Our M&A Advisor Event Series facilitates knowledge and connections for service providers and business owners related to merging and acquiring companies
Professional advisors gain knowledge that is helpful in advising clients and grow their referral networks.
Business owners hear about fundamental principles and considerations, both from transaction professionals and from CEOs and executives who have gone through M&A transactions.
This event will feature Mark Murphy, founder and CEO of Greenlight Networks, discussing his experiences starting, growing and selling his company to private equity investors.
Who Will Be There?
The M&A Advisor Series will be attended by executives, investors, and industry professionals interested in M&A and ownership transitions.
Invitation-only Roundtable for Business Owners and Founders
4:00PM
Registration + Networking
5:00PM
M&A Advisor Series
Sam Ticknor
Principal, Union Hill Advisors
Sam is a Principal at Union Hill Advisors and an Advisor at Hamilton Lane, where he represents and advises their NYS direct investment platform. He is also Managing Director for Fort Ghent Brokerage where he raises capital globally and and introduces high quality investment opportunities to investors. Prior, he was Executive Director at Upstate Capital. Sam earned a BA from Bucknell University in 1983 and his MBA from the Simon Business School at University of Rochester.
Rochester Director at Center for Teen Empowerment, Inc.
Doug Ackley began working with The Center for Teen Empowerment (TE) in 1993, just after it was established in Boston. He worked at the South End/Lower Roxbury site, at the Madison Park and Dorchester High School sites, and at a pilot site at the DYS Judge Connelly Treatment Facility. He has used his extensive experience with the TE Model to help supervise TE staff and provide consulting, training and technical assistance to organizations across the country interested in implementing elements of the TE Model. Following a move to Rochester, NY in 2002, Doug brought the TE Model to that city, growing it to a well-established organization with two program sites that has engaged thousands of Rochester youth and adults. Doug grew up in the Boston area and graduated from Hobart College. Prior to his work at TE, he spent a year working with teens in central California through the Jesuit Volunteer Program, and then worked in a residential facility for youth in Boston.
Center for Teen Empowerment’s (TE) mission is to employ, train, and empower youth to, in collaboration with adults, create peace, equity, and justice. Teen Empowerment inspires young people to think deeply about the most difficult social problems as they manifest in their own communities, and gives them the tools they need to bring their voices and lived experience to catalyze significant positive change in their own lives and their communities. Working in paid leadership positions, youth gain valuable employment and life skills and real work experience that helps pave the way for continued success in education and careers. Founded in Boston in 1992, TE began working in Rochester in 2003 and also works in Somerville, MA.
David is a Managing Member at Bluehenge Capital Partners where he invests in unitranche/mezzanine loans and minority equity investments from $3MM to $25MM in size to middle market businesses. Prior to Bluehenge Capital, he was a Director at Stonehenge Capital for 16 years. Ari earned his BA in business administration from the of Texas at Austin in 1995.
Prior to joining Paramax, Sam delivered more than three decades of outstanding wealth management and financial planning advice to individuals and businesses. He held various positions, including managing director at UBS Financial Services and president of McDonald Investments, a Keybank company. He also headed up Essex Capital Markets, which he sold to Keybank in 1998.
During his time as managing director at UBS, Sam was responsible for the NYS/Northern New England market, with more than $200 million in revenue and $30 billion in client assets. Sam was one of the pioneers in UBS’s business transition planning effort and helped negotiate the sale of McDonald to UBS in 2007, which proved to be the most successful acquisition and transition the industry had experienced to date. Sam also has ownership interests in a number of private companies in Upstate New York, which provides him with valuable insight into the goals, challenges, and opportunities faced by business owners today.
