Private Equity Operators Council Presents: Operators Guide to Optimizing Supply Chain

Chad is a co-founder of Premikati and its current COO and General Counsel.  His career path wound its way through diverse areas such as an R&D engineer for fuel systems technologies, Six Sigma Black belt, an Attorney with Bar Membership in Indiana, VP roles in Procurement and Contract Management for both Large Enterprise and Mid-Market companies, and a few years spent inside SAP Ariba helping to develop the Value Engineering program.  When not working, he can usually be found behind a camera lens, under a car trying to make it go faster, or anywhere good live music is playing.

Dave Venker is a Vice President of Portfolio Operations at HCI Equity Partners, having joined the firm in 2019. He is involved in identifying and executing strategic and operational initiatives at portfolio companies and reviewing new investment opportunities. He brings to the position a blend of experience in middle market private equity and operating roles in industrial businesses. In his time at HCI, Dave has worked to redefine this latest phase of the operations team’s structure and role within the firm, including the development of several programs to benefit portfolio companies. Dave works across all functions to develop and execute value creation plans, and he leads the operations team’s efforts in supply chain and operations.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Venker spent five years at The Jordan Company. Earlier in his career, Mr. Venker held various operational roles at GE and Eaton.

Mr. Venker has a BS degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame.

HCI Equity Partners is a lower middle market private equity firm with approximately $1B in AUM, focused on partnering with family and founder owned distribution, manufacturing and service companies. HCI makes majority investments in businesses within North America in large, fragmented markets. HCI is headquartered in Washington, DC. For more information, please visit our website, www.hciequity.com.

Zain Siddiqui is a Director and the Lead Economist in PwC’s Intelligence practice. His area of specialty includes macroeconomics and finance. He manages a global team of economists and geopolitical strategists that advises stakeholders and clients on the business implications of emerging macro and geopolitical vulnerabilities, and helps them shape business strategy. His research has appeared in books on international economic policy and macroeconomic journals.

Prior to joining PwC Intelligence, Zain provided economic and transfer pricing advisory services to clients within the capital market and banking space. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Utah. While at the University of Utah, Zain worked as a staff economist at the Asian Development Bank. Prior to graduate school, he worked as an associate economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.