IPO Accelerator Summit

Julie Jones, Chair, Ropes & Gray LLP

Julie Jones is chair of Ropes & Gray and has been a member of the firm's management committee since 2011. One of the world's premier corporate lawyers, Julie has won countless accolades for her work on behalf of clients that include some of the world's largest companies and investors. Under Julie's leadership, Ropes & Gray was named The American Lawyer's “Law Firm of the Year,” is consistently ranked top-three on its prestigious “A-List,” and the firm’s lawyers have been named to its “Dealmakers of the Year” for four straight years. Julie herself has been honored as one of “America’s Top Lawyers,” by Forbes, Financial Times' “Top Law Firm Leaders,” one of The American Lawyer's prestigious “45 Under 45,” and named “Corporate Lawyer of the Year” three times and M&A Lawyer of the Year” twice by The Best Lawyers in America. Chambers ranks Julie as an “Eminent Practitioner” for Corporate/M&A.

Over the course of her career, Julie has led numerous multibillion-dollar deals, prompting clients to describe her as a “preternaturally cool-headed negotiator.” She has guided blockbuster deals across industries, including in health care (represented IASIS Healthcare in its sale to Steward Health Care, creating the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States), technology (represented TPG in its investment in Etsy), medical devices (represented TPG in its acquisition of Exactech, a leading provider of innovative bone and joint restoration products) and retail (represented Petco in its sale to CVC Capital Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board).

Daniel Forman, Partner, Ropes & Gray LLP

Daniel Forman is a partner in the capital markets group and focuses his practice on representing leading public companies, investment banks and private equity sponsors in a wide variety of capital markets transactions. His practice encompasses IPOs, secondary equity offerings, convertible debt offerings, debt offerings, tender offers, debt restructurings and private placements, and related corporate and securities matters.

In addition, Daniel has deep knowledge of the specialty finance market and brings significant experience with transactions involving PIPEs, real estate investment trusts, registered direct offerings and business development companies.

John Duffy, General Counsel, Olaplex

John Duffy has been General Counsel at Olaplex since April 2022. He previously served as the senior corporate attorney at Tiffany & Co., where he provided legal advice on various corporate, transactional, governance, sustainability, financing and other matters. John joined Tiffany & Co. in 2014, and advanced through positions of increasing management responsibility, most recently serving as Vice President - Associate General Counsel, Corporate & Real Estate. Prior to Tiffany & Co., John was an attorney at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he practiced corporate, transactional and securities law from 2009 to 2014. John earned a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Duke University and a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.

Josh Gertsch, Senior Industry Principal, Capital Markets and Financial Reporting, Workiva

Josh is a Senior Industry Principal at Workiva who supports Capital Markets and Financial Reporting. Previous to Workiva, Josh started his career with KPMG and served audit and advisory clients for nearly a decade followed by a number of Accounting & Finance roles, such as Controllerships and Corporate Development. He has experience with multiple initial and secondary offerings, business combinations and mergers, financial statement audits, SOX audits and implementation, and systems integrations.

Craig Marcus, Partner, Co-chair Capital Markets Group, Ropes & Gray LLP

Craig Marcus co-chairs the firm’s capital markets group. A leading capital markets and private equity attorney, Craig is a trusted advisor to many prominent public companies—as well as some of the nation’s foremost private equity sponsors and alternative asset managers—in their capital raising and strategic transactions. Institutional investors also turn to Craig for sophisticated SEC reporting guidance related to their investment positions.

Craig has led a number of high profile initial public offerings, including Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Brands, and has developed a particular expertise in navigating the IPO process for private equity portfolio companies. His innovation in all aspects of capital markets financing is especially valued by clients in the health care, consumer retail, industrials and technology industries. He has also been involved in several high-profile whole business securitization transactions, including the first of its kind over a decade ago.

Samantha Zytko, Partner, Deals, PwC US

Samantha Zytko is a partner in PwC’s deals practice, advising companies on technical accounting and financial reporting issues related to transformative transactions (e.g. accessing debt and equity capital markets - IPOs, spin-offs, mergers & acquisitions, divestitures and GAAP conversions). Samantha has a diverse experience across a variety of industries and has spent significant time helping companies assess their public company readiness and advising clients through the SEC registration process.

Chris Capuzzi, Partner, Ropes & Gray LLP

Issuers, underwriters, and selling stockholders all turn to Christopher Capuzzi to guide them through complex transactions and advise on a range of general corporate matters. Private equity sponsors also rely on his counsel in acquisition financings and ongoing portfolio company financing matters.

Christopher combines his legal acumen with an accountant’s perspective when advising clients on debt and equity offerings, leveraged financings, and specialty finance capital markets transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies, business development companies, and mortgage REITs. A certified public accountant in the state of New York who previously served as an auditor at KPMG, he has an unsurpassed understanding of financial statements and operations that benefits clients across industries and geographies.

