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Capitol Ballroom
Moderators
Geoffrey is a Director in the Consumer Investment Banking group of D.A. Davidson & Co. Mr. Loos has represented a wide variety of middle-market companies in mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings of equity and debt, and other advisory assignments. Geoffrey has worked with clients in numerous industries, and as part of D.A. Davidson’s Consumer Investment Banking team largely represents food, nutrition, and agriculture companies across the supply chain. Mr. Loos joined D.A. Davidson in 2004 and has worked on domestic and cross-border transactions. Geoffrey is a long-time supporter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and currently serves on the board and as the President of the Utah chapter of ACG. Mr. Loos graduated with a bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Utah, David S. Eccles School of Business.
Speakers
BJ Hansen joined McCarthy Capital in 2008. His responsibilities include originating and evaluating new investment opportunities, structuring and executing private investments, and management oversight of portfolio investments. Prior to joining McCarthy Capital, BJ worked as an investment banker at George K. Baum Advisors. BJ earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Bill Hunscher,
PANELIST
Bill Hunscher, a Partner with the TZP Group, began his Wall Street career in 1986 as a Financial Analyst with Lehman Brothers and then as an Associate with The Blackstone Group from 1988 through 1992. In 2001, Bill joined Cendant Corporation where, as an Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, he led over $10 billion of transactions in the hospitality, car rental, timeshare, travel and related industries. From 2003 to 2008, Bill was a Managing Member of CHK Capital Partners, a Small Deals Market-focused private investment advisory firm focused on acquiring and building businesses within the State of Maine. During this time, he founded and was Chief Executive Officer of CLYNK LLC, an innovative, consumer-facing recycling company.
LeGrand Lewis joined Sorenson Capital in 2008. He has extensive experience across consumer, manufacturing, technology, healthcare and energy industries. LeGrand is an active member of the firm’s aerospace and defense practice, and is also involved in the firm’s networking and infrastructure investments. Over his career, he’s learned that success comes from aligning with and supporting great management teams in high growth industries, while maintaining a laser focus on meeting customer needs. Prior to joining Sorenson Capital, LeGrand worked for Bain & Company, where his passion for aerospace began. He also worked with clients in the telecommunications, consumer, and chemicals industries, among others. Before joining Bain, LeGrand’s financial experiences include tenure at Capmark Financial Group in Philadelphia and a technology-focused venture capital fund in Silicon Valley.
Greg Warnock is co-founder and managing director of Mercato Partners, where he is involved on the boards of Sphero, SteelHouse, Stance, and PrinterLogic. Greg is a technologist, innovator, and entrepreneur who has dedicated his career to building and growing companies. Prior to Mercato, Greg was co-founder and managing director of vSpring Capital, an early stage venture capital fund. Before vSpring, Greg was principal in more than 20 M&A transactions and launched several businesses in a diverse assortment of areas ranging from technology, consumer products, biotechnology, and marketing. Greg is also the founder of Junto Partners, an education initiative designed to train and mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. He has served as chairman of the board of the Community Foundation of Utah. He holds a BS, an MBA, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah.
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Olympus Ballroom A
Moderators
Shafique is the manager of Zions Bank’s Structured Finance unit targeting middle market acquisition financing opportunities and large structured transactions primarily in the western U.S. Shafique has extensive experience managing middle market as well as national and multinational relationships. Shafique’s prior experience includes management of global relationships and coordinating banking activities across the world as a Managing Director for Citigroup as well as serving as a senior executive reporting directly to the CEO as Treasurer and then Vice President of Global Supply Chain for United Plastics Group.
Speakers
Jeremy Andrus is the President & CEO and Board Member of Traeger Grills. He joined Traeger in 2014 as he acquired the business with Trilantic Capital Partners. From 2005 to 2013, Jeremy served as President & CEO of Skullcandy, where he helped grow annual sales from $1 million to $300 million. Jeremy received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Brigham Young University. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Kristin and their six children.
