Operating Partner Panel - How is Private Equity using technology for competitive advantage and to enhance portco value?

Session Details

Date:
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5:25 PM
More Information

SPEAKERS:

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Patrick Donegan, Managing Director, Pat is responsible for developing and delivering the firm’s growth strategy while leading the client services and sales teams to achieve next-level growth. With over twenty years of experience, Pat joins from Gerson Lehrman where he spent nearly ten years as Managing Director, with multiple roles of increased responsibilities. As Head of the Private Equity / Venture Capital (PE/VC) practice, he led the business to achieve unprecedented growth, and as a result, it became the fastest growing segment at the firm. He was promoted to Head of Business Development, and ultimately, General Manager for Americas Financial Services. Pat has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University and an MBA from The University of Connecticut School of Business.

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Thomas C. Fountain is an Operating Partner focused on driving value creating through the deployment of technology-based solutions and IT excellence for One Rock and its portfolio companies.  Mr. Fountain brings over 30 years of technology and leadership experience having served in CIO roles in GE, Honeywell and Bunge Ltd.  In addition to large multi-national leadership positions, Mr. Fountain has also held CTO and CEO roles at software start-ups and emerging growth companies with a focus on innovative product design and new product introduction.  His focus on creating alignment between business operating models and technology strategy positions companies for high return investments and optimized service delivery. Earlier in his career, Mr. Fountain held Design Engineer and Intelligence Officer positions with Martin Marietta Aerospace and the Central Intelligence Agency respectively. Mr. Fountain graduated from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering and later received his M.S. in electrical engineering and M.B.A. from Duke University.

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Mike Gregoire is a Partner at Brighton Park Capital and is a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining BPC, Mike was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CA Technologies where he started in 2013. At CA, Mike accelerated the company’s software leadership with innovative offerings, a renewed brand, and a strengthened market presence. The result of Mike’s leadership over almost 6 years was the sale to Broadcom in July 2018 taking the stock from $22.38 to $44.50 per share yielding a $10.5 billion market cap appreciation1.

Previously, Mike was Chairman and CEO of Taleo Corporation, a leading cloud-based talent management software company that he oversaw going public before its successful sale to Oracle in 2012. With a career spanning more than 25 years in software and technology, Mike also served as Executive Vice President at People Soft from 1999 to 2004 and Executive Director at Electronic Data Systems EDS from 1988 to 1999.Mike is widely recognized as a strategic thinker in the information technology industry. He has been the chair of the World Economic Forum’s IT Governors Steering Committee, as well as a member of the Business Roundtable’s Information and Technology Committee. Mike also serves on the Executive Council of TechNet, an organization of CEOs that represents the technology industry in policy issues critical to American innovation and economic competitiveness.

Mike sits on the Board of Directors of Smartsheet (NYSE:SMRT) the largest provider of cloud collaboration workflow software and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) one of the largest global chip companies that specializes in manufacturing semiconductor devices used in computer processing, memory, and graphics processors.Mike has also served on the board of ADP from 2014 to 2019 where he was chairman of the governance and nominating committee. ADP is one of the world’s largest providers of human resources, business processing and cloud-based solutions. Mike is a strong champion of diversity and empowerment, and he currently serves as a member of the Board of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating leaders by ensuring all girls access to sports.Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Computing from Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, and a Master of Business Administration degree from California Coast University. 

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John Polis is an entrepreneurial information management and business operations leader with a 25+ year track record of creating and enhancing technology enabled businesses and building platforms that allow for significant scale.

Prior to joining Star Mountain, Mr. Polis was COO and CTO for Guidepoint Global, a primary research firm and expert network serving the world’s leading Institutional Investors, Private Equity Firms, Consulting Organizations, and Corporations. Brought on in 2011 with a direct turnaround mandate, Mr. Polis changed the operating culture leading positive change in process and people management along with directing significant improvements to their information technology platform guiding the company back to profitability and significant double-digit growth.

Before Guidepoint, Mr. Polis served as COO and CTO for Coleman Research Group (CRG), also a primary research firm and expert network where he was recruited immediately after company secured financing. Without delay Mr. Polis led the product management and development effort on their custom built, Web based CRM, Recruiting, and Payment Processing platform – Knowledge Broker™ – while also being responsible for overseeing all operational areas of the company including research, relationship management, compliance, human resources, and data management. CRG also had a broker dealer arm, Coleman Brokerage Group, for which Mr. Polis served as compliance officer for. During his tenure Coleman Research scaled from 5 to 140 employees worldwide and in 2009 was voted one of Crain’s New York “Best Places to Work in New York City”. Earlier in Mr. Polis’ career he served as a Co-founder and Executive Vice President Operations and CTO for Dotcom Distribution and Chief Information Officer for the GT Media family of companies.

Mr. Polis holds a BA in Economics from New York University, an MBA in Management from Wagner College and is FINRA Series 63, 7 and 24 licensed. He is also an adjunct at NYU where he teaches graduate level courses in Integrated Marketing Database Modeling and Management. Prior to NYU Mr. Polis was an adjunct at Touro College Graduate School of Technology where taught courses in Database Design and Modeling for Business.

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Abilash Jaikumar is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of TresVista, the leading provider of high-end outsourced support for asset managers, investment banks, research firms, and corporates. He has worked in both the investment banking and private equity industries and has been involved in more than $20 billion of financing and M&A activity. Prior to co-founding TresVista, he was with Alta Communications, a private equity firm that managed over $1.5 billion focused on companies in the media and telecommunications sectors. Previously, Abilash was a part of Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking Division in New York in both the Telecommunications, Media, and Technology Group as well as the Global Industries Group. Abilash graduated with Honors from Georgetown University with a B.S.B.A in Finance and Accounting and minors in Philosophy and Economics. He currently serves as the Chairman of Georgetown's Alumni Admissions Program in India.