PANELISTS
Adam J. Epstein is a former institutional investor, and, now, an advisor to CEOs and boards of pre-IPO and small-cap companies through his firm, Third Creek Advisors, LLC. He speaks monthly at corporate governance and investor conferences, and has given more than 80 keynote speeches since 2012. Mr. Epstein is a key contributor to Nasdaq’s new Amplify small-cap content initiative, and a distinguished National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow and faculty member. He is the small-cap contributing editor for Directorship magazine, author of The Perfect Corporate Board: A Handbook for Mastering the Unique Challenges of Small-Cap Companies (McGraw Hill, 2012), and contributing author to The Handbook of Board Governance: A Comprehensive Guide for Public, Private and Not for Profit Board Members (Wiley, 2016). In April 2015, The Perfect Corporate Board was the #2 ranked corporate governance book on Amazon.com, and, in June 2016, The Handbook of Board Governance was the #1 “New Release” in corporate governance on Amazon.com. Prior to founding Third Creek, Mr. Epstein co-founded and was a principal of Enable Capital Management, LLC. During his tenure, Enable’s special situation hedge funds invested in more than 500 small-cap financings. Mr. Epstein has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and on CNN Presents. He earned a Juris Doctor from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Vassar College.
Seth Rubin is the Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets for Stifel. Seth joined Stifel in April 2005 originally to head private capital markets and currently runs the US Equity Capital Markets business. Previously, he was Head of Wells Fargo Private Capital Group (2003-2005). Prior to that he was at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown Private Capital Group (2000-2003), Deutsche Bank / Bankers Trust Mezzanine Capital and High Yield Group (1996-2000) and SPP Capital Partners (1994-1996). Some of Seth’s recent IPO and financing success include companies like AnaptysBio, Everspin Technologies, Exa Software, RetailMeNot Inc., Auspex Pharmaceuticals, King Digital Entertainment, Procera Networks, Horizon Pharma, Vitae Pharmaceuticals, and Glu Mobile to name a few.
MODERATOR
Hitesh Shah has over 25 years of experience spanning startup through venture financing and eventual M&A exits in multiple high technology companies. In depth experience in people management, finance, venture capital, business development, product management, business planning and customer service. Hitesh has raised over $100M in venture capital for four different startups.
Hitesh has served in multiple executive roles as CFO, COO and CEO. Prior to joining BDO, Hitesh was the Chief Operating Officer at Solum an Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Google Ventures funded company which was acquired by Monsanto. Hitesh also served as CEO and COO at Fat Spaniel Technologies acquired by Power-One and CFO at iPolicy Networks which was acquired by Tech Mahindra in India.