ACG NY Monthly Luncheon Meeting - October 2019

Nilufer R. Shaikh is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton LLP, resident in the New York office. Ms. Shaikh focuses her practice on the representation of private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, as well as strategic buyers and sellers in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, joint ventures, restructurings and minority investments across a variety of industry sectors, including health care, life sciences, information technology, software and consumer goods. Ms. Shaikh also has represented venture capital firms and emerging growth companies in debt and equity financing transactions.

In addition to her transaction-based practice, Ms. Shaikh has provided general corporate counseling, advising senior management and boards of directors in areas such as corporate governance, strategic matters, contract negotiation and other commercial issues.

Ms. Shaikh is actively involved in pro bono matters and has represented nonprofit and educational institutions, including assisting a New York-based special education school in its contracting compliance, forming and counseling the board of directors of a 501(c)(3) organization aimed at increasing female participation in the asset management industry, and advising a global social enterprise on restructuring its non-U.S. operations. Ms. Shaikh has also represented clients in asylum proceedings before immigration court and U-visa status filings and participated in election protection efforts.

Prior to joining Pepper, Ms. Shaikh was an associate with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Dechert LLP in New York City.

Ms. Shaikh currently serves on the firm’s Diversity Committee and Audit Letter Committee.

Mr. Fugaro leads Guardian’s business development team. He is responsible for developing and managing Guardian’s origination initiatives for new and existing portfolio companies. He has been with Guardian for nine years and manages a broad network of strategic relationships with corporations, investment bankers and other intermediaries. Additionally, Mr. Fugaro has extensive deal execution experience in all phases of the investment process and has portfolio company oversight responsibilities for Tactical Medical Solutions, Inc.

Prior to Guardian, Mr. Fugaro had a professional career in financial advisory and strategy consulting. He was an investment banker within Griffin Financial Group LLC where he provided merger and acquisition and capital raising services. Early in his career, Mr. Fugaro was a management consultant with Greenwich Associates, where during his tenure he ran the domestic commercial banking research team advising executives at bulge bracket financial institutions.

Mr. Fugaro earned his MBA from Wake Forest University with a concentration in finance as a recipient of the Charles H. Babcock Scholarship and his BA in business management from Gettysburg College.

Dan Gaspar joined TZP Group as a Partner of TZP Small Cap Partners I in October 2017. Dan began his career in 2001 as an investment banker in the Global Media and Communications Group at Morgan Stanley, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions. In 2005, he joined Trimaran Capital Partners, where he focused on buyout investments across the media, restaurant and transportation industries. In 2007, Dan co-founded CN Private Equity Partners (later known as Gotham Equity Partners). At CNPE, Dan was responsible for sourcing and leading investments in several business services and consumer products companies. In 2011, Dan joined High Road Capital Partners, where he was later promoted to Partner. At High Road, Dan focused on leveraged buyouts of lower-middle-market companies across a variety of industries, including consumer products, industrial services, healthcare services and manufacturing. Prior to joining TZP, Dan served on the boards of eleven public and private companies.

Dan currently serves on the Board of Directors of Advocate Solutions, LLC and Dynamic Communities TopCo, LLC and serves as a member of the TZP SC I and TZP SC II investment committees.

Dan received a B.S. in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. in finance from Columbia Business School, graduating Beta Gamma Sigma.

Billy is a Senior Vice President for Audax Private Equity. Previously, Billy was with the private equity firm Sterling Partners, where he focused on evaluating and executing leveraged buyouts and growth equity investments in the Healthcare Industry. Prior to that, he worked in Private Equity at New MainStream Capital and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Billy received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a B.S. from Duke University.

Kerri Hagen is a Vice President of Business Development & Marketing at Gemspring Capital.  She is responsible for sourcing new investments and leading the firm’s overall marketing and business development efforts.  Prior to joining Gemspring, Kerri was a Senior Business Development Consultant at Axial, where she assisted in the deal sourcing and M&A efforts for middle market private equity firms, family offices and lenders.

Prior to joining Axial, Kerri served as Vice President of Corporate Access at The Buckingham Research Group, where she helped develop the firm's communication platform between publicly traded companies and institutional investors.  Earlier in her career, Kerri worked in various roles assisting the research, sales, and trading functions of investment banks while at Ipreo, a portfolio company of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs.  

Kerri received a B.A. in Communications, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan. She currently serves on ACG NY's Women of Leadership Committee.