Speaking Role
Speaking at BCW’s Power Breakfast - Building & Capitalizing on Enterprise Value: Buy-Bought-Grow-Sold
Through shared learnings & facilitated discussion as business owners, we can pro-actively incorporate vital lessons learned so that we further enhance the value of our organizations. A fantastic thing to do regardless of the timing of a business's transition plans.
Hear from an extraordinary team of panelists that will reveal value creation enhancers from the dimensions of Buy, Bought, Grow and Sold.
Moderator
Ted Miller, Founder & President
DataKey Consulting, LLC
DataKey is a growth accelerator firm that specializes in taking organizations and their management teams to the next level. Over the past ten years, DataKey has completed close to a thousand engagements, across hundreds of companies. DataKey takes pride in their 90% client re-engagement rate. DataKey’s focus is on five key valuation enhancers: Growth, Superb Leadership, Building Scalable Business Processes, Profitability, and ensuring Product Uniquenes.
Featured Panelists
Chris Jones, Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Talent Officer of Durante Rentals, LLC
Founded in 2009, Durante Rentals became the largest independently owned construction equipment rental business in the metro NY area. In his role as CFO, Chris has raised over $50MM in debt capital which funded the company’s consistent average growth rate of over 30% per year. In the past 10 years the company has grown from 5 to 126 employees and from 1 to 10 locations in the tri-state area. In June of this year Chris handled the negotiation and sale of a majority interest in Durante Rentals to the Clairvest Group out of Toronto, Canada. Chris continues his interest in early stage companies and is the lead investor in Verb (www.getverb.co) a health and wellness accountability platform located in Pelham.
Jackie Kopcho, Managing Partner, Big Branch Capital
Jackie Kopcho is the Managing Partner of Big Branch Capital where she is seeking to acquire and manage a single privately-held company. Jackie has held leadership positions in a variety of companies; with over twelve years of experience in business strategy, operations, marketing, sales, and finance in the Consumer Products, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Technology industries. She is a recent graduate of Columbia Business School's Executive MBA program.
Dr. Jennifer Ratner, Co-Owner and Lead Audiologist Audiology Associates of Westchester
Dr. Jennifer Ratner is the co-owner and lead audiologist at Audiology Associates of Westchester, a private audiology practice located on the campus of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. In just five years, Dr. Ratner along with her business partner Dr. Kira Pozdnyakova, have significantly grown their organization. Prior to this, she worked at a prominent private practice in New York City. She was awarded her doctorate in audiology from the top graduate audiology program in the country, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She gives presentations about hearing loss to various groups throughout Westchester county.
Fred Schwam, Former CEO and Owner American Christmas
Fred was the second generation owner of American Christmas from July, 1988 until October, 2017 when he sold his Company and its Mount Vernon, NY headquarters to MK Illumination. Fred took control of the business in 1988 that was started by his father, Marvin Schwam, in 1968. Fred built a professional and successful organization that continues to enjoy a reputation as the premier holiday decoration resource in the country. Fred’s insistence on discipline, creativity, preparedness and persistence filtered through to all divisions of the Company, resulting in a truly extraordinary level of commitment and passion throughout the organization.
Stewart Strauss, President & CEO, Strauss Paper Company a division of Imperial Dade
Stu is the second generation owner of Strauss Paper, a distributor of janitorial supplies. He has lived the dream he had as a child… growing the family business from a ‘home garage’ based food packaging supplier to one of the leading Jan/San suppliers in the tri-state area. The company does close to $75M in business, owns 90,000 sf of warehouse and office space and employees 100 people. Stu took over the business in 1984, after his father Henry, the founder of the business passed away. Earlier this year after running the business for 35 years, Strauss sold their company to Imperial Dade. Imperial Dade is owned by Bain Capital one of the top ten largest private equity firms. Stu remains President and CEO of the Strauss division of Imperial Dade.