Technology M&A Conference

Barbara Blank is Director and Associate General Counsel, Competition and Regulatory, at Meta, where she is responsible for a broad portfolio of competition matters in the US and abroad, including M&A, regulatory investigations, and counseling. Prior to joining Meta in April 2020, Barbara was Deputy Assistant Director of the Anticompetitive Practices Division at the Federal Trade Commission, where she oversaw a wide variety of antitrust matters, as well as led investigations and litigation in the areas of high-tech and digital markets. Previously, Barbara was an associate at WilmerHale.

Anik Bose has 15 years of active venture capital and corporate development experience, with particular emphasis on transaction structuring and strategic planning, including 7 years as SVP, Corporate Development at 3Com Corporation, and 10 years as General Partner at BGV. In his role as SVP, Corporate Development at 3Com he played a significant role in company strategy, managed a $250MM corporate venture fund and a team of 20 investment and business development professionals, spearheaded 20 venture capital investments and executed numerous spin out transactions as well as several large M&A transactions totaling over $1.4Bn in value.

His venture investments on behalf of 3Com Ventures (3CV) include – Mesh Networks, Parthus, Cicada Semiconductor, Microtune, ADMTek, Atrica, Intransa, Sheer Networks, Air Prime, Yipes, Silicon Wave and Healthetec. In his role at BGV, Anik is currently a General Partner and works closely with Eric Benhamou. He is very active in every portfolio company where he spearheaded the investment, and serves as board member of Cyberinc, WebScale and Blue Cedar Networks.

Anik has extensive global experience as a private company director, having served on the board of several 3CV and BGV portfolio companies and on the board of H3C. As a senior operational executive, Anik architected the creation and launch of the fastest growing Asian networking company H3C, a joint venture between Huawei and 3Com.

H3C achieved annual revenues of over $700 million and a market valuation of $1.8Bn within 36 months of launch. H3C was formed in 2003 with two key objectives: (1) Establish a significant market presence in China, the world’s fastest growing LAN switching and routing market; and (2) Establish world class R&D platform in China for LAN switching and routing at a highly competitive cost structure. At the time of formation, H3C was the first joint venture of its kind between a Silicon Valley technology company and a China based technology company focused on exploiting global markets.

Anik was the lead executive for 3Com who oversaw the growth of H3C, resolved day to day operational issues, worked closely with H3C management, nurtured the Huawei strategic relationship and ultimately negotiated the buyout of Huawei’s ownership stake by 3Com in late 2006.

Earlier in his career, Anik served as a Partner in the High Technology Strategy Practice of Deloitte Management Consulting in San Francisco as well as a Principal in the High Tech Strategy Practice of Gemini Management Consulting. In his management consulting roles Mr. Bose worked with high tech companies such as LSI Logic, Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard.

John Chambers, founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale. He invests in companies that are leading market transitions. John is also the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and was most recently appointed Global Ambassador of the French Tech by President Emmanuel Macron of France.

In addition to investing in and mentoring startups, John promotes entrepreneurship, gender equality, and accelerating overall new business creation around the world to create startup nations and a startup world, as he believes that startups will be the core driver of economic growth and job creation in the Digital Age.

Prior to founding JC2 Ventures, John spent 25+ years with Cisco, serving as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman. He currently holds the title of Chairman Emeritus with the organization.

Gamiel has a unique passion for helping drive corporate innovation and grow Mayfield’s early-stage portfolio. He runs the business development function for Mayfield and focuses specifically on accelerating product-market fit and early customer adoption for Mayfield’s investments. Gamiel has supported hundreds of CXOs who look for advice and best practices in corporate innovation, and has built a playbook known as the 3 “I”s of Corporate Innovation – Ideation, Incubation and Investment.

Gamiel’s role in supporting Mayfield’s founders in their journey from inception to iconic is captured in the Founders Masterclass that he frequently presents, which supports key themes of how best to fund-raise capital, realize “violent” product-market fit, and the three stages of early go-to-market traction.

He and his team have built a global network of CXOs, called the Mayfield Innovation Network, made up of CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and business leaders from across all industries, who need access to new ideas to compete in their own markets. This is a highly engaged global network whose members join CXO Insight forums, CXO of the Future Podcasts, and provide their annual priorities in formal reports.

Gamiel brings more than 25 years of operational and venture capital experience to the Mayfield team. He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer for SOASTA (acquired by Akamai) and was responsible for ongoing operational improvements in sales, marketing, channels, plus strategic partnerships, corporate development, and investment support. Gamiel was also a partner at Sierra Ventures, responsible for leading the Sierra CIO Summit attended by over 150 Global CIOs for eight years. He has also held executive leadership roles at IBM, Oracle, BEA (acquired by Oracle), Appcelerator (acquired by Axway), and Cassatt (acquired by CA).

Gamiel is a California native, father of three, and husband of more than 30 years. He loves to give back as a volunteer to his community and to local universities. He frequently supports students and founders who want to turn ideas into businesses

Sarah Johnson is an experienced HR professional currently serving as the VP of Workforce Enablement at Hitachi Vantara. With over 20 years of diverse expertise in areas like M&A, business operations, information technology, and human resources, Sarah excels in strategically aligning HR practices to drive successful transactions. Her primary focus is on maximizing the utilization of acquired talent for optimal outcomes.

Amanda Vinson is a corporate development and ventures executive, with a proven track record of developing and driving strategic and inorganic growth initiatives. Amanda has over a decade of strategy, investing, acquisition and partnership experience. She is currently in the corporate development and venture investing group at ServiceNow and previously worked at Upwork and Riverbed Technology, where she led over $5 Billion in strategic initiatives, mergers and partnerships. Over the last fifteen years she has led, structured and integrated numerous strategic projects ranging from company splits, investments, acquisitions and OEMs to long-term strategic plans and inorganic roadmaps. Amanda was also an attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she focused on acquisitions and corporate law.

Amanda is a graduate with Highest Honors from Stanford University and also received her MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and her JD from the USC Gould School of Law. Amanda also serves as pro bono advisor to the Westminster Free Clinic, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free medical care to the homeless. She lives in Orinda, California with her husband and two sons. 

Dominic Vote is a partner in WilmerHale’s Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. Mr. Vote has deep experience with merger and acquisition review, as well as related investigations and litigation. He brings senior leadership credentials from the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where he most recently served as Assistant Director, leading the FTC’s review of mergers in sectors that included semiconductors, computer hardware and software, chemicals, and other industrial and technology-related areas. 

While at the FTC, Mr. Vote served as lead trial counsel in both administrative and federal court trials, and he managed and supervised all aspects of hundreds of merger investigations and several litigations. He also served as Counsel to the Director and held a staff attorney role in the FTC’s Health Care Division, where he investigated and litigated matters related to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Brian leads Microsoft’s M&A Diligence & Integration Management, with deals ranging in value from $15M to $70B and spanning across the company’s Cloud & AI, Security, Experiences & Devices and Gaming businesses.  He and his team of Integration Leads drive cross-functional Due Diligence, Close/Day 1 Planning, Integration/Separation Execution and Post-close Governance.  Brian’s remit also includes a Strategy & Operations team, responsible for M&A practice engagement and capability advancement.  Prior to Microsoft, Brian held a similar role leading M&A at Arm and spent much of his career in Strategy & M&A at Deloitte Consulting, focused in the Tech, Media and Telco sectors.  His depth is in Global and Cross-border Transactions, Integration Strategy and Planning, Business Unit Stand-up and New Operating Model Design.  A strong people developer and team builder, Brian enjoys working closely with his team of leaders in advancing M&A capabilities and delivering successful deal outcomes.

Mike Wyatt is a Managing Director and Head of Global Technology M&A for Morgan Stanley’s Technology Banking Group, based in Menlo Park. Mike joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 and has been a strategic advisor to clients in the areas of technology, media, and telecommunications since joining the firm, focusing specifically on technology clients since moving to California in 1998. Over the last 29 years, Mike has advised on over 200 transactions in excess of $300bn of total value. 

Mike's recent transactions include Microsoft’s $25bn acquisition of LinkedIn, $26bn capital raise for Reliance Industries’ Jio and Retail businesses from Facebook/Google/sponsors, $14bn sale of McAfee to Advent/Permira/Crosspoint, $12bn sale of Qualtrics to Silver Lake, $11bn sale of Infor to Koch Industries, $6.5bn acquisition of Auth0 by Okta, $6.4bn sale of Medallia to Thoma Bravo, $5bn sale of Cloudera to CD&R/KKR, $5bn acquisition of Ellucian by Vista/Blackstone, $5bn sale of Vertafore to Roper, $5bn merger of Cloudera and Hortonworks, $4.6bn sale of KnowBe4 to Vista Equity Partners. Previous transactions include the $7.7bn sale of McAfee to Intel, $3.3bn sale of Hyperion to Oracle, $6.6bn sale of aQuantive to Microsoft, $2.5bn sale of Quest Software to Dell, $4.5bn sale of Ariba to SAP, HP’s $3.3bn acquisition of 3com, and $20bn structured sale of Seagate to Veritas.

Mike received a BS from Stanford in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Mike also serves on the Board of Directors of Save The Redwoods League.

Nicholas Zeitlin (Menlo Park) is a Partner at KKR and the Co-Head of KKR Capstone in the Americas. He is a member of the Americas Portfolio Management Committee and the Next Generation Technology Portfolio Management Committee. Mr. Zeitlin leads commercial and operational value creation efforts for KKR's technology private equity and growth equity investing platform. He works closely with investment teams on the creation of investment ideas, the assessment of new investment opportunities, the development of the team's operational approach and value creation within KKR's portfolio companies. Mr. Zeitlin worked in KKR's London office from 2011-2014 where he supported the development of KKR Capstone's EMEA platform and led a business transformation at First Data International. He has worked with many of KKR's investments including Avago, Accuris, BMC, Ensono, Epicor, Ivalua, Level Access, OneStream, and OutSystems. Mr. Zeitlin previously worked for McKinsey & Company in New York. He holds a B.A. with honors from Harvard University.