Spectrum Equity’s annual CEO Summit is one of our favorite events of the year, bringing together executives from across our portfolio. More than 85 CEOs, founders, and board members from our portfolio companies joined us in the Bay Area this year. We have a longstanding belief that extraordinary, Internet software and data service businesses can be built just about anywhere in the world. The group at this year’s event came from 35 different cities across the US, Canada and Europe.
This year we were honored to host an incredible group of speakers, who spoke to some of the operational and macro issues which are top of mind for our portfolio company leadership.
Nasdaq CEO, Adena Friedman, shared her perspective on the capital markets, fintech disruption, corporate board diversity, as well as her experience leading the acquisition of Spectrum portfolio company, Verafin, last year.
Evan Osnos, foreign affairs staff writer at The New Yorker, provided an update on the war in Ukraine and its political implications for US foreign policy and global trade.
Finally, Coley Florance, our Head of Talent, partnered with Charter’s Kevin Delaney to present on Managing During a Persistent Pandemic. In this session, we focused on evolving workplace cultures in the wake of the COVID pandemic and best practices for attracting and retaining top talent.
Sessions included Spectrum State of the Union, Comments and Conversation with Kevin Delaney, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Charter; Topic: Leading People During a Persistent Pandemic, Fireside Chat: Evan Osnos, Foreign Affairs Staff Writer, The New Yorker, Fireside Chat: Adena Friedman, President and CEO, Nasdaq, Inc.
One of the best parts about our CEO Summit is getting the chance to spend time with leaders across our portfolio who confront similar challenges and can share the lessons learned from scaling category-defining software and data service businesses. Many of those learnings come from deep personal relationships and connectivity across our portfolio, so we make sure to build in a lot of time for fun and informal opportunities to connect.
Whether we’re sailing, hiking, or kayaking, time together is invaluable for Spectrum Equity’s portfolio companies who confront similar challenges and opportunities as they scale
To paraphrase Coley’s presentation, if you look at all the research and data on workplace happiness and culture, there is one singular key ingredient to happiness, productivity, and contribution. That ingredient is Human Connection. It’s why we gathered for our CEO Summit this year and why this is such an important annual event for our firm!
We’re so grateful to all the CEOs, board members, and colleagues who joined us this year and cannot wait for next year. Until then, watch our highlight video from this year’s CEO Summit.