Defining/Refining Your Board Search

Overview

Hosted by Pearson Partners International, we will enjoy time for networking and hear from a panel of experts as we discuss your board search, your due diligence process, and questions to ask before you accept a board role.

Parking

Complimentary surface and garage parking are available

Registration

$00 Member Registration
$35 Non-Member Registration

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Panelists

David is a business attorney who represents clients in high-stakes corporate transactions, offering practical and strategic insights to help them maximize value and minimize regulatory risk. Based in Holland & Knight's Dallas office, Mr. Allen focuses his practice on guiding clients on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and general corporate and securities matters.

Mr. Allen represents issuers, underwriters, investors and placement agents in a broad range of securities law matters. He assists clients with public offerings and private placements of debt, equity and convertible securities, including through initial public offerings (IPOs), secondary offerings and private investments in public equity (PIPEs).

In addition, Mr. Allen represents acquirers, targets, financial advisors and special committees in a wide variety of transactions involving private and public companies. He counsels clients in numerous industries, including medical devices, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, real estate, semiconductors, technology, hotels and gaming.

Privately and publicly held corporations and their boards of directors turn to Mr. Allen for general corporate counseling on issues, including public company reporting, obligations of directors and corporate governance matters.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Allen was managing partner of the Orange County, California, office for a national law firm.

Allen is currently an independent member of the Board of Directors of three privately held companies. Allen is a retired KPMG partner having practiced in the audit and deal advisory services practices serving public and private companies and for seven years was the Managing partner of the Northern Virginia/ Greater Washington DC office.

Allen’s experience also includes close to a decade of corporate financial executive positions including chief financial officer of both Asbury Automotive Group and Sky Mall Inc, and VP finance corporate controller of Thrifty Payless Inc. Allen has been on various private company boards throughout his career and as noted above, currently sits on three private company boards.

Allen is a past chair of the Washington DC Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame, a member of the University of Utah School of Accounting National Advisory Board, and member of the Private Directors Association and National Association of Corporate Directors.

Allen graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Cathy is a highly accomplished and results-oriented Board Member and C-Suite Executive with global operations, strategy, and franchising expertise in fast paced retail, healthcare, business services, fire and safety, and fintech environments. She is an innovative problem solver who thrives in turnaround environments and possesses a track record of achieving maximum revenue performance, peak quality standards, and aggressive growth. She is a strong collaborator and transformative leader who engages with both public and privately-owned management teams and other board members to establish medium and long term goals to enhance competitiveness and profitability. Cathy currently serves on the board of directors of Save A Lot, a discount grocery store chain with a network of more than 850 independently owned locations, where she is also Chairman of the Compensation Committee. In this role, her responsibilities have included leading a special committee to perform a CEO search, as well as implementing a new incentive plan to better align management’s goals with those of the company’s financial sponsors.

She previously served as Operating Partner for The Riverside Company, a global investment firm with over 130 companies, as well as Chairman of the Board of four Riverside portfolio companies including Evive Brands, Relay Fire and Safety, CertaSite, and Performance Systems Integration. In this role, she worked closely with management teams providing oversight, support, and guidance, driving for results, and maintaining a high-performance culture of accountability, while also working in close collaboration with a variety of Riverside internal and external stakeholders on all portfolio company matters throughout their investment period. She possesses a deep level of M&A expertise, having overseen more than fifty deals and integrations in a variety of public, private equity, and franchise environments. Her prior board experience also includes serving as a Board Director for Best Life Brands, a private equity owned franchise healthcare company.

Cathy served as the President and CEO of Rent-A-Center Franchising International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rent-A-Center, Inc., where she grew the number of locations from 200 to more than 500 locations and increased system-wide revenue from less than $150m to $500m. She earned the #2 spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s list of “Best New Franchises” after growing new units by 40%. She held full P&L responsibility and led all aspects of finance, supply chain, marketing, real estate and development, mergers and acquisitions, and operations. She has a passion for helping franchisees succeed, and her extensive background in operations enabled her to help them increase the profitability of their businesses.

As Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Rent-A-Center, Cathy reported directly to the CEO and was responsible for strategic partner relationships for all company owned and franchised brick and mortar locations, as well as those of their fintech business unit, Acima. Her accomplishments in this role include launching a new product line (tires) resulting in incremental portfolio growth, negotiating a strategic partnership with Mastercard to launch the first ever lease-to-own card, and driving growth by delivering new strategic retail partnerships for Acima resulting in over $50m in incremental revenue. Cathy’s deep operational background includes serving as Executive Vice President of Retail Operations where she increased revenues in a mature business by 6% in the first six months. As Division Vice President of Operations in the Northeast, Cathy led a team of district managers and regional directors in the company’s largest division of over 400 locations, grew revenue to more than $250m annually, and achieved the highest company profit at 20.4%. She also served as a board director for the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations, the trade association of the lease-to-own industry. Cathy earned her bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College and is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) with the International Franchise Association. She also completed the Women’s Director Development Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Moderator 

Renee is a strategic, creative problem solver focused on executive search and board service. She is a creative, strategic thinker helping clients recruit and develop leaders. As an executive search consultant, she solves people problems – finding the right talent to help a business execute its strategy. She thinks strategically about client work to discern where to find leaders who will positively impact her client’s business.

Beyond her role or industry, she keenly focused on ensuring the executives she presents are well suited for the client’s strategic goals, upcoming trends, business arch and life cycle. As Pearson Partners works across industries, functional roles, and organization types, she looks for connections outside the obvious.

Renee is a graduate of Trinity University.

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