Private Equity Roundtable: What's in Store for the Middle Market? Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Club Deals and Mega-Funds

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm -- Registration
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm -- Panel Discussion, Q&A
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm -- Cocktail Reception

Ropes & Gray presents the Private Equity Roundtable: What's in Store for the Middle Market? Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Club Deals and Mega-Funds. This program will be held in New York City on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 and in Boston on Wednesday, April 26, 2006. Topics for discussion will include:

• What are the long term trends that have influenced and will continue to influence the appeal of middle market private equity as an asset class? What opportunities available only in the middle market have convinced many sponsors to limit their typical transaction size and elect not to partner with other funds?
  
• What factors drive an LP's decision to invest in the middle market instead of the larger funds? To what degree do LP compensation structures and the availability of internal resources come into play?
  
• What are middle market sponsors doing to distinguish themselves from other players in the marketplace (both other middle market players and the mega-funds)? What sets recognized middle market participants apart from their peers in the eyes of LPs, potential transaction participants and management teams?
  
• How is the trend of middle market funds transacting between each other impacting transaction terms and economics?
  
• What lessons can be learned from the experience of middle market firms that have succeeded - or failed - at permitting a new generation of firm leadership to emerge? What organizational challenges are middle market firms facing as they try to evolve into institutions that no longer depend on the active involvement of their founders?

New York Speakers:
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Moderator
Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School
Panelists (in alphabetical order)
Christopher Lacovara, Co-Managing Partner, Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C.
Peter Lamm, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fenway Partners, Inc.
Lana Lewin, Managing Director, Credit Suisse
James P. Rutherfurd, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Russell W. Steenberg, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers
Merrill A. Ulmer, Partner, Ropes & Gray


Boston Speakers:
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Moderator
Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School
Panelists (in alphabetical order)
C. Todd Boes, Partner, Ropes & Gray
M. Patrick Campbell, Principal, Benedetto, Gartland & Company
Philip A. Cooper, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Olive Tree Investment Management, LLC
Michael R. Eisenson, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC
Dana L. Schmaltz, President, J.W. Childs Associates, L.P.
Marc B. Wolpow, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Audax Group

Co-sponsored by RR Donnelley Global Capital Markets