Mergermarket Private Equity Forum Austin 2023
Mergermarket's brand-new event for the American private equity community!
Four Seasons Hotel, Austin
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David Kushner, CFA, is the Chief Investment Officer of the City of Austin Employees’ Retirement System. Kushner helms the $3 billion pension fund’s investment program, working collaboratively with the Executive Director, Investment Committee, and the investment consultant to guide the strategic investment decisions of the Board.
As an industry veteran, Kushner has spent nearly four decades as an expert in the field of investment management and finance. Before joining COAERS, Kushner served as a founding partner of Global Asset Management Consultants and served as CIO of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA). Prior to that, he spent 10 years as the investment chief of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. Kushner is a two-time member of the CIO’s Power 100 list.
Kushner holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.
Rene Benedetto is a seasoned investment professional with over 25 years of private equity, venture capital, business development, capital raising, and M&A experience. Ms. Benedetto has significant experience in sourcing proprietary opportunities, structuring and negotiating transactions and developing joint ventures with Fortune 1000 brands, and serving as a value-added Board member and advisor to companies in the digital media, travel, technology, software, consumer, and business services sectors. Ms. Benedetto has a successful track record in buyouts, growth equity, and venture capital investing having sourced, structured, and invested in 30+ companies with total transactions valued over $5 billion.
Ms. Benedetto is a Managing Director of Certares Management LLC, a leading investment firm with ~$10 billion of AUM focused on proprietary investments in the travel, hospitality, and related services sectors investing across a family of funds in Private Equity, Credit, and Real Estate., Since joining the firm in 2019, she has led $790 million of investments in Tripadvisor, Pyramid Global Hospitality, and Avia Solutions Group.
Prior to Certares, Ms. Benedetto was a Managing Director of Trivergance, a leading private equity independent sponsor composed of successful entrepreneurs, operators, and investors with a proven track record investing $2.5 billion in capital and incubating companies in the technology, digital media, consumer, and business services sectors. Ms. Benedetto led investments and capital raising and served in senior business development roles for Trivergance portfolio companies and its branded business joint ventures with Fortune 1000 brands.
Prior to Trivergance, Ms. Benedetto was a Principal at Halyard Capital, a middle-market private equity fund focused on media and tech-enabled business services with $600 million of AUM. She was responsible for all aspects of private equity investing as well as leading fundraising efforts for Fund II and ongoing investor relations. Prior to Halyard, Ms. Benedetto was a General Partner at Impact Venture Partners, a technology-focused venture capital fund with $100 million of capital under management, founded by Adam Dell. Prior to Impact, Ms. Benedetto was a Director at CIBC Capital Partners where she focused on software, communications, Internet, and business services investments. Previously, she worked for Bank of America in the Venture Capital and Investment Banking groups and held positions at Bain & Company and Dell Computer.
Ms. Benedetto serves on The University of Texas McCombs School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council and New York for McCombs (NYFM) Executive Council and is an active Member of the Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN). Ms. Benedetto received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania and a B.B.A. in Finance with Highest Honors, from The University of Texas at Austin.
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.
Kaci Boyer is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and a senior member of the private equity investment team. Ms. Boyer focuses on designing and implementing customized private equity portfolios for institutional clients, acting as a program manager and a client investment contact for some of NB Private Equity’s largest custom account mandates. In addition, she is also responsible for evaluating and executing private equity investments and assists with business development activities across the private equity platform. Ms. Boyer joined the Dallas office in 2007 and spent nine months in Neuberger Berman’s Hong Kong office focused on private equity investments throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 2017, the National Association of Investment Companies recognized Ms. Boyer as a Rising Star for outstanding contributions she has made to the private equity industry early in her career. Ms. Boyer received a BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University.
Christopher Britton joined Lazard in 2019 and co-leads our North American Venture and Growth Banking business from Austin, Texas, advising tech led fast growing private companies on their capital raisings.
