Kevin J. Conway
Managing Partner
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

Throughout his 14 years at CD&R, Mr. Conway has been active in a number of the Firm's investments and organizational initiatives. He chairs the Screening Committee, which evaluates all potential investments and is closely involved in all aspects of the Firm's operations. Previously, Mr. Conway was a senior member of the Goldman, Sachs & Co. mergers and acquisitions department and, later, the chief of staff of the investment banking division. Mr. Conway is a graduate of Amherst College. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a J.D. from Columbia University Law School.

 

Stewart Gross
Managing Director and Member of Investment Committee
Lightyear Capital

Stewart Gross is a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee of Lightyear Capital, a private equity firm investing in companies in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Lightyear in 2005, Mr. Gross spent 17 years at Warburg Pincus where he was a Managing Director and member of the Executive Management Group. Mr. Gross has been a private equity investor in many highly successful companies, including BEA Systems, VERITAS Software, Renaissance Reinsurance, SkillSoft, Intuit and Eagle Investment Systems. Mr. Gross is currently a Director of Lightyear portfolio companies Argus Software and Flagstone Re. Mr. Gross also serves as a director of SkillSoft.

Mr. Gross received an A.B., Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma. Mr. Gross is chairman of the Civic Capital Corporation, an affiliate of the New York City Investment Fund, a director of Boys & Girls Harbor and a trustee of The Mt. Sinai Children’s Center Foundation.

 

Ernest Jacquet
Managing Partner, Member of Executive Committee, and Member of Investment Committee
Parthenon Capital

Ernest Jacquet is a founder and Managing Partner of Parthenon Capital. Currently, Mr. Jacquet is a member of Parthenon Capital's Executive Committee and Investment Committee. He also is the Chairman of the Board of Interline Brands and serves on the board of Xanboo.


Mr. Jacquet served on the Board of Directors for SSG Precision Optronics, Inc., Spheris Inc. and Creditek, three former investments of Parthenon Capital.


EXPERIENCE
Prior to founding Parthenon Capital, Mr. Jacquet was General Partner at Summit Partners, a $3 billion venture capital firm. He joined this technology-based venture capital firm in 1990 to establish and lead an investment team focused on growth recapitalizations of private companies.


Previously, Mr. Jacquet was a principal at Bain Capital. He was recruited to Bain Capital from Morgan Stanley & Co, New York, where he executed international transactions. Mr. Jacquet spent eight years in the United Kingdom, where he became one of the youngest Directors of Trafalgar House Investments PLC. He is a former U.S. Naval Officer and a recipient of the U.S. Navy Citation for superior service.


Mr. Jacquet has served as Chairman of the Board of Acurex Corporation, Astech, Inc., and Paragon Vision Sciences. In addition, Mr. Jacquet has served on the boards of Academic Management Services, Chase Federal Bank, CIDCO Inc., First Marketing Company, Rosco Laboratories, and Somero Enterprises.


EDUCATION
Mr. Jacquet is a licensed Professional Engineer and patent holder. He earned his Masters and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with Honors from the University of Michigan and his M.B.A. from Stanford Business School. He serves as a regional and national judge in the Entrepreneur of the Year Program sponsored by Ernst & Young, and as an Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recently, he was elected Trustee of the Stanford Business School Trust.


Steven Klinsky
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
New Mountain Capital

Steve Klinsky, 51, is the founder and chief executive officer of New Mountain Capital, LLC., a firm formed in January 2000 to achieve exceptional long-term capital appreciation through private equity and equity related investments.  New Mountain currently manages approximately $8.5 billion in partnership commitments, with a strategy that emphasizes intensive fundamental research, proactive pursuit of the most attractive “defensive growth” sectors, and a proven ability to add value and build businesses post-investment.  New Mountain believes that its first two private equity funds rank among the highest returning private equity funds for their vintage years.  The firm’s third private equity fund, New Mountain Partners III, L.P., with over $5.1 billion of aggregate commitments, began its investment period in August 2007.  New Mountain manages over $1.0 billion of public equity portfolios through New Mountain Vantage Advisers, L.L.C. (“Vantage”), which is designed to apply New Mountain’s established strengths as an acquirer and builder of businesses toward non-control positions in the U.S. public equity markets generally.

Prior to founding New Mountain, Mr. Klinsky was co-founder of Goldman Sachs & Co.’s Leveraged Buyout Group (1981-1984) where he executed $3 billion of pioneering transactions for Goldman Sachs and its clients.  He joined Forstmann Little & Co. in 1984 as its fifth investment professional, was named a general partner in 1986 and was the most senior partner of Forstmann Little outside of the Forstmann family for the majority of the 1990s (until leaving to found New Mountain in June 1999).  Mr. Klinsky’s tenure at Forstmann Little coincided with a period of exceptional investment success for that firm, generating over $6 billion of gains on investments made in the 1990 – June 1999 time period without one principal loss. 
           
Steve Klinsky was raised in Michigan and earned his B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan in 1976.  He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School (class of 1979) and his J.D., with honors, from Harvard Law School (class of 1981).  He has served as chairman or director of a number of companies, including Strayer Education Inc., Deltek Systems, Inc., National Medical Health Card Systems, Inc., General Instrument Corp., The Thompson×Minwax Co., Yankee Candle Co., Surgis, Inc., Apptis, Inc., Overland Solutions, Inc., MailSouth, Inc., Ikaria, Inc., Inmar, Inc. and Oakleaf Global Holdings.  Mr. Klinsky is active in a range of charitable and educational causes, is married with four children and lives in New York City.

 

Blue Harbour Group, L.P. is an investment firm, founded by Clifton S. Robbins in December 2004. Currently, Blue Harbour manages over $1.3 billion. Blue Harbour is the Investment Manager of Blue Harbour Strategic Value Partners Master Fund, L.P. and Blue Harbour Institutional Partners Offshore, Ltd. The investment mandate of the funds is to invest in the securities of undervalued public companies, where the opportunity exists to work in collaboration with management to unlock and create value.  Blue Harbour implements a private equity approach to public company investing which capitalizes on the managing principal’s extensive investment experience and network of relationships.

 

November 13, 2008
8:00am – 6:00pm

New York, NY

Event Price: $875

Event location will be disclosed to attendees upon completion of the registration process.

 

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* Please note that we have a limited allocation of tickets for members of the advisory community. The tickets are $1800 and are available on a first come first served basis.