Matthew is a Managing Director in Baird’s Investment Banking practice where he advises on equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other financial advisory services in the Consumer sector, with a focus on in the apparel & footwear, health, wellness & fitness and outdoor recreational categories. Prior to joining Baird, Matthew was an Associate in Merrill Lynch’s M&A Investment Banking practice. Previously he was an Associate in Citigroup’s Equity Research practice and a Manager in Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services practice where he performed M&A due diligence, restructuring and valuation assignments. Matthew received an M.B.A from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with distinctions and a B.S. in accounting and marketing with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder through the CFA Institute and a recipient of the SGB 40 Under 40 award sponsored by SportsOneSource Group. Additionally, Matthew serves on the Leadership Council for A Better Chicago, a venture philanthropy organization dedicated to strengthening and scaling high performing nonprofits focused in the education sector for low income Chicagoans. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three sons.
Jeff is a long-time entrepreneur that continues to find new ways to combine his passion for building businesses with his love of music.
Prior to Feed.fm, Yasuda launched Blip.fm, which grew to over 1 million registered DJs who reached over 30 million people on Twitter.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Jeff was the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Silicon Valley VC firm Redwood Ventures, where he held board directorships and managed investments in their technology portfolio. Prior to joining Redwood, he worked in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers, concentrating on technology financings within Equity Capital Markets.
Brian Smith is a managing director and member of the Piper Jaffray consumer investment banking team, focused on providing M&A advisory services to companies in healthy, active and sustainable living industries, with a focus on fitness, sports nutrition and multi-unit retail.
Prior to joining Piper Jaffray, Smith was a partner and founding principal at Partnership Capital Growth, a boutique investment bank providing M&A and private placement services to health and wellness-oriented businesses. Prior to investment banking, Smith served as a director of corporate development and sales & marketing analysis at EAS, a leading sports nutrition and supplements company based in Golden, Colo. Smith previously worked with North Castle Partners where he was primarily focused on new deal generation, due diligence and financial modeling. Prior to NCP, Smith was a management consultant for Bain & Company in Boston and Los Angeles.
Smith graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a bachelor's degree in economics.
8 members of our esteemed selection committee for the Petcare Innovation Summit 'Best In Show' spotlight joined together for a roundtable to share there thought on a number of key themes, including:
