuments and markers in 16 countries commemorating the U.S. armed forces.