Mergermarket Private Equity Forum Austin 2023
Mergermarket's brand-new event for the American private equity community!
Four Seasons Hotel, Austin
04
Oct
Driving value creation capabilities through uncertain times: rewriting the playbook
Higher cost of capital, longer holding periods for PE portfolio companies and increasing interest rates are just a few issues that have led fund managers to place an increased emphasis on value creation and operational improvements in a bid to boost returns. This session will take a behind the scenes look at a GP’s value creation playbook and discuss best practices, how GPs can best position companies to ride out a downturn, and the importance of sector specialization.
- Given the uncertain outlook, how are GPs approaching supporting portfolio companies differently, and what should they prioritize?
- Revisiting the playbook: what are some new approaches GPs have adopted to drive value creation?
- How do you ensure that the value creation discussion gets buy-in from fund management teams and portfolio companies?
- Digital transformation in value creation: how are PE firms incorporating data and AI tools to enhance operations?
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SpeakersJohn Kaercher Partner KIRKLAND & ELLIS
John Block CEO UNITY PARTNERS
Bob Morse Co-Founder and Managing Director STRATTAM CAPITAL
Carl Press Partner THOMA BRAVO
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John Kaercher is a mergers & acquisitions and private equity partner in the Austin office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. John provides ongoing representation to corporate clients on complex transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, SPACs, private equity and public and private securities offerings, with a particular focus on the technology, media, telecommunications and energy sectors (including oil and gas, power, renewables, and energy transition).
John forms long-lasting relationships with his clients and is routinely called upon to lead complicated transactions on expedited timelines. In addition, John frequents the speaker circuits, regularly participating on panels or providing insights on topical matters.
John Block is the Co-Founder and CEO of Unity Partners, a Principles-based private equity firm that partners investors and operators to Build Better Together, measured by the economic surplus created and shared with all stakeholders. John established the firm’s Partner & Propel strategy which focuses on identifying opportunities to Partner with ambitious leaders in services and software markets to accelerate growth, unlock the benefits of platform scale through mergers and acquisitions and Propel value acceleration through investments in people, processes and operational levers.
Prior to founding Unity Partners, John most recently was a Partner at HGGC with board seats on over ten services and software companies during his tenure on the investment team. Prior to joining HGGC in 2010, John started his career at Bain & Company.
John received an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.
Bob Morse
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Bob founded Strattam Capital in 2013 along with Adrian Polak, and he serves as Managing Partner.
He is currently director of Action Title Research, Affinaquest, CloudHesive, Contegix, and Trax Group. Previously, Bob was a Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Oak Hill Capital Partners. He also worked at GCC Investments, a growth private equity firm based in Boston, and at Morgan Stanley.
Bob attended Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude with a B.S.E., and Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his M.B.A. and was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Carl Press is a Partner on the Explore team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2015 as a Vice President. Today, Carl is responsible for co-leading the firm’s Explore platform, which focuses on investing in high growth lower middle-market software and technology companies. Previously, he was a Senior Associate at HighBar Partners, an Associate in the Special Situations Group at Oaktree Capital Management, and an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank. GrowthCap named Carl to its list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors for 2021. Carl holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a BS with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.