At Lazard, Christopher has advised on a wide range of transactions across sectors including Smart Pension (fintech), Tessian (cybersecurity), Congenica (health tech), Bulb Energy (consumer / energy), Zymergen (synthetic biology), LumiraDX (health tech) and SystemC (Electronic Health Records) and has strong relationship with investors across the venture and growth asset class.
Prior to joining Lazard, Christopher was at Liberum Capital where he co-led the investment companies team and previously the healthcare team. He has experience advising on a range of corporate transactions including private fundraises, IPOs, and secondary transactions including M&A on the Main Market and AIM and across several different sectors. Selected transactions include the IPOs of Glencore, Infinis, Merian Chrysalis, Game Digital and Shield Therapeutics, secondary fundraises for Shaftesbury and Workspace, and block trades for Elliot Advisers and GI Partners.
Christopher graduated with a first from St John's College, Oxford and is a qualified solicitor, having worked at global law firm Jones Day.
Jewel Chen, JD, CFA, CPA, Private Equity Portfolio Manager, Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation
Jewel is a Private Equity Portfolio Manager at Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation. She leads underwriting and monitoring of primary funds and co-investments across diversified strategies and geographies. Previously, Jewel worked at CalPERS Private Equity, covering large buyout, secondary, coinvestments, and emerging manager strategies.
Previously, Jewel was a real estate attorney and a lead analyst at California State Treasurer’s Office, focusing on multifamily affordable housing developments with private equity investments via syndicated tax credit.
Jewel holds a J.D. cum laude, from University of Minnesota Law School. She received a B.S. with highest distinction from Purdue University Northwest with double major in Finance and Accounting and a minor in Applied Mathematics. Jewel is a licensed attorney, a CFA charterholder, and a CPA.
Jeff is the Managing Partner and Head of Investments at Adams Street. He is responsible for the overall management of the firm and oversees the investment teams’ processes and strategies. Jeff joined Adams Street’s Growth Equity team in 2001 and focuses primarily on growth investments in application software, financial technology and consumer internet.
Prior to joining Adams Street, he served as a Principal for The Parthenon Group, a Boston-based strategy consulting and principal investing firm with Bain Consulting roots.
Jeff is Chairman of both Adams Street’s Portfolio Construction Committee and Executive Committee, and a member of the Growth Equity Investment Committee and New Product Committee.
CURRENT INVESTMENTS
Jeff led the Growth Equity Team’s investments in BoomTown, CBANC Network, Homeward, Millennium Trust, Paylocity (PCTY), Q2 Holdings (QTWO), SnagAJob, and Turnkey (merged with VCSA).
PAST INVESTMENTS
Past Adams Street investments include AMWINS (acquired by New Mountain), Ancestry.com (ACOM), Apto (acquired by BuildOut), ArrowEye, CBeyond (CBEY), Dolex, Gevity HR (GVHR), LogRhythm (acquired by Thoma Bravo), MagicJack (acquired by RILY), MxLogic (acquired by McAfee), Peerless Networks (acquired by Infobip), Setanta, Spiceworks (acquired by Ziff Davis), Stratavia (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Sympoz (acquired by Comcast), T3Media (acquired by VERI), TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster) and Trendkite (acquired by Cision).
Morgan has over 25 years of experience as a venture investor and technology executive. He joined Silverton in 2006 and has sponsored 24 investments and realized 11 acquisitions and two IPO’s.
He currently sits on the boards of Aceable, BILT, Insiteflow, OneDay, Rollick, Self Financial, SourceDay, The Helper Bees, The Zebra, and Wheel. Notable past investments include Alert Media (acq. Vista Equity), Black Locus (acq. The Home Depot), Crimson (acq. Advisory Board), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), Project 44, Trendkite (acq. Cision) and Vacasa (NASDAQ:VCSA).
Prior to Silverton, Morgan worked with FTV Capital in San Francisco, where he focused on growth investments in software and financial technology. Morgan started his career at Ingrian Networks (acquired by SafeNet) and Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive Corp.). Morgan grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and received his BS from Stanford University.
