Badger Startup Summit - 5 Lakes Fireside Chat

When

Thursday, Aug. 13th, 2020 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

About

A VIRTUAL DISCUSSION WITH THREE SCALE-UP EXPERTS: JOHN BYRNES, TOM ERICKSON, GEORGE ROBERTS MODERATED BY PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST KATHLEEN GALLAGHER 

Badger Startup Summit and 5 Lakes Institute have teamed up for this virtual Fireside Chat on the importance of planning for scale. Three UW-Madison alums who've spent their careers scaling companies will join Kathleen Gallagher (also a UW-Madison alumna) for a conversation on what it takes to successfully scale a business.   

Speakers

John Byrnes: Chairman, 5 Lakes Institute, is a lawyer and private equity investor who earned a highly respected reputation in commercial banking, corporate finance, and venture capital during his 40-year professional career in the financial services industry. He is Founder, retired Chairman and Executive Managing Director of Mason Wells, a top-tier, Midwest-focused private equity firm. 

Tom Erickson: Founding Director of the UW-Madison School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences. Tom honed his scale-up skills as the Founding Board Director, Chairman and CEO of Acquia, a Boston-based provider of cloud platforms for digital experience management. Named the fastest growing US software company in 2012 by Deloitte, Tom managed the growth of Acquia to $175M in revenue and 800 employees. Acquia sold a majority stake to Vista Equity Partners in late 2019 for more than a billion dollars. Tom is a Founding Pillar at Pillar Venture Capital in Boston and serves on Boards of several emerging Tech Companies in data science analytics and payment processing.

George Roberts: Venture Partner, OpenView Venture Partners, Prior to joining OpenView, George  George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison. George also served as a member of the firm’s executive management team responsible for restructuring Oracle, increasing profit margins from 22% to over 40%, and positioning Oracle as the second most profitable company in the industry after Microsoft.

Kathleen Gallagher: Executive Director, 5 Lakes Institute. Kathleen is a writer and published book author with expertise in business, science communications.  During her more than twenty year tenure as a reporter at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she won several awards covering business, technology and science; including journalism's highest honor a Pulitzer Prize. Kathleen is a regular columnist at BizTimes.com and co-host of WUWM's "How Did You Do That" a popular radio talk show featuring interviews with successful entrepreneurs. 

Registration

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Sponsors

WARF, Center for Technology Commercialization, Findorff, Murphy Desmond, University Research Park, Makin Hey, Baker Tilly, Kollath CPA