Where
DLA Piper, LLP2000 Avenue of the Stars
Suite 400, North Tower
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Driving Directions
Opus Connect's Venture and Emerging Growth Chapter February Event
Creative Exits:
One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor
Experienced early stage investors have at some point in their careers been faced with an all-too-common dilemma - how to close a position in a small cap private company when the target time horizon has expired and there's no traditional exit? Please join us for a discussion of “Creative Exits”, where panelists will discuss how ESOPs, recapitalizations, early IPOs, and private equity funds may be able to provide exit opportunities for portfolio companies that are not suitable candidates for a traditional liquidity event.
!Looking forward to seeing you there
Please click on the link below to register or RSVP:
This event is hosted and sponsored by DLA Piper, LLP and is co-sponsored by MDB Capital Group, Ambrose and Squar, Milner, Peterson, Miranda & Williamson, LLP.
Masood Sohaili (Moderator)
Mr. Sohaili is a partner in DLA Piper's Corporate and Finance group. He has worked on a wide variety of corporate, finance and restructuring transactions. Mr. Sohaili has advised public and private corporate clients in connection with strategic initiatives, including restructurings, financings, mergers, dispositions and acquisitions. He has also served as issuers' counsel, underwriters' counsel, and developers' counsel in the issuance and sale of public securities and private placements. Before joining DLA Piper, Mr. Sohaili was a partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and co-chair of its Private Equity and Venture Capital Markets group. Mr. Sohaili is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America.
Dennis Becker
Mr. Becker has been building technology startups for more than 15 years and is the visionary behind Mobivity’s award-winning, patented mobile marketing platform. Since founding CommerceTel Corporation in 2006, Becker has raised over $14M in capital while leading the Company to the public markets and through three acquisitions in 2011. CommerceTel launched the Mobivity brand in 2012 under Becker’s leadership. Prior to CommerceTel, Mr. Becker founded Frontieric Corporation, a pioneer in providing complex call routing and merchant processing applications. Frontieric became an award-winning technology company and was twice awarded recognition by The San Diego Software and Internet Council's annual startup competition. Mr. Becker was also the founder and CEO of Bexel Technologies, which served technology solutions to large enterprises, such as NASA, and held key management and consulting positions for a variety of manufacturing and industrial companies in the Pacific Northwest. During this time, he designed, developed, and installed a number of innovative solutions, ranging from real-time sales order processing and project control systems to a subjective experience analysis engine for various fields of academic research. Mr. Becker was also awarded the fastest telecommunications patent in USPTO history having been awarded a patent in just 79 days from filing. Mr. Becker studied Computer Science at the University of Oregon and served in the United States Air Force.
David Casares
Mr. Casares is a Partner with Vicente Capital Partners (VCP), a Los Angeles based investment firm that invests in growth companies. At VCP, he focuses on deal sourcing and execution and is a current board member of VXi Corporation, US Dermatology Medical Management, Inc, Intellectual Technology, Inc. and a board observer for Sports Media Technologies, Inc. Prior to joining VCP, Mr. Casares was a Director at a division of Tyco Fire and Security where he oversaw acquisitions, and subsequently was general manager of a business unit and led the company’s operational improvement initiative across 120 field offices. Earlier in his career, Mr. Casares was a management consultant with Bain & Co. where he advised senior executives at US and Mexican Fortune 100 companies and private equity firms on growth and operational improvement strategies. Mr. Casares is active on the board of the Los Angeles Fulfillment Fund (supports at-risk public school students with overcoming obstacles to pursue higher education) and is involved as a member of the alumni of the Robert A. Toigo Foundation (supports minorities in finance) and The Giving Spirit (supports the homeless). David received his MBA from Harvard University where he was a Robert A. Toigo Foundation Fellow and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University where he was a two-sport, NCAA Athlete.
Robert Clifford
Mr. Clifford is Head of Capital Markets for MDB Capital Group, an investment bank focused on companies with market-changing disruptive technology and strong intellectual property. Mr. Clifford joined MDB in 2010 and possesses over 25 years of deal completion and institutional equity sales experience. Previously, Mr. Clifford was a Managing Director with ThinkEquity LLC in San Francisco. Before that, he was a Senior Vice President at Sanders Morris Harris, where he was instrumental in forming a new institutional equities effort. Mr. Clifford started his career with the legendary Felix Juda at Sutro & Company in Los Angeles, where he worked for 16 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Matthew Spain
Mr. Spain is a Managing Director in the Los Angeles office of Imperial Capital, a leading middle market Investment Banking firm. Mr. Spain has over 18 years of experience and expertise in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leverage buyouts and raising debt and equity capital for public and private corporate clients. Prior to joining Imperial Capital, Mr. Spain worked for the Los Angeles based private equity firm, The Gores Group, responsible for sourcing and executing acquisition and divestiture transactions for the firm’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining The Gores Group, Mr. Spain was a Managing Director in the M&A Group of UBS Investment Bank. In his eight years with UBS, Mr. Spain was responsible for building and heading Wall Street's leading Exclusive Sales & Divestiture Group. Mr. Spain also served as a member of the UBS Banking Review Group and Fairness Opinion Committee. Mr. Spain began his investment banking career at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and over the span of his career has executed over 70 M&A and financing transactions. Mr. Spain earned an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University. Mr. Spain resides in Los Angeles with his wife and their teenage daughter and son.
Eric Speer
Mr. Speer is Vice-President at Wellington Financial, overseeing the firm’s transaction sourcing and business development activities in the Western region of the United States. He joined Wellington in 2009 with more than 20 years of experience in banking and asset based lending. Mr. Speer was previously with Vencore Capital as a venture debt lender providing financing to early-stage and emerging companies. Prior to Vencore Capital, Mr. Speer financed emerging growth companies in positions he held with Coast Business Credit and Bank of America. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley and has an MBA from University of California, Irvine.
By Invitation Only
Opus Connect is membership based organization.
Opus Connect welcomes qualified individuals for membership and event attendance. If you would like to refer a potential member or have any queries, please contact Shiri Leitner at shiri@opusconnect.com