Produced by XPX Connecticut in April 2017 In this session we focus on growing your business using both equity and debt. Our distinguished panel of bank lenders and private equity will describe what steps a business should—and should not—take to attract and qualify for bank loans and how to find the right equity partner. We will continue to use our case study as the basis for the discussion—private companies like HiTech often need outside capital to grow and to position themselves for a successful sale. Speakers: Robert Polito, Senior Vice President of Government Guaranteed Lending (SBA)Webster Bank, N.A. Stephen F. Roche, Senior Vice President, Commercial BankingUnited Bank Nathan Elliott, Vice PresidentBalance Point Capital

  Produced by XPX Connecticut in March 2017 Borrowing Ground Rules: Do’s and Don’ts In the first of two programs focused on locating outside financing, our distinguished panel of lenders will describe the profile of a successful borrower and what steps a business should—and should not—take to attract and qualify for bank loans and other third-party loans. We will continue to use our case study as the basis for the discussion—private companies like HiTech often need outside capital to grow and to position themselves for a successful sale. SpeakersMartin Anderson, Senior Vice President, Commercial BankingWebster Bank, N.A. Bradley Hardy, Senior Vice President, Commercial BankingKeybank NA Ted Murphy, Vice President, Loan OfficerConnecticut Innovations Moderator: David Swerdloff, Partner, Day Pitney, LLP

  Produced by XPX New England at their 2016 Summit Presentation by: Dr. Danial Kershun Co-Author, We Are Market Basket. Associate Professor of Marketing, Drexel University Fellow, Lebow Centers for Corporate Reputation and Corporate Governance

Produced By XPX New England in January 2017 Effective communication is an essential part of successful business transitions. While not a “magic bullet” for achieving a warm reception and successful post-merger integration, effective communications throughout the deal process helps set stakeholder expectations from the onset, without which many deals fail. From the first conversation between buyer and seller to the eventual post-transaction integration, poor communication at any stage can derail even the best-intentioned deals, and hamper long-term success. Join us for Communicating Through Change with moderator Linda Varrell of Broadreach Public Relations, Sean Sinclair of Baker Newman Noyes, Jennifer Harnish of Baker Newman Noyes and Janey Bishoff of Bishoff Communications. Sean and Jennifer represent a firm re-created as the result of a transaction. They will provide an “insider’s view” of the role communications played.

  Produced by XPX Tri-State CT in December 2016 The owners of HiTech, our case study company, want to grow the business to make it salable in a few years. The sales organization will be a key area of focus. The company needs a sales organization that can accelerate growth prior to sale and continue to succeed after the owners exit the business. How can the owners create an effective organization that is not dependent on them? Peter Helmerand and Dave Wallace will discuss building a sales organization that potential buyers will consider an asset, not a liability. To make the company salable, the owners will need to shed their day-to-day sales responsibilities. They must recruit a sales leader, develop a sales team, and create the necessary tools and systems to support the sales effort. This is usually a multi-year process. The speakers will identify opportunities and pitfalls in achieving this goal.

  Produced by XPX New York in November 2016 Human Capital is one of the most important, if not the most valuable asset that most businesses possess. This maxim is especially true for those businesses preparing a for a sale. Key employees need to be properly incentivized to remain with the business and to expend that extra effort to improve the bottom line in anticipation of the sale. In the presentation, Harvey Katz will discuss the types of incentive arrangements available to HiTech, together with the tax attributes. and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. He will go through a typical process that should be utilized by employers to design and implement a compensation program likely to attract and retain key employees. This will involve a methodical process to understand the character its workforce, by age, demographic and position, and then to select to the programs that are suitable for each identifiable group.

  Produced by XPX New England in October 2016 The National Cyber Security Alliance has estimated that 60% of small businesses hit by cyber-attacks end up going out of business, AND current research shows that 70% of cyber-attacks occur due to activities by Authorized system users! Our distinguished panel of Cyber Security experts discuss the latest data on cyber risk and what effective actions every business owner needs to consider to “Preserve, Protect and Defend” the business value they have created over long years of hard work and smart decision-making. PanelistsKeith Graham is the Chief Technology Officer at SecureAuth Corporation. His expertise comes from 17 years in security, product management, product development, and consulting. As CTO, Graham leads product development in the creation and development of innovative features and upgrades for SecureAuth’s products. SecureAuth is a leader in adaptive access control solutions, empowering organizations to determine identities with confidence. Robust enterprise-wide end-user authentication has become an essential part of protecting the organization’s cyber assets, and failures in this area have been the largest contributor to cyber breaches in the last two years. Brian Kelly is VP Engineering at Conjur, a security company that focuses on security for next-generation infrastructure. He has almost 20 years of experience in professional software development and management, and has worked extensively in SaaS environments for highly regulated and sensitive environments. He regularly trains engineers on secure development practices and principles, and is passionate about enabling companies increase their business velocity without adding risk. Stewart Rose is Founder and President of ThreatReady Resources. He has been founder of several companies including ThreatReady Resources, Truebridge, Inc., 46 Financial and KFS. Threat Ready provides enterprise wide Cyber awareness training and campaigns that create the Safe Cyber behaviors that are an essential part of protecting organizations from cyber threats. N. MacDonnell Ulsch is a Senior Managing Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and is one of the leaders in the cybercrime breach response and cyber breach insurance practices, working closely with executive management and boards on increasing cyber resiliency and managing cyber risk as an operational and regulatory matter. He has appeared on Fox News, lectured at Boston University School of Law, University of Maine School of Law, and the Pace University Lubin School of Business, and serves on the Board of Advisors at Mercy College in New York City and at the Boston College Woods College of Advancing Studies. His latest book, “Cyber Threat! How to Manage the Growing Risk of Cyber Attacks,” John Wiley & Sons, is required reading in the Boston College MS program in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance. He is also the author of “Threat! Managing Risk in a Hostile World,” The IIA Research Foundation. Mr. Ulsch also has worked in the national security and intelligence communities. Panel Moderator: David Wilson is the Managing Director of Newport Board Group in New England. He started his career in consulting in the early 1980s in cyber security, where he formed the first national computer security practice with Ernst & Whinney (later Ernst and Young). He developed with Dr. David Clark of MIT the Clark/Wilson model for systems integrity, a now standard model used in the design of operating systems and applications. His focus has been on the structure of the systems of internal control as it relates to computer systems, and end-user authentication and training.