Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents - for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
David Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and as a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. He served as moderator of World @ Large, a 13-part PBS discussion series for two seasons. He is also a professor of public service at the Harvard Kennedy School and is director of its Center for Public Leadership. In the fall of 2000, he published the best-selling book Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.
In the past, he has served in the White House as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Most recently, he served for 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as Counselor to the President and then as special adviser to the President and the Secretary of State. He returned to private life in January 1995.
During 1984 - 1993, Mr. Gergen worked mostly as a journalist. For two-and-a-half years, he was Editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, he is an honors graduate of Yale University (AB, 1963) and Harvard Law School (JD, 1967). He is a member of the District of Columbia bar. In addition, he served for three-and-a-half years in the United States Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.
Gergen is active on many non-profit boards, including Duke University and Teach for America. He frequently lectures here in the United States and overseas and holds 17 honorary degrees.
He has been married since 1967, to Anne Gergen of England. She is a family therapist. They have two children, Christopher and Katherine, and four grandchildren. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Andrea Auerbach is a Managing Director at Cambridge Associates, an investment consulting firm, and currently head of the firm’s U.S. private equity research practice. Prior to that, she led the Ex-U.S. private equity and venture capital research practice. Andrea will discuss the current private equity market environment and its perceived impact on limited partners for their existing portfolios and allocation strategies. Andrea will also discuss the implications for general partners in how they manage relations with their limited partners and implications for those general partners gearing up to raise their next fund.
Andrea joined Cambridge Associates in 2001 from Prudential Private Equity, where she was a Senior Director, completing investments in the telecommunications, entertainment and media sectors. Over the course of her eight years with Prudential, Andrea was involved in investing and managing over $1 billion of capital in U.S. buyouts, venture capital, real estate, and European mezzanine and private equity. She also led efforts to benchmark Prudential’s $5 billion buyout portfolio and domestic and European fund investment portfolios. Andrea was also an Equity Research Associate for Nesbitt Burns Gerard, focusing on PC Hardware and Digital Media Technologies and authored multiple research reports and newsletters in that sector.
Andrea graduated from Smith College and received an MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, where she received first year honors.
John Carroll is a Managing Director in Summit Partners’ Boston office, where he focuses on growth equity investments for privately-held companies in the technology and business services sectors. He originally joined Summit in 1993. Subsequently, he attended business school and returned to Summit in 1998. Prior to Summit, Mr. Carroll worked for Bain & Company and BankBoston Corporation.
His board directorships and investments include AmeriPath, Associa, Blue Ocean Software, Burst Media, CallTech Communications, Catalyst International, Cetero Research, Clinical Pathology Laboratories, FleetCor Technologies, Fortegra Financial, Fry, Help/Systems, Innov-X Systems, LogistiCare, MEDITECH Holdings, Pacer Electronics, Suburban Ostomy Supply Company, and Sybari Software.
Mr. Carroll received an A.B. in economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Summit Partners (www.summitpartners.com) is a global growth equity investor for world-class companies. Founded in 1984, Summit has raised more than $11 billion in capital and has provided growth equity, recapitalization, and management buyout financing to more than 300 growing companies across a range of industries. These companies have completed nearly 125 public offerings, and more than 110 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit Partners has more than 160 employees in its Boston, Palo Alto, and London offices.
Prior to founding Lineage, Brook was a Partner at Heritage Partners, Inc., where he invested and managed investments in middle market closely-held businesses from 1993-2003. He was also one of the original four team members that left Equity Partners, the later stage equity unit of BancBoston Capital, to form Heritage Partners, Inc. in 1993. Brook was an investment professional at Equity Partners from 1990 to 1993. Previously, Brook invested in middle market buyouts at Integrated Acquisition, Inc. and at E.F. Hutton & Company. Brook holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Areas of Practice: David Powers, a partner in the firm’s Private Equity Group and Technology Companies Group, primarily focuses on private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and corporate restructurings. Mr. Powers provides general corporate and securities advice to emerging growth and middle market companies.
Work for Clients: Mr. Powers has extensive experience representing private equity and venture capital funds in connection with portfolio company investments, buyouts and leveraged recapitalizations. He also has extensive experience representing public and private companies on a wide variety of matters, including mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance transactions, as well as advising on business, corporate governance and securities laws matters. Mr. Powers regularly represents these clients on a broad range of corporate finance transactions, including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, private placements, private equity and venture capital financings, and debt financings.
Mr. Powers acts as counsel to boards of directors in connection with various corporate governance and fiduciary matters. He also has extensive experience in representing companies on intellectual property issues and technology license, development and distribution arrangements.
Professional Activities: Mr. Powers is an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth’s (ACG) Boston Chapter, where he recently served as the chair of the 2005 Annual Growth Conference. He is a frequent speaker, including most recently at ACG’s 2007 and 2006 Annual Growth Conferences and the MIT Private Equity/Venture Capital Forum. Mr. Powers also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts.
Publications/Presentations: While attending law school, Mr. Powers was a member of the George Washington University Law Review.
Professional Experience: Prior to rejoining the firm in 2005, Mr. Powers was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in Boston, where he was a member of that firm’s Corporate Department and Private Equity/Emerging Companies Group.
Bar and Court Admissions: Mr. Powers is admitted to practice in Massachusetts.
Education: J.D., George Washington University Law School, 1990 (with honors) B.A., University of Vermont, 1987 (cum laude)
Mr. Roman manages Harris Williams & Co.'s Boston Office. Mr. Roman has been engaged in a variety of advisory and financing engagements since commencing his investment banking career in 1979. Mr. Roman has provided investment banking services to clients in a comprehensive array of industries including advanced manufacturing, technology, consumer products, healthcare, retail/restaurant, financial services, and energy. His activities have encompassed over 200 initial and repeat engagements in sellside and buyside mergers and acquisitions, fairness opinions, Special Committee representation, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, exchange and tender offers, going private transactions, public and private financings, and numerous financial advisory assignments and expert testimony. Previous experience includes Managing Director and head of the Boston Investment Banking office of Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. (now Morgan Stanley). Prior to joining Harris Williams & Co., Mr. Roman was co-Head of Investment Banking at Tucker Anthony Sutro (now RBC Capital Markets).
Mr. Roman earned an M.B.A. at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and a B.A. with Honors at Brown University. He is a Trustee of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and a past trustee/director of the Noble and Greenough School and the Massachusetts Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
John is a Managing Director of H.I.G. Capital. Since joining H.I.G. in 1996, John has led more than 20 middle market transactions including acquisitions, leveraged recapitalizations and industry consolidations of both public and private companies. He is involved in all aspects of the investment process from sourcing, transaction negotiations, and execution of post closing development. John currently serves on the boards of several portfolio companies. John is located in H.I.G.'s Boston office.
Prior to H.I.G., John was a senior professional with several leading consulting firms, working with middle market companies to develop and implement strategic and operational business plans. In this capacity, John has held several executive management positions including chief operating officer and chief financial officer. John began his career in the Corporate Finance Group at Ernst & Young. John is a graduate of Harvard University with a dual degree in applied mathematics and economics.
Charles co-founded Intervale Capital to build on the success of Cherington Capital, a private equity firm focused on investments in middle market energy companies. Prior to founding Cherington Capital, Charles co-founded a smaller fund which also focused on middle market buyouts. Charles has over fifteen years of private equity experience.
Before launching his first fund, Charles spent several years as a vice president at the Vietnam Fund, a British private equity fund. Charles also worked for CS First Boston in New York and Vietnam.
Charles earned an M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from Wesleyan University.