Two days.
Every room, every slot.

Registration + breakfast

Personalized printed agenda at check-in with phase and audience tags. Your five curated meeting suggestions included.

1-2-1 Meetings open

15-minute slots. Bell system. Four slots before the morning break. LOI gate is active for capital provider bookings. Five-minute reset every four slots.

Morning networking break

Open floor. Exhibitor stands. Coffee.

Executive Exchanges

Lively, interactive small-group discussions on the most pressing topics independent sponsors are facing today. Groups of 6 to 8 rotate every 20 minutes. Tables are clearly labeled and pre-assigned based on registration profiling so you sit with peers actually working on the problem.

Tables

1. Building your sourcing engine from scratch · Emerging IS — Facilitator: Burton Francis (ECA Partners)
2. First deal economics: fees, carry, promote · Emerging IS
3. Presenting to capital without a track record · Emerging IS — Facilitator: Jenny Souksavath (Aspen HR)
4. Co-sponsorship mechanics · Advanced IS
5. Advanced deal structuring: rollover equity, fee waivers · Advanced IS
6. Capital formation: navigating the equity hole · All IS — Facilitator: Rodney Reisdorf (Verivend)
7. Proprietary sourcing: the boomer succession wave · All IS

Networking lunch

Tables organised by sector: healthcare, B2B services, industrials, and generalist. Curated by iGlobal Forum.

Opening keynote

High-draw external voice. Headline speaker and full session title will be announced ahead of the summit.

• Cliff Meijer · Managing Director, Headway Capital

War stories: when deals go wrong

Not every deal works. Not every management team performs. Not every capital partner stays aligned. Senior independent sponsors on stage talking about what actually went wrong and how they handled underperformance.

• The decisions experienced IS wish they had made differently: at LOI, at close, and six months in
• How to recognize early the signals that a deal is going off track before it becomes expensive
• What IS leadership actually costs you when a portfolio company is underperforming

• Ryan Sullivan · CEO, North Park Group
• Paul Finnegan · Managing Partner, Pearl Street Capital Partners
• Nick Russell · Managing Partner, Tuckerman Capital

Healthcare services deal clinic

The most active IS deal sector by volume. Home health, behavioral, dental, physician practices. Closed peer session for IS with active healthcare deals.

• What IS consistently get wrong in healthcare diligence and what it costs them post-close
• Where valuations are across healthcare sub-sectors right now versus 18 months ago
• How to structure capital for healthcare deals where reimbursement risk is real

Qualification: one or more closed healthcare deals or an active LOI. Open door for listeners.

Sponsor + CEO: the deal origin story

A portfolio CEO joins on stage. The conversation starts with one question: why did you choose this sponsor over the other offers on the table?

• What founders and owner-operators actually evaluate when choosing an IS buyer
• How the IS / operator relationship changes from LOI to 12 months post-close
• What IS consistently underestimate about the transition from deal-maker to board director

B2B services deal clinic

The most crowded IS sector at auction. Every sponsor is chasing the same recurring-revenue businesses. Closed clinic for IS active in B2B services.

• How to build a proprietary sourcing edge in the most competitive IS sector
• What customer concentration risk is acceptable and where experienced IS draw the line
• How to close against PE funds on seller relationships when you do not have a brand name

Qualification: one or more closed B2B deals or an active LOI.

Should I raise a fund?

The IS-to-fund decision. Three seats: an IS who stayed deal-by-deal, one who just closed their first fund, and the LP who backed them.

• What institutional LPs need to see, and when they need to see it, before backing a first-time fund
• What you give up operationally and structurally when you raise committed capital
• How to know whether you are at the right stage to start the conversation

• Logan Lowery · Managing Partner, LP First Capital
• Whit Matthews · Managing Director, Private Equity, HighVista
• Moderator: Tom Kesoglou · Partner, Ice Miller

Cocktail reception

Drinks. Unstructured networking. Day 1 wraps.

