Current and previous speakers:
Private Equity partners and Chief Executive Officers
Eileen Auen - CEO PMSI, Inc.
As Chairman and CEO, Eileen Auen is focused on ensuring that PMSI is recognized as the most trusted, integrated pharmacy and specialty services provider in the workers’ compensation and liability markets. Eileen is a highly regarded insurance industry executive with proven experience leading large healthcare and workers’ compensation companies. Throughout her career, Eileen’s dynamic leadership style has driven outstanding outcomes for her organizations’ customers as well as her investors/shareholders.
Eileen brings nearly 20 years of executive experience in workers’ compensation and healthcare. Prior to leading PMSI, Eileen was the head of healthcare management for Aetna, Inc., the nation’s third-largest health insurer. In this role, Eileen managed more than 35 billion in healthcare spending and led the company’s network management, care management, and informatics organizations. Directly prior to this, Eileen served as Chief Executive Officer at APS Healthcare, Inc., a leading provider of Care Management and Behavioral Health Solutions that covered more than 20 million members in the United States and Puerto Rico. While at APS, Eileen repositioned the company to become one of the largest and most successful integrated Care Management organizations in the country.
Earlier in her career, Eileen served as President of HealthNet of the Northeast; President of CIGNA Healthcare-Southeast Region; Senior Vice President of Intracorp, CIGNA s care management subsidiary; Senior Vice President of Riscorp, a Florida-based workers’ compensation insurer; and Vice President of Operations for United States Fidelity & Guaranty Corporation’s personal lines of business. She began her post-business school career as a Senior Associate in Booz•Allen & Hamilton, Inc’s Financial Services practice.
Eileen received an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and a BA in economics and finance from Towson University. She is a member of the Board of Directors of ICF International, a global consulting firm.
Beth Bronner - Mistral Equity Partners
Ms. Bronner is a Managing Director of Mistral Equity Partners. She is a senior business leader with an outstanding track record delivering strong, profitable revenue and market share growth for marquee brands — Jim Beam, Revlon, Nabisco, AT&T, Haagen-Dazs and Citibank. She has demonstrated success in change management, business turnaround, organization restructuring, and high-performance team building. Her proven ability to build brands is the result of strong consumer insights, strategic integrated marketing and superior in market execution.

Ms. Bronner was Global Chief Marketing Officer of Beam Spirits and Wine, President of consumer businesses for Revlon, Haagen-Dazs and Sunbeam and held senior marketing positions across a diverse group of consumer focused product and service industries.

Ms. Bronner currently serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Compensation Committee of Assurant, Inc. Ms. Bronner is also a member of the Board of Directors of Jamba, Inc. and Chef Solutions Holdings, LLC. She also currently serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations including The Goodman Theater, The University of Chicago Booth Business School Marketing Steering Committee, and the President’s Advisory Board at Vassar College.

Ms. Bronner received a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago.
Rachel Brydon Jannetta - CEO TestAmerica
Rachel Brydon Jannetta is President and CEO of TestAmerica, a $300M environmental business that is co-owned by HIG Capital (51%) and American Capital (ACAS) (49%).  TestAmerica is comprised of TestAmerica Laboratories, the largest environmental testing company in North America and several related businesses that supply sampling and remediation treatment equipment, air emissions stack testing services, indoor air quality testing, as well as environmental drilling. Rachel is a member of and reports to the Board of Directors of TestAmerica Environmental Services, LLC.  

A Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, Rachel started her accounting training in 1977, as an Internal Auditor for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries based in Edinburgh, Scotland.  After spending 16 years in finance and general management roles mainly in commercial industry, Rachel joined Severn Trent in 1993 as Managing Director of their UK Laboratories business.  In 1997 she became President and CEO of Severn Trent Laboratories (STL) in the US and, through a series of acquisitions, developed STL from two small labs in New England into the largest testing business in the US.  In June 2004 Rachel was appointed to the Board of Directors of Severn Trent Plc; Severn Trent is one of the UK’s top 100 companies.  

