The 2006 Yale School of Management Private Equity Conference

Buyouts

Corporate Governance

Distressed Debt

International

Limited Partners

Private Equity in the Public Markets

Buyouts:
With the increasing amounts of capital available to buyout funds, the feasible universe of investment opportunities has increased substantially. As club deals and other non-traditional investments continue to materialize, private equity firms are now required to work harder at understanding and leveraging their internal strengths and strategic partnerships. Furthermore, increasingly creative exit opportunities continue to emerge as softer equity markets and a tightening credit environment limit traditional monetization options. This panel will attempt to identify the ramifications of these trends on the future of the buyouts space.

Jenny Lee - Managing Director - JPMorgan Securities (Moderator)
Todd Benson - Senior Partner - Citigroup Private Equity
Patrick Landers - Managing Director - LLM Capital
Joe Osnoss - Principal - Silver Lake Partners
Sally Rocker - Managing Director - J.C. Flowers
Lauren Tyler - Managing Director - CCMP Capital

Corporate Governance:
For a long time, the liquidity, risk-bearing and informational advantages of publicly owned companies have made them far more attractive than if they were privately held. However, in today’s environment, public companies are increasingly finding themselves to be targets of private equity firms. This panel will explore the current market dynamics that are influencing this public-to-private trend and what to expect in the future.

William Kuesel - Partner - O'Melveny & Myers (Moderator)
Stephen Fraidin - Partner - Kirkland & Ellis
Eric Knight - Founder and CIO - Knight Vinke Asset Management
Mark Tresnowski - Managing Director - Madison Dearborn Partners

Distressed Debt:
With the cost of debt increasing from historical lows, private equity firms may encounter more credit defaults on portfolio companies due to the use of significant leverage in LBO and MBO transactions. Participants in the distressed debt industry are raising substantial amounts of fresh capital in anticipation that the default rate will not remain at current historical lows. This panel will explore distressed debt, the key players interacting in the market, and what it means for private equity in the future.

Alex Shahidi - Partner - Ernst & Young (Moderator)
Kevin Genda - Senior Managing Director - Cerberus Capital Management
Robert Hamwee - Senior Managing Director - GSC Partners
Michael Psaros - Founder & Managing Principal - KPS Special Situation Funds Martin Whitman - Founder & Co-CIO - Third Avenue Management

International:
As private equity firms continue to raise multi-billion dollar investment funds, they are increasingly looking for ways to spend new capital. In response to the dearth of domestic investment opportunities, PE firms are increasingly looking to India, China, and other parts of the world to acquire undervalued assets. This panel will focus on the continued global expansion of private equity investing.

Andrew Qian - Founder & Managing Director - New Access Capital (Moderator)
Mintoo Bhandari - Partner - Apollo Management
Douglas Freeman - Partner - O'Melveny & Myers
Thomas Ireland - Partner - Clatyon, Dubilier & Rice
Bill Tsai - Managing Partner - Longridge Capital Advisors
Paul Wolansky - Chairman & CEO - New China Capital Management

Limited Partners:
Institutional investors have long been the cornerstone of the Limited Partner community. As top private equity firms continue to test the public equity waters, Limited Partners now confront a trade-off between a potential dilution of leverage and enhanced performance reporting and disclosure requirements. In addition to discussing Limited Partners’ current allocation to private equity, this panel will also explore the style drift that is occurring as private equity funds expand both their capital base and the functional and geographic reach of their investments. Finally, panelists will discuss recent fundraising trends, the environment for secondary transactions, and the most popular due diligence practices among institutional investors.

Daniel Primack - Editor-at-Large - Thomson Financial (Moderator)
Robert Brown - Managing Director - The Carlyle Group
Jason Gull - Partner - Adams Street Partners
David Scopelitti - Managing Director - Pacific Corporate Group
Sheryl Schwartz - Managing Director - TIAA-CREF

Private Equity in the Public Markets:
The past year has seen the private equity community increasingly turn to the public markets as a source of fresh capital. This panel seeks to explore the current role of public markets in the private equity industry and the rationale behind raising public capital to support equity control investments. Special attention will be paid to private equity firms’ high-profile public fundraising efforts and the recent proliferation of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). In addition, the panel will touch upon the potential for future public markets fundraising competition between hedge funds and private equity investors.

Caesar Anquillare - President & CEO - Winchester Capital (Moderator)
Richard Foote - President & CEO - Highbury Financial
Ken Hanau - Founding Partner - 3i US Growth Capital
David Nussbaum - Chairman - EarlyBirdCapital, Inc.
Glenn Sarno - Partner - Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett