Breakfast Meetings
March 3 – 2011 Exit Environment for Closely-Held Businesses: Opportunity. ..and Continuing Risk: Peter Gioia, Economist for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, David Leibell, a partner in the Private Client Services department at Wiggin and Dana LLP, Ramsey Goodrich, Managing Director with the investment bank Carter Morse & Mathias, Joe Pucci, a financial advisor at Bernstein Global Wealth Management and Mark Kaduboski, a partner in the Corporate Department at Wiggin and Dana LLP discussed what 2011 held in store for closely-held business owners evaluating exit opportunities.

April 26 – Family Dynamics: Managing a Difficult Business Transition: A case study in three parts focused on a family-owned business in transition featuring a reluctant/incapacitated father and feuding children. Mike Camerota of Touchstone Advisors played the role of the consultant, John Lawrence of Shipman & Goodwin LLP and Robin Bienemann of Crimson Rook, LLC role played as the father and daughter roles, and Paul Sessions, Director of the Center for Family Business at the University of New Haven participated as moderator.

May 25 – Succession Planning for Business Continuity: The 2010 Tax Relief Act provided business owners with an extraordinary opportunity to significantly reduce confiscatory gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. This session addressed the business succession and continuity planning opportunities presented in the current tax climate, and also outlined strategies for business owners, CEOs and CFOs to mitigate risks to business continuity and effectively manage a business succession due to a planned transition or a sudden loss. The panel included Glen Macdonald from Northwestern Mutual and Withers Bergman attorneys Ed Renn and Dan Crosby.

June 15 – Common Pitfalls Encountered in the Due Diligence Process: Moderator Steven Norris of Wells Fargo Private Bank and panelists David Bowman of Wells Fargo Private Bank, Scott Trenholm of Grant Thornton (formerly CCR LLP) and John Lawrence of Shipman & Goodwin LLP explored common pitfalls buyers and sellers encounter on their road to completing an M&A transaction.

September 8 – “Demystifying” Employee Stock Ownership Plans: Robert Schatz of Schatz Brown Glassman Kossow LLP reviewed ESOPs and why the ESOP alternative should be considered whenever an owner of a privately-held business, regardless of age, is considering a liquidity event. Don Miller, a former CFO of an ESOP-owned company and currently a director of several ESOP Companies, discussed his hands-on experiences with implementing ESOPs as a succession plan, managing an ESOP owned company, including the practical benefits that can be obtained and the obstacles to be avoided.

October 13 – Family Dynamics in  Business Succession and Exit Planning: Panelists from GenSpring Family Offices and Wiggin and Dana LLP discussed the importance of advisors understanding family dynamics in  the context of family business succession and exit planning. The focus was on how advisors can help manage family dynamics issues so that the succession is successful or the sale succeeds.

November 15 – Taxation and Your Transaction: Taxation expert’s Jay Rasmus CPA, PFS, MST, Mahoney Sabol & Company, LLP, Partner and Vince Liberti, Attorney, Halloran & Sage LLP described some of the pitfalls they saw with Federal and State taxes.

Networking Event
September 13 – Outdoor Evening of  Networking: A relaxing evening of networking outside on the Withers Bergman LLP dock was enjoyed by all. The evening included public speaking coach Debbie Fay of bespeak Presentation Solutions who debunked the myths  and illuminated the realities of what makes confident compelling change-making presenters and presentations.

Summit
March 15 - Assess, Adapt and Arrive: Navigating through challenging terrain: This summit featured three dynamic keynote speakers experienced in selling businesses or successful exits. In addition to the keynote presentations participants choose two of six break-out sessions and four of twelve “TEDs.”