As part of a change in strategy whereby Severn Trent divested all of its non-regulated businesses to return to its water utility roots, STL was sold to HIG Capital in late December 2006.  In 2007 STL merged with HIG’s existing portfolio company in the environmental sector, TestAmerica, and after a period of integration and client transition, the combined business now operates as TestAmerica and affiliates as described above.  

In February this year, following a balance sheet refinancing, ACAS became a larger equity partner increasing their ownership stake in TestAmerica to 49%.  In addition to her executive role with TestAmerica, Rachel is also a Director of WaterAid America, a philanthropic organization providing drinking water and sanitation facilities to Third World countries.
Melanie Cox - CEO Scoop
Melanie Cox was most recently the President and CEO at Scoop Management LLC, where she was recruited to implement the turnaround of the Scoop retail brand. She has more than 25 years of firsthand experience and has held senior level positions at Wet Seal, Gymboree, and Urban Outfitters as well as highly notable private equity firms such as Cerberus Capital Management and Prentice Capital Management. She joined Cerberus as an operations executive providing due diligence on Eddie Bauer, Gadzooks, Rafaela, and Mervyn’s. She led the Mervyn’s post-acquisition management effort and was instrumental in producing $120M EBITDA in the first year. She recruited many of the senior managers to the organization including the Executive Chairman and President. At Prentice she served as an operations executive providing due diligence on retail and wholesale brands such as It's Sugar, Bluefly.com, Delia's, and Cato. She also developed and implemented restructuring plans for portfolio companies KB Toys and Goody's Family Clothing and advised on portfolio companies Wet Seal, Arden B., It's Sugar, Bluefly.com, and Russ Berrie.

Her diversified background includes driving significant revenue and profit growth and the successful turnaround of five retail companies, the completion of two mergers as well as the recruitment of multiple senior management teams for new acquisitions. Her specialties include merchandising, marketing, product development, sourcing, operations, logistics, and business development. She is a long term veteran in all sectors of the retail industry from discount to luxury; women's, men's and children's apparel and accessories; home, gifts, and toys.
Paige Daly - Harvest Partners
Paige Daly is a Managing Director at Harvest Partners, a 30 year-old private equity firm with a long history of investing in growth-oriented middle market businesses. She is focused primarily on consumer and retail investing. Prior to joining Harvest, Paige was with LNK Partners and Apax Partners where she was a member of the U.S. consumer and retail group. In her 14 year private equity career, Paige has focused on growth capital, buyout and recapitalization investments in consumer and retail businesses, and is responsible for the sourcing, analyzing, structuring, financing, overseeing and exiting from the firm’s investments. Before joining Apax, Paige was with Bain Capital.
Paige has served on the Board of Directors of Bob’s Discount Furniture, Spyder Active Sports and Gocom Communications. Paige received a BS with a concentration in finance from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jacqueline D. Reses - Apax Partners
Jacqueline Reses was most recently the Apax partner responsible for media investments in the US. Recent investments include Cengage Learning (Thomson Learning), Nelson Education, Hit Entertainment, NEP Broadcasting, Learning Annex and Intelsat. Prior to joining Apax, Jackie served as the chief executive officer of iBuilding, Inc., a real estate software business that was sold to Realeum. Previously, she was at Doughty Hanson & Co. and also worked for seven years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a Vice President in mergers and acquisitions and in the principal investment area.
Jackie received a B.S. in economics with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also on the Investment Committee for The Brearley School and The Peddie School, and serves on the non-profit Board of City Meals on Wheels.
Apax Partners is one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups. It operates across the United States, Europe, Israel and Asia and has more than 40 years of investing experience. Funds under the advice of Apax Partners total 40 billion around the world. These Funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. Apax Partners Funds invest in companies across its global sectors of Tech & Telecom, Retail & Consumer, Media, Healthcare and Financial & Business Services.
Jonathan Lynch - CCMP Capital
Jonathan Lynch is a Managing Director in the New York office of CCMP Capital and a member of the firm's Investment Committee. Mr. Lynch is also Head of Investor Relations. He has been responsible for the firm's investments in 1-800-Flowers.com, American Floral Services, ARAMARK Corporation, Centennial Security, Crosstown Traders, Masada Security, Pinnacle Foods Group, Premier Systems, Sentry Security, Quiznos Sub and Vitamin Shoppe Industries. Prior to joining CCMP in 1992, Mr. Lynch was a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions department of Prudential Securities. Mr. Lynch holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. Lynch is past President of the Venture Investors Association of NY (VIANY) and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Georgetown University School of Business.
Patricia Lizarraga
Ms. Lizarraga is the managing partner of Hypatia Capital Group.  She is responsible for the vision, leadership and execution of the organization's strategy, as well as originating proprietary private equity transactions.  She is a successful entrepreneur and merchant banker.  She was most recently the Managing Director of Calyon Securities' New York mergers & acquisitions group. She started her merchant banking career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.  In addition, Ms. Lizarraga founded the Ursus Restaurant Group in 1997 and Ursus Agroindustrial in 2002, as well as is a founding member of Sigma SAFI, an asset management company.  She also served as the President of the Privatization Committee of the Toll Roads of Peru. Ms. Lizarraga is on the board of directors of the Harvard Business School Women’s Association of New York, In-Motion, the Educational Video Center, the Diller-Quaile School of Music, as well as a Trustee for the Museum of Art of Lima. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of women in private equity at professional forums and top business school conferences.  