Joel Clark began selling homemade flapjack mixes out of his little red wagon at just 8 years old. Years later, Joel’s brother Jon took the family pancake recipe and started Kodiak Cakes in 1995. Joel took over the company in 1997 while going to college and working other jobs to keep the fledgling pancake business alive, and has been running the company ever since. Headquartered in Park City, Utah, Kodiak Cakes has grown into a multimillion dollar business with products in multiple grocery categories. Joel went to school for his undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Utah, and then went on to get his MBA at Oxford University in England.
With over two decades of experience and a proven executive management track record of driving sales growth in the retail, technology, finance and restaurant industries, Andrew K. Smith founded Four Foods Group in 2008 and acts as Chief Executive Officer. Andrew began his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 23, when he started his first technology business. Over an 11-year period, Smith raised over $45 million from venture and private equity investors, created over 1,500 jobs, and built and sold three technology businesses to private and public companies. As CEO of Four Foods Group, Andrew has been responsible for raising the necessary capital (est $165 million) to develop and operate 95 restaurants in a 6 state territory.
Jonathan has been building and leading successful high-growth technology companies for more than 20 years, during which time he and his management teams created more than 7,500 jobs and more than $2 billion of shareholder value. Mr. Spira joined BROWZ (a supplier pre-qualification SaaS company) in 2017 as its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to BROWZ, Jonathan served as CFO at Nikola Motor Company, Untangle, blnkx plc (LON:RTHM), Kapow Technologies, Packethop, Atrenta, ePeople and Autonomy Corp (LON:AU), where he spearheaded its successful IPO. Before serving as CFO, Mr. Spira held senior finance and planning positions at Walt Disney Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Nestlé Food Company and worked as a consultant in KPMG’s Merger & Acquisition practice.
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Olympus Ballroom B
Moderators
As a Shareholder and Senior Vice President with Diversified Insurance Group in Salt Lake City, Regan is a seasoned commercial insurance broker with experience in risk management due diligence; insurance program design, implementation and management; risk identification; and financial risk analysis. Regan is responsible for business development and overseeing client’s insurance and risk management programs, with particular focus on private equity funds and their portfolio companies, including reps & warranties coverage. Regan has worked with dozens of clients representing a wide range of industries in developing risk management strategies and insurance programs to address the risks and exposures associated with venture and private equity, mergers and acquisitions.
Speakers
Jeff Hudson is the CEO of Venafi, a cyber security company headquartered in Utah, who are the inventors of and leaders in the Machine Identity Protection market. Under Jeff’s direction Venafi has become a foundational part of cyber defenses for the world’s largest corporations and government agencies worldwide. A key executive in four previous and successful high-technology start-ups that have gone public, Jeff has over 30 years of leadership and management experience in information technology and security management. Jeff has spent a significant portion of his career developing and delivering leading-edge technology solutions for financial services and other Fortune-ranked organizations and government agencies.
Tsutomu Johnson is Of Counsel at Parsons Behle & Latimer and practices data privacy and Cybersecurity law. His practice extends to state, national, and international matters. He has handled data breach litigation, negotiated privacy and security matters in complex commercial contracts, and has guided clients through the incident response process. He has also helped clients gain Privacy Shield certification, sign cross-border data transfer agreements, and submit BCR-C and BCR-P applications. Finally, he has helped clients create policies, procedures and controls that comply with state, federal, and international privacy and security laws.
Kyle is a Senior Manager in Grant Thornton’s West Region Business Risk Services practice and brings over 10 years of IT audit, security, and consulting experience. He is the lead manager and subject matter expert for Cybersecurity services in the Pacific Northwest and Salt Lake markets. He currently manages numerous information technology (IT) audits, security audits, and service organization controls audits (aka SOC 1, SOC 2). Kyle’s industry specialization focuses on software and telecommunications, but has served numerous other industries, including manufacturing, retail, and financial services. He is a regular public speaker on topics related to information technology compliance and cybersecurity.
A 25-year veteran of communication technology, Timothy is the CEO and co-founder of Evernym and co-inventor of Sovrin, the world’s most advanced identity network, enabling interoperable self-sovereign identity for every person, organization, and thing. Prior to Evernym Timothy was the co-founder of Teleira, a pioneer in communications outage recovery, and a director at inContact, where the division he created now exceeds $1 billion in cumulative sales. Timothy holds multiple patents, and is a proud husband and father of seven children, and resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.