Chirag has over 17 years PE industry experience globally. He is a Senior Portfolio Manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, a ~$80B sovereign endowment with a ~$15B Private Equity portfolio. Prior to joining APFC, Chirag was in PE roles leading co-investments and fund investments at two established institutional investment organizations, DB Private Equity and GE Asset Management. He started his career in investment banking at Citi / Salomon Smith Barney in New York and Singapore. Chirag is also actively engaged in the broader PE community, serving as an advisory board member of the Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance at The University of Texas at Austin and a member of SEO’s Alternative Investments Limited Partner Advisory Council. He holds a BBA and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.
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.
JEFFREY KEAY, Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners, LLC (Boston)
Jeff Keay joined HarbourVest in 1999 and focuses on global secondary investments across a range of transaction types. Jeff is based in Boston and also worked in the Firm’s London office. Jeff is the Chair of the Firm’s Secondary Investment Committee and he currently serves on a number of advisory boards. Prior to joining the Firm, Jeff spent three years at Ernst & Young LLP, where he specialized in the venture capital and financial services industries. His previous experience also includes working at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Jeff received a BA (cum laude) in Economics and Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross in 1996.
Tiffany Kosch is a Managing Partner at CenterGate Capital. Tiffany has over 25 years of investment experience creating value in lower middle market companies. She was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital, where she invested in underperforming lower middle market companies for eight years. Her experience covers a broad range of investment structures and types, among them corporate spin-outs and orphans, turnaround equity and distressed debt. Sectors covered are also broad, including business services, consumer products and manufacturing. Tiffany received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S., cum laude, from Georgetown University.
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.
Charlie Plauche joined S3 Ventures in 2010 and is currently a General Partner. He currently serves on the Boards of S3 portfolio companies Atmosphere, BrainCheck, Genda, HYAS, Interplay Learning, LeanDNA, Prokeep, Stellar, UpEquity, Upkey, and ZSuite Tech.
Previous boards include Alkami Technology (NASDAQ: ALKT), Favor Delivery (acquired by H-E-B Grocery), Kimbia (acquired by GiveGab), Levelset (acquired by Procore), Liveoak Technologies (acquired by DocuSign), OutboundEngine (acquired by Elm Street Technology), Tango Health (acquired by Benefitfocus), and TVA Medical (Observer, acquired by Becton Dickinson).
Charlie received his MBA from the McCombs School at the University of Texas in Austin and his BS in Finance from the University of Mississippi, where he was a Holmes Scholarship recipient and a Mississippi Eminent Scholar.
David Post is a Senior Operating Advisor with EQT Partners. In this role he supports EQT’s
Global Technology Sector Team with investment due diligence, executive recruitment, portfolio
company value creation, and internal operational initiatives. David also serves on the Board of
Directors for Storable, Billtrust, and Parcel2Go.
Prior to joining EQT Partners, David was a multi-time software CEO and served in executive
roles across numerous software companies, including Kibo Commerce, Omnitracs, MRI
Software, and Sunquest Information Systems. In addition, David was previously the President of
VCG, the value creation arm of Vista Equity Partners.
David has a BS in Management Information Systems from Seton Hall University’s Stillman
School of Business and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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.
Scott Ramsower leads the Private Equity Funds Team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS). Through his role at TRS, Scott has oversight responsibilities for the group’s approximately $33 billion private equity fund investment portfolio. In addition, he is a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee and Management Committee, through which he assists in the strategy and development of the overall private equity team and portfolio. Scott is also a member of the ILPA Board of Directors and an ILPA Faculty Member, helping to educate fellow practitioners in the private equity industry.
Prior to joining TRS in 2010, Scott was in the New York office of AlpInvest Partners, a leading private equity investor with over €35 billion in AUM. At AlpInvest, Scott focused on evaluating new private equity fund commitments to various strategies around the globe. Prior to AlpInvest, Scott was an associate in the equity research department of Morgan Stanley. Previously, he also worked in the consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Scott received a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University.
Kathy Reiland is a member of the Investment Committee at Integrum.
Kathy has over thirty years of investment and acquisition experience most recently during her tenure at Standard Industries (“Standard”) and 40 North Management (“40 North”) and Evercore Partners (“Evercore”).