Ms. Lizarraga received her Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Yale University and her Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
Karen L. O’Connor, PhD - CEO eSecLending
Karen L. O’Connor, PhD is currently the Co-Chief Executive Officer for eSecLending, LLC, a global securities lending manager who designs, implements and administers customized securities lending programs for major institutional investors worldwide. In her capacity as Co-CEO, she oversees all aspects of the company’s strategic direction. She manages the high-growth phase of the firm through identifying and evaluating business development opportunities. She oversaw two major acquisitions since joining the company – one a securities lending company and the other a trust company.

Prior to joining eSecLending, Dr. O’Connor held COO positions at Fidelity Investments (Broadband business), Baltimore Technologies, and Cybertrust Solutions.

Dr. O’Connor was formerly with Digital Equipment Corporation in several senior finance roles including the OVMS CFO where she led the effort in the financial turn around of this multi-billion dollar critical software business.

Dr. O’Connor was graduated from The College of the Holy Cross with a BA in economics, Suffolk University with a MBA and received her PhD from Kennedy Western University. Dr. O’Connor has published numerous articles on a broad range of business topics such as business controls and performance management to changing financial strategies in dynamic environments. She is a member of the Boston Club and Financial Executives, a Trustee of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and on the Dean’s Advisory Board at Suffolk University.
Margaret Mager - Goldman Sachs
Ms. Mager was a Managing Director and Business Unit Leader – Retail Industry, Global Investment Research for Goldman Sachs until December of 2007.  In this role she led a team of 19 research professionals covering more than 90 stocks across all sectors of retail.  Ms. Mager has been named an All Star Analyst for eight consecutive years (1999-2007) by Institutional Investor, as well as recognized as a top analyst in surveys by Greenwich Associates, Reuters, Starmine, and The Wall Street Journal.  While at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Mager worked on numerous IPO’s, including Polo Ralph Lauren, Columbia Sportswear, Carter's Childrenswear, Coach, UnderArmour, Maidenform, J. Crew, and Lululemon.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1995, Ms. Mager held various investment and research positions focused on retail at General American Investors, Smith Barney, Harris Upham, Inc, and Morgan Stanley.  She began her career at the May department stores.

Ms. Mager holds an MBA with distinction from New York University and a BS, Finance cum laude from the University of Connecticut.
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Join us as a Speaker
Hypatia Capital welcomes:
 
  • current and past CEO's of private equity owned companies,
  • partners of major private equity firms,
  • institutional and family-office limited partners
 
and other industry participants to share their knowldege and network with CEO level executives who are actively pursuing CEO opportunities to acquire companies in partnership with private equity funds.
 
If you are interested in participating as a speaker at our seminars, please contact us:

Patricia Lizarraga
Managing Partner
Hypatia Capital Group
(212) 472-7500