Michael Occi, Chief Administrative Officer, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund

Michael Occi was appointed as Chief Administrative Officer of Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund in January 2023. Mr. Occi also serves in the same capacity for each of the other MS BDCs. Mr. Ochi has been a Managing Director of IM since April 2022, and joined Morgan Stanley in 2006. He previously served as Head of Financial Institutions Equity Capital Markets between May 2019 and April 2022 and prior to that held a variety of other roles within Equity Capital Markets, as well as in the financial institutions coverage areas in Fixed Income Capital Markets and in the Investment Banking Division. Michael graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University, with a BA in Finance and Accounting.

Alice Takhtajan, Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, JP Morgan

Alice Takhtajan serves as head of Media & Communications, Fintech and Tech Services Equity Capital Markets, as well as Head of ECM execution at JP Morgan, where she’s worked in various roles since 2002. Alice graduated from M.I.T. with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2002.

Jyri Wilska, Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley

Jyri Wilska serves as Head of Financial Institutions Equity Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley. In his 19 years at Morgan Stanley’s Financial Institutions Group, Jyri has worked in both the New York and London offices as a financial institutions investment banker across Insurance Brokers, Insurance Services, Asset and Wealth Management, FinTech, Diversified Financials and Securities Industries. Jyri graduated from Brown University magna cum laude with honors in 2004. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Economics and Philosophy.

Mirella Santome, Regional Head of Capital Markets, New York Stock Exchange

Mirella Santome is a Regional Head of Capital Markets at the New York Stock Exchange. In her current role, Mirella advises private companies on their path to become a public company through an IPO, Direct Listing or SPAC business combination. Prior to joining the NYSE, Mirella was a Vice President of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs for six years, covering Technology, Media and Telecom Sectors as well as high growth Consumer companies. Prior to Goldman Sachs, she was a Capital Markets Investment banker at Credit Suisse. Mirella has extensive experience raising capital, advising companies on optimal capital structure, analyzing operational performance and market positioning. Mirella graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Mirella resides in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Rachel Phillips, Partner, Ropes & Gray LLP

Leading capital markets attorney Rachel Phillips helps her clients navigate their most critical and challenging transactions and governance issues. Public companies, private equity sponsors, private equity portfolio companies, underwriters and selling shareholders alike look to Rachel for guidance through the complexities of securities transactions of all types. Her sophisticated transactional insight and wide-ranging compliance knowledge and experience has made her a particularly valued advisor to issuers in Canada and other countries planning initial or follow-up offerings in the United States.

Rachel’s experience encompasses the full range of strategic transactions, including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings involving equity and debt securities, and mergers and acquisitions. Her practical approach to closing deals and extensive experience with all phases of transactional negotiations bring welcome efficiency to clients’ critical strategic transactions.

Jeff Lawrence, Independent Board Member, Shake Shack, Former CFO, Domino’s Pizza, and FIGS Inc.

Jeffrey Lawrence has served on the board of Shake Shack since May 2023. Previously, Jeff spent more than 20 years at Domino’s Pizza, Inc., the leader in the global pizza industry, including five years as Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer. He was instrumental in Domino’s successful initial public offering, then the largest restaurant IPO ever, as well as the ground-breaking turnaround of the brand, including the technological transformation, global expansion and dramatic increase in store level profitability, all of which led to best-in-class shareholder returns for more than a decade. Jeff had also served on the Board of Directors of Domino’s master franchisee in China. Subsequent to his time at Domino’s, he served as Chief Financial Officer of FIGS, Inc., a direct-to-consumer apparel brand, where he led its successful initial public offering and partnered to grow significant shareholder value during his tenure. Jeff was later Chief Financial Officer of ShiftKey, a technology-enabled marketplace connecting licensed professionals to the future of work. Jeff began his career in public accounting and is a certified public accountant (registered status), in Michigan. He has an MBA with high distinction from the University of Michigan and a BBA (summa cum laude) from Wayne State University.

Michael Miller, CFO, Installed Building Products

Michael Miller has served as IBP’s most senior financial officer since joining in 2000 as Executive Vice President – Finance. He has been the Chief Financial Officer since 2013 and a director since 2004. Prior to joining the company, Michael held the position of Senior Vice President/Managing Director responsible for Corporate Investment Banking at Huntington Capital Corp., a subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, Inc., a regional bank holding company. Michael previously served on the Board of BMC Stock Holdings, Inc. from 2014 to January 2021. Before joining Huntington in 1991, he held various positions with Deutsche Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York. Michael began his career at First Union National Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University.

Josh Saltman, Portfolio Manager, Baron FinTech Fund

Josh Saltman is a portfolio manager at Baron Capital, an investment management firm in New York, where he manages the Baron FinTech Fund. He previously worked at TA Associates, a private equity firm in Boston, and at Morgan Stanley in New York. Josh graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. and from Columbia Business School with an M.B.A.

Mike Liddell, Managing Director, Solebury Capital

Mike Liddell joined Solebury Capital in 2012 and has worked on nearly 100 successfully priced IPOs and private placements, as well as over 100 follow-on and block trade transactions. Prior to joining the firm, Mike spent nearly 10 years doing sell-side research with Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities, and buy-side investing at Millennium Management. During this time, he focused primarily on the TMT verticals, specifically in the Broadcasting, Media, Internet and Gaming sectors. Mike began his career at Ernst & Young as a tax consultant, where he earned his CPA license. Mike is a CFA Charter holder and an active member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts.