International Search Fund Conference 2015

International Search Fund Conference

Organizing Committee

Rob Johnson

Visiting Professor, IESE Business School

Rob is a successful entrepreneur and private equity investor. He currently is a partner with Delta Partners and serves on the advisory board of Palamon Capital Partners. He has served as a director of many private companies and has been actively involved in those companies from their early financings through to successful trade sales and IPOs. Rob has invested in a number of search funds. Rob holds an MBA from Darden School, University of Virginia. He currently teaches the Entrepreneurial Finance course at IESE Business School and was also on the faculty of London Business School for ten years.


Peter Kelly

Lecturer in Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business

From 1993 until 2010, Peter was CEO of Pacific Pulmonary Services (PPS), a home respiratory services provider that grew during that time from 12 to 115 locations. He also previously served as CFO and COO, and was co-founder of the search fund that acquired the predecessor to PPS. Peter has prior experience investing at TA Associates, a private equity firm, where he originated investments in software and communication companies. He has served as a director of several advisory boards. Peter received a Bachelor of Arts in Science, Technology and Social Theory, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA all from Stanford University. Peter currently teaches three courses at Stanford Graduate School of Business (Entrepreneurial Acquisitions, Managing Growing Enterprises and Managerial Skills) and one course at IESE (Search Funds).


Jürgen Rilling

Lecturer, Entrepreneurship Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Jürgen is the owner and managing director of Mirablau, a German investment and consulting group. Mirablau holds several private equity and venture capital investments. Before founding Mirablau in 2001, Jürgen worked with industry leading companies, such as Rodenstock and Roland Berger & Partner. He currently serves on several advisory boards. Jürgen holds a Master’s degree of engineering from Technical University of Munich and graduated from IESE Business School (MBA). He is a serial search fund investor and currently teaches a course on Entrepreneurship at the Entrepreneurship Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU Munich).


Simon Webster

Chairman, European Search Fund Association

Simon learned about the search fund model while studying for his MBA at London Business School. He acquired Rehabilitation Services Ltd. in 1995. As the CEO of RSL, he grew the business from £3.5m to £30m in sales and from £0.4m to £2.4m in EBITDA over a ten-year period. He successfully sold the business in December 2005, realizing an excellent return for investors. Simon is now advising current MBA graduates who are raising search funds and is Chairman of the European Search Fund Association (ESFA).


Lenka Kolarova

Center for Entrepreneurship, IESE Business School

Lenka tracks the international search fund activity and is the co-author of IESE's note "International Search Funds - 2013: Selected Observations". She holds an MBA from IESE Business School (2011).


  
Esther Ribes

Research Events Unit, IESE Business School