Press Release
Contact: Rosalyn Gell |
Phone: 919-549-7500 ext.107 |
Venture 2006 Panel to Highlight M&A and IPO Strategies
NEA, Goldman Sachs Executives Join Local Entrepreneurs and Investor on Panel
March 8, 2006, Research Triangle Park, NC – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) today announced details on a featured panel at Venture 2006. The session will explore winning M&A and IPO strategies. Venture 2006, set for May 2-3, 2006, at Pinehurst Resort in the Village of Pinehurst, NC, is in its 23rd year and will showcase North Carolina's top investment opportunities to hundreds of venture capitalists and financiers from throughout the United States.
The featured panel, “M&A and IPO Strategies,” will be held May 2 during the first afternoon of Venture 2006. Panelists will discuss their views and experiences on buying and selling companies, the best forward path for future funding and liquidity and creating maximum shareholder value. Panel speakers include:
Moderator:
- Steve Nelson, Managing Director & Partner, Wakefield Group
Panelists:
- John McConnell, Chief Executive Officer, A4 Health Systems
- Stephen Pierce, Head of Equity Capital Markets for the Americas, Goldman, Sachs & Co. New York
- Harry Weller, Partner, New Enterprise Associates
- Ryan Wuerch, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Motricity
Steve Nelson is managing director and partner of Wakefield Group. He established the venture capital firm’s Research Triangle Park, NC office. Nelson joined Wakefield after 19 years of executive and general management experience in technology, software and Internet-based businesses, including Quokka Sports, Informix Software and IBM.
John McConnell is the Chairman and CEO of A4 Health Systems, which sold in January for $272 million in cash and stock to Allscripts. McConnell also took his previous company, Medic Computer, public and ultimately sold the company to Mysys for $923 million in 1997.
Stephen Pierce runs the IPO business for investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. Pierce and his team took E-Bay and Clear Channel public, worked with Cary-based Spectrasite (sold in 2005 for more than $3 billion to American Tower) and recently brought UnderArmour to the public markets. Pierce also led the largest global IPO in history in NTT DoCoMo, as well as the largest public offering in US history in AT&T Wireless and the best performing IPO in the US in 2005 in Baidu.
Harry Weller is a partner at New Enterprise Associates, one of the most respected and admired names in the VC industry. With more than 175 IPO's in firm history and 500 successful sales of portfolio companies, NEA's investment track record is unparalleled. Weller was the early lead investor in high-flying Vonage, a VoIP solutions leader, among other brand name successes to his credit.
Ryan Wuerch is the chairman, CEO and co-founder of Durham-based Motricity. Wuerch and his team have successfully acquired and integrated five companies. Wuerch has also raised more than $80 million from local and national venture capital firms.
“This panel will provide invaluable information from experts who will share their experiences on buying and selling companies,” said CED President Monica Doss. “The panel will offer insight from a globally recognized investment banker, a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, a CEO with one of the Triangle's most promising growth companies, and two top-tier VC's with years of investment experience. I anticipate a lively and informative discussion during the first day of Venture 2006.”
In addition to this featured panel, Venture 2006 will offer 27 company presentations, keynote comments from author and inventor Ray Kurweil, extensive networking opportunities and exclusive investor-only events. Venture 2006 conference co-chairs are Linda Markus Daniels of Daniels Daniels & Verdonik, P.A. and Mark Larson of Grant Thornton LLP.
About Venture 2006: CED's 23rd annual Venture conference – Where Great Minds Meet Smart Money – is scheduled for May 2-3, 2006 at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, NC. Last year's conference, Venture 2005, drew a crowd of more than 675 investors, service professionals, entrepreneurs and others involved in the entrepreneurial funding process from throughout the United States. www.cednc.org/venture
About CED: The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to identify, enable and promote high growth, high impact entrepreneurial companies and to accelerate the entrepreneurial culture of the Research Triangle and North Carolina. CED is the largest and oldest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 4,000 members representing over 1,100 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms. In July 2005, Wilmington's Coastal Entrepreneurial Council merged with CED to create CED-Coastal, a divisional office focused on entrepreneurial development in Wilmington and throughout North Carolina's entire coastal region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops and programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. www.cednc.org
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