Kathy joined Standard and 40 North in 2016 as Head of Strategy and Development and a member of the executive leadership team. Standard is a privately held global industrial company with a broad array of investments, technologies and holdings including building materials assets and next-generation solar solutions. 40 North, a related investment business of Standard Industries, is a fundamentally based investment platform that takes concentrated, long-term positions across a range of sectors to create value for all stakeholders. During her tenure, Kathy was involved in both public and private investments totaling more than $10 billion in enterprise value and ranging from early to late stage including Braas Monier, W.R. Grace, Clariant, Hover, and Hippo.
Prior to joining Standard, Kathy spent eighteen years as a Senior Managing Director at Evercore, a global independent investment banking advisory firm, and Evercore Capital Partners, Evercore’s private equity platform. During that time, Kathy was a general partner of the private equity funds, and ultimately served as the Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s investment businesses that included private equity, traditional asset management and wealth management. Later, she served as head of Evercore’s international joint ventures in Asia. Kathy was involved in Evercore Capital Partner’s investments in Fidelity Information Services (FIS), Sedgwick, Bollinger, and Causeway Capital. In addition, Kathy was actively involved in Evercore’s diversity and recruiting efforts responsible for launching the Women’s Forum which was designed to establish relationship networks and training to position women for senior leadership roles.
Prior to joining Evercore, Kathy was a buy-side equity analyst at Sanford Bernstein and a consultant at Bain & Co.
Kathy earned her B.A. degree from Duke University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth.
KARL SCHADE
Presidio Investors Founder and Managing Partner
Karl Schade has been structuring, analyzing, and managing private equity investments for over two and a half decades. Today, he serves as Managing Partner of Presidio Investors, the private equity firm he founded in 2007. In this role, Mr. Schade has spent fourteen years focused on middle market buyouts, specifically in the technology, media, and financial services industries. At Presidio Investors, Mr. Schade, and the middle market-focused team he recruited, have invested in thirteen platform investments through thirty-eight acquisitions. Mr. Schade is based in Austin, TX.
Mr. Schade also has significant CEO experience. From 2013-2016, he was the CEO of The Presidio Group, a San Francisco-based financial services firm with ~$5 billion of assets under advisement. As CEO, Mr. Schade worked with the team and Board of Presidio to grow assets, open a Washington D.C. office, and restructure the firm, resulting in a successful exit. During 2011, Mr. Schade also served as CEO of Hattrick Sports Group, one of Presidio Investors’ most successful technology investments.
Prior to founding Presidio Investors, Mr. Schade worked for a decade at several large private equity firms, including The Blackstone Group in New York City, Silver Lake Partners in Menlo Park, and Blum Capital Partners in San Francisco. While at these Firms, Mr. Schade learned industry best practices and was a team-member on deals representing approximately $1 billion of invested equity capital.
Mr. Schade received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his BA from Claremont McKenna College. Mr. Schade has served on numerous Boards and Associations, and he is a frequent speaker at industry events.
Presidio Board Seats (past and present): Bravas, Podium Audio, Golden Pear Funding, National Health Finance, Hattrick Sports Group, Metropolitan Bank, and Lindora
Conner is the Managing Partner of Trive Capital, responsible for overseeing all facets of the firm’s investment activities. Conner sits on the Board of most of Trive’s portfolio companies. Over his private equity career, Conner has completed over 60 platform investments across more than a dozen industry sectors, representing over $5 billion in revenue.
Prior to founding Trive Capital, Conner was a Partner at Insight Equity, a firm he joined at inception. Conner has also worked at Stonegate, a middle market buyout firm focused on the building products industry, and Bain & Company where he focused on turnaround management, business strategy and merger integration consulting.
Conner received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and graduated with a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in three years.
Courtney Villalta is a Managing Director in the Client & Product Solutions group at Apollo, where she leads Product Management for Private Equity. Prior to joining Apollo in 2022, Courtney was Director on the Investment Team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, managing private equity investments in addition to the Firm’s Private Markets Strategic Partnerships.