Prior to Greenlight, Murphy most recently served as Regional Vice President for XO Communications, responsible for leading the CLEC's Northeast Region including New York, New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Delaware. Murphy also served as Regional Vice President for Frontier Communications in Rochester, New York. In this role he managed commercial sales, support, and operations; developed and implemented sales and marketing strategies; and oversaw all hiring, training, retention, and recognition of customer contact personnel for the Rochester and East regions of the company. Murphy also served as Vice President and General Manager for Time Warner Cable in Rochester, New York and as the Senior Director of Business Development for Fibertech Networks. Murphy was recognized by the Rochester Business Journal as one of Rochester’s “Forty under 40” in 2008.
Murphy earned his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from St. Bonaventure University. He is a past president and current member of the Rochester, NY chapter of the St. Bonaventure University Alumni Association and former committee member for the St. Bonaventure University Gaudete Medal Awards.
Murphy has served on the Boards of Directors of the American Cancer Society, Rochester Rehabilitation Center, Sports Net, eBusiness Association, and the High Tech Business Council, and is on the Board of Stewards and Past President of The Country Club of Rochester. Murphy resides in Penfield, NY with his wife Margaret and their two children Jack and Caroline.
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and the Bank since March 2013
Prior Business Experience – President and Chief of Community Banking of the Bank (2012–2013); Commercial Banking Executive and Rochester Region President (2005–2012) – President, CEO and Director of subsidiary, The National Bank of Geneva, 2005 – President of Rochester Region, Bank of America (2004–2005) – Progressive corporate banking roles including Regional President, Fleet Financial Group (1989–2004)
Current Nonprofit Boards – Federal Reserve Bank of NY Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council – New York Bankers Association (Treasurer) – AAA of Central and Western New York, Inc. (Past Chair and Past Vice-Chair) – Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce – MCC Foundation – St. John Fisher College (Former Chair) – The Business Council of New York State – University of Rochester Medical Center
Past Nonprofit Boards – The Strong National Museum of Play; St. Ann’s of Greater Rochester Foundation; United Way of Greater Rochester; American Red Cross; Seneca Park Zoo Society; and YMCA of Greater Rochester
Education – St. Lawrence University – MBA, Simon Business School at the University of Rochester – Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, St. John Fisher College
Michael is a Partner at The Bonadio Group, a nationally ranked top 50 CPA firm. He is a member of the Firm’s Management Committee and also leads the Firm’s Advisory and Middle Market Practices. These Practices offer assurance and strategic consulting services from analysis to execution to drive profitability, increase efficiencies, mitigate risk and improve operations. He work closely with clients to evaluate opportunities and achieve their strategic goals by delivering value-add solutions.
Gordon E. Forth, is a Partner of the Woods Oviatt Gilman, LLP law firm where he chairs the Firm’s Business and Finance Department, Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group and Corporate Governance Practice Group. Mr. Forth’s practice primarily focuses on the representation of public and private companies (including emerging growth companies for their entire corporate life cycle from formation to exit), venture capital and private equity firms, strategic investors and family offices. Mr. Forth has significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial transactions and private financings (including initial seed financings, venture capital financings, growth capital financings, private equity financings, and recapitalizations) as well as public offerings. He frequently serves as outside general counsel to his clients, assisting management teams, boards of directors, and investors in accomplishing their business strategies, and providing legal counsel on issues ranging from day-to-day operational matters to high-stakes strategic matters. He also support the Firm’s business litigation attorneys in shareholder disputes and securities litigation. Mr. Forth has been named in multiple editions of the “Best Lawyers in America” and New York State “Super Lawyers”. Mr. Forth received his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and his J.D. and M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
The roundtable is most suitable for people with $1M+ revenue companies who are actively thinking about growing their businesses, possibly by making acquisitions, as well as people who have larger companies and are thinking about exiting by getting acquired.
Do I have to bring anything with me or will I be asked anything specific?
You should come prepared to share who you are, what you do, and a question you’d like to ask the co-hosts and experienced people in the room.
Is there anything else I should know?
This is an opportunity to make more intimate connections with your peers and with people who have in-depth experience with business topics that are relevant now, or could be relevant in the future, for you. You can assume that what is spoken about in the room will stay there, and should afford the same courtesy to other participants.
