CEO Roundtable

Our CEO Roundtable is a monthly lunch that provides an opportunity for our clients and special guests, such as venture capitalists, investment bankers and other professionals, to mingle with one another in an informal setting. A short presentation on a topic of interest to our clients, such as "Doing Business in China" or the "Financing Term Sheet," is followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.

If you'd like to be added to our invitation list for the CEO Roundtable, please email Brianna.

Past CEO Roundtables

February 19, 2008: How Silicon Valley Companies are being Impacted by Today's Capital Market, Jennifer S. Muller (Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin) and Ray Boone (ORIX Venture Finance).
Given the latest equity and debt market volatility, it makes sense that local companies may start to feel the effects. Ms. Muller and Mr. Boone will explain how Silicon Valley companies are being impacted by these markets. They will begin with an overview of the current state of capital markets followed by a more narrow discussion of the ability of local companies to raise private debt and equity.

January 22, 2008: Financial Organization for the Busy Individual, Joel Jakubson.
Companies have bookkeepers and controllers and the busy pace of life makes it desirable for individuals to do the same for their family finances. Joel will discuss the growing field of personal finance software and how families can "outsource" some of their financial chores. He will explain how families can analyze personal spending, monitor budgets, and greatly simplify tax preparation.

December 7, 2007: M&H Client of the Year, PlayPhone, Inc.
M&H honors PlayPhone, Inc. as our Client of the Year. PlayPhone is a leading mobile media company providing cutting edge personalization and entertainment content to mobile consumers anytime and anywhere. The company pioneered the concept of direct-to-consumer mobile content distribution and powered the first off-deck downloads of mobile games in North America. PlayPhone is currently one of the largest distributors of mobile games, ringtones, wallpaper, videos and other mobile content in the world.

November 13, 2007: CEO Coaching for Board Meetings, Cindy Steiner.
Running a Board Meeting is no easy feat. For a CEO a Board Meeting presents a number of challenges ranging from discussions that get off track to deciding how best to present data so that Board Members can make intelligent decisions. Join us for lunch to hear Cindy Steiner discuss the process and benefits of CEO Coaching for Board Meetings.

CEO Coaching can benefit both Board Members, who may think meetings are too long, full of too much irrelevant detail, or need to be run more tightly; and CEOs who need to present an image of control and maintain favorable standing with the Board.

October 16, 2007: More is Better, Sooner is Better: Thoughts on Variable Compensation Plans, Randall Bolten.
Variable compensation plans are a powerful tool for motivating and rewarding sales reps and managers, of course, but also... the executive management team; technical project teams; employees across-the-board, through MBO and company-wide bonus plans. But all too often, the value of these expensive plans is wiped out by poorly thought-out designs, unintentionally conflicting incentives, and employee misunderstandings that damage morale.

Randy Bolten, a CFO experienced with both public and private companies, will offer practical thoughts and tips on structuring, implementing, and packaging variable compensation plans to maximize their value and effectiveness. With many companies nearing the ends of their fiscal year and the start of the next, this is a timely topic for a Roundtable discussion.

September 18, 2007: Featuring Ted Noble of Wintec Energy, Ltd.
Renewables are now the hottest sector of the energy market, but the road from creation of the renewable technology to actual installation and operation of renewable energy projects has a variety of challenges. Investors and developers need to get the latest insights on how to take their technology and turn it into real world projects as well as the different monetization opportunities along the development cycle. Wintec Energy, Ltd., has been a developer, owner and operator of renewable projects since 1984.

July 17, 2007: Featuring Jim Pitofsky, Executive Director of Hands On Bay Area.
Jim has partnered with and coached many CEO's on how to improve their philanthropic giving and corporate volunteerism and how to use service as a strategy for leadership development. He will talk about how other companies have done this, how it has helped their businesses, and how executives have made the business case to their investors, boards, consumers, etc. for such efforts.

June 19, 2007: Think Big with Sandesh Patnam of Bay Partners.
Sandesh will discuss Bay Partners' seed program. Since 1976 Bay Partners has worked with entrepreneurs in starting and growing more than 200 information technology and health care businesses.

May 15, 2007: Featuring Clint Chao, a founding general partner of Formative Ventures.
Formative Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital firm whose founders all have operating backgrounds. Before co-founding Formative Ventures, Clint Chao worked as VP of marketing, sales and business development at SkyStream Networks.

March 21, 2007: What every startup should know about SOX, SAS70 and other awful regulations. Mat Siliak and Gary Nankin of Illumant.
Mat and Gary will discuss how to prepare your business to navigate the new regulatory landscape, including SOX, SAS70, PCI, Security Breach Disclosure Act and more. Both Mat and Gary have deep expertise in corporate governance, risk management, compliance, and information technology.

January 16, 2007: 2006 in Review and the Forecast for 2007. Steve Fletcher from Savvian LLC.
Our annual state of the ecosystem presentation, courtesy of Steve Fletcher, Managing Director of Savvian LLC, a San Francisco based investment bank. Steve will present Savvian's 2006 in review and a forecast of what we can expect in the emerging company ecosystem in 2007.