Join us for the final installment in our ETA webinar series this year where we speak with an EIR who has completed the acquisition process and is acting CEO of a portfolio company.
Event Details
Joe Cortese, '10, Chicago Booth Alumni Club Co-President, Brian O'Connor, '08, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Booth and Founder – Managing Partner of NextGen Growth Partners, and Drew Daum, '18, CEO - Record Connect, will present the sixth webinar in our Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) series. In this edition, we will speak with Drew about his experience completing the ETA transaction process and leading a private equity-backed portfolio company. Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions throughout the program.
Speaker Profiles
Joe Cortese (Speaker) '10
Principal, Senior Consultant, DiMeo Schneider & Associates, LLC
www.dimeoschneider.com
Joe joined DiMeo Schneider in 2008. He provides investment consulting services to family offices, nonprofit organizations, high net worth investors and other financial institutions as part of the firm's Financial Institutions Outsourcing Practice. Joe gives advice and expertise on all facets of effective investment program design including establishing investment objectives, asset allocation and portfolio design, investment research and due diligence and overall practice management. Joe is also a member of the firm's Private Markets Research Team. Prior to joining the firm, Joe worked for Morgan Stanley's Private Wealth Management Office and as a Managing Director for an investment management firm implementing a value-focused, long/short equity strategy based on University of Chicago Booth research. Joe earned his MBA with concentrations in Analytic Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BBA with a Certification in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa. Joe is a member of UNICEF's NextGen Junior Board as well as Co-Founder of the Hawkeye Business Development Group of Chicago. Joe is currently serving as the Co-President of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Alumni Club and is a frequent contributor to a number financial media outlets including podcasts and the TD Ameritrade Network.
Brian O'Connor (Panelist) '08
Founder & Managing Partner, NextGen Growth Partners
https://nextgengp.com/
Brian O'Connor is the Founder and Managing Partner of NextGen Growth Partners ("NGP"), a lower-middle market private equity firm that partners with talented entrepreneur-operators to acquire and build great companies in growing industries. The firm was founded in 2015 on the belief that there is significant opportunity for value creation when fundamentally sound small businesses are led by the best and brightest entrepreneurial-minded operators.
Prior to founding NGP, Brian served as co-CEO and Head of Business Development of Innflux, a hospitality-focused IT service company, where he oversaw sales / marketing, business development, M&A and investor relations functions. Innflux was sold to strategic buyer Thing5 in January 2015, after 3.5 years of significant growth. Brian became involved with Innflux after acquiring the business, through his search fund Fellowship Capital Partners ("FCP") in 2011.
Prior to founding FCP, Brian was a vice president with Equity International, a middle market growth private equity fund. Brian was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, underwriting and closing new investment opportunities, as well as working closely with portfolio companies post-acquisition on operations and business strategy.
Brian also serves as Board Member and Treasurer for Distinctively College Bound, a non-profit focused on creating opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular activities that cater to their individual talents and interests and promote continued education.
Brian holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in entrepreneurship, finance, accounting and international business. He is also a graduate of Miami University (Ohio) with a double major in finance and management information systems.
Drew Daum (Panelist) '18
CEO, Record Connect
www.recordconnect.com
Drew is CEO of Record Connect, a leading company that provides outsourced release-of-information services to hospitals, health systems, and physician practices. Most recently, Drew was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at NextGen Growth Partners. Drew partnered with NGP with the intent to operate a tech-enabled services business in which NGP invest. This goal was completed in November 2019.
Before joining NextGen Growth Partners, Drew worked at LinkedIn, part of Microsoft, where he helped clients solve their unique talent challenges. He focused on helping organizations, including health systems, with attracting, recruiting, and retaining talent through employer branding and employee engagement.
Prior to LinkedIn, Drew worked at IBM in the Watson Group. At IBM, Drew employed machine-learning software to support enterprises in better data-driven decision making. He once also served as IBM's data expert on a business reality-TV show. Fortunately for him, it was never aired.
Drew began his career in management at Itasca Plastics, a plastics-manufacturing business that, amongst other lines, builds wall protection products for hospitals. He still sees some of his first products in use when visiting current Record Connect clients.
Drew received a BA from Wheaton College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.