After the Barn Door is Closed – What Boards Should be Doing Now that M&A and IPO Markets are Frozen
CO-HOSTED BY BAKER BOTTS and LONERGAN PARTNERS
2023 was an historic low for technology companies for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and also for Initial Public Offerings. Boards of private and public companies are wondering where these markets are going – and what steps they should take now to the companies with which they serve. In this session, we will examine the elements of company strategy under board control, and look into the contributions needed to sustain these companies through a tough market. Times like this affect not only the intended contribution of board members – they may also bear on the essential qualities of the board members themselves.
This will be a live seminar event and we anticipate a full audience of some 50 public company board members. For more details, please contact Nancy Easterbrook at SVDX or event moderator Mark Lonergan at Lonergan Partners.
SPEAKERS:
Ned Barnholt
Edward W. (Ned) Barnholt served as president and chief executive officer of Agilent Technologies, Inc. and as its chairman of the board from November 2002 until his retirement in March 2005. He currently serves on the board of directors of Adobe Systems, Inc. Barnholt previously served in several executive positions at Hewlett-Packard Company, including serving as executive vice president and general manager of its Measurements Organization. He was previously on the board of directors of eBay Inc., and as chairman of the board of KLA-Tencor Corporation.
Penny Herscher
Penny serves on three public company boards: Lumentum (where she is Chairman of the Board), SGH (Smart Global; where she serves on the governance committee) and Forvia SA (where she serves on the governance committee), and two private company boards, Delphix and Modern Health. She was President & CEO of two technology companies, Simplex and FirstRain, over the last 25 years. She is an experienced technology CEO who took her first company, Simplex Solutions, public and then sold it to Cadence Design Systems in 2002. Penny actively coaches entrepreneurs and has been a guest speaker at Stanford Business School, the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University, the Sloane school, Santa Clara University and the LUISS Business School in Rome. She is a speaker on leadership, corporate governance, CEO and director training and career growth at various industry organizations.
Dan Rabinovitsj
Dan Rabinovitsj is an Independent Director at Absci and since 2018, he has served as VP of Meta Connectivity, where he is focused on collaborating with industry partners to catalyze technology and business model innovations in the networking and telecommunications industries to realize both structural opex and capex reductions for service providers and performance enhancements to enable the metaverse. Prior to Meta, he served as President and COO of Ruckus Networks, where he focused on delivering high performance wireless and wired connectivity in the Enterprise and Service Provider markets. He has held executive leadership roles at Silicon Labs, NXP, Atheros and Qualcomm.
Catherine Zinn, welcome remarks
As Baker Botts Chief Client Officer, Catherine Zinn is a key member of the firm’s Executive Staff overseeing strategic growth, client relations, marketing and communications functions, globally. Catherine and her team ensure the firm is a steward of our clients' businesses. Catherine also commits a significant portion of her time to connecting high profile executives, alumni, and other friends of the firm to jobs and to public company board seats, with an emphasis on diversity.
Previously, Catherine was a member of the Executive Staff at Orrick and held senior client relations roles at DLA Piper and JAMS. With 20+ years of experience doing professional services sales, Catherine has built a reputation as a “super-connector” throughout the legal, tech, and financial services industries.
Mark Lonergan, moderator
Mark Lonergan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lonergan Partners. He specializes in CEO and Board placements in technology companies. Since 1992, Mark has conducted over 500 technology company CEO, Board, and senior executive assignments.