Registration + breakfast

Informal. The meeting room opens at 9:00 AM.

1-2-1 Meetings open

15-minute slots. Bell system. Day 2 caps reset (20 per person). Four slots before the morning break.

Inside the mind of an allocator

Family offices. SBICs. The capital providers IS most want to meet. This roundtable puts a spotlight on them and asks the questions IS cannot ask in a 1-2-1.

• Stacey Schacter · CEO, Vion Investments
• Sam Cannon · Managing Partner, Pacenote Capital
• Moderator: Eric Oxley · Executive Vice President, Koley Jessen

First-deal economics: fees, carry, promote

Management fees. Carry. Promote. What is market for deal one and what experienced IS wish they had negotiated differently.

• What fee and carry structures are market for IS in their first one to three transactions
• How to structure the promote in a way capital providers will accept
• The economic terms experienced IS wish they had pushed harder on in their first deal

• Facilitator: Matthew Martin · Vice President, Private Capital, Virtus Insurance

Control vs non-control capital models

Full spectrum: SBIC, Align-style collaborative model, family office co-invest, traditional PE fund. What does the sponsor give up in each?

• Mike Palm · Partner, Charter Growth Capital
• Moderator: Paul Marino · Partner, Sadis & Goldberg

Investor / operator friction

An interactive session for operators, advisors, and PE professionals who want to sharpen their value creation approach.

• A pressure-tested view of your value creation plan
• Peer-sourced insights from operators who have executed value creation across dozens of mid-market companies
• A portable one-page diagnostic framework and one committed action

• Facilitator: Ted Mclennan · Growth and Operations, Sapien

SBIC deep dive: the equity assist in plain English

The SBIC model is one of the most IS-friendly capital structures available and one of the least understood by IS in their first one to three deals.

• How the equity assist actually works, and why it changes IS deal economics significantly
• What IS need ready before the first SBIC call, and what kills deals before they start
• How co-SBIC structures work and when they make sense for a deal

Networking lunch

Open seating.

Afternoon keynote

Headline speaker and full session title will be announced ahead of the summit. Everyone gathers.

IS leadership: the stuff they don't tell you

Partner disagreements. Firing a CEO you recruited. Governance friction when your capital provider and management team are pulling in different directions.

• How to manage the IS firm itself: partnership dynamics, hiring decisions, governance calls
• What experienced IS wish they had structured differently in their GP and management agreements
• How to make the difficult people decisions post-close before they become expensive ones

• Connor Chakeen · Partner, Thesis Capital Partners
• Thomas Ince · Managing Partner, LP First Capital
• Jill Wheaton · Leadership Expert, Yes or Yes Group

Niche manufacturing + industrial deal clinic

Highest pursuit rate of any LMM sub-sector on Axial. Tariff exposure is rewriting deal models overnight.

• How IS are renegotiating manufacturing deals where tariff assumptions have changed since LOI
• Where to find niche manufacturers with genuine moats not already in a broker process
• What EBITDA adjustments manufacturing sellers resist, and how to handle it

Qualification: one or more closed manufacturing deals or an active LOI.

Co-sponsorship mechanics

Two IS co-sponsors from the same real deal walk through the structure live.

• How to split economics and governance in a co-sponsor structure that holds up under pressure
• What to agree in writing before you are in a stressful situation together
• How to find and qualify the right co-sponsor partner

• Moderator: Robert Connolly · Partner, Levenfeld Pearlstein

Essential services deal clinic

HVAC. Roofing. Pest control. Facilities. The fastest-growing IS deal category in 2025, where buy-and-build looks easiest on paper and hardest in practice.

• What breaks the buy-and-build platform model, and how far in most IS get before they find out
• How to evaluate workforce density and technician retention as investment thesis
• What platform selection criteria separate defensible anchor businesses from expensive mistakes

Qualification: one or more closed essential services deals or an active LOI.

1-2-1 Meetings — final slots

Final meeting slots of the conference.