Your board of directors is there to help you along your company's journey. But what do you do when a crisis hits your company? From actual emergencies (fire, earthquake, sudden deaths) to PR or other disclosure issues, a poorly managed crisis can derail even the most promising business. How can you best leverage your board to help you navigate crises big and small?
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and theBoardlist have pulled together top Valley insiders to share their expertise on crisis management. We’ll look at managing your board in a crisis from multiple perspectives: financial, legal, communications, and general board oversight. Our panel includes a wide range of expertise from former and current board members, venture capitalists, crisis communications and public relations, legal and more.
Our Panelists:
- Tor Braham (Yahoo Board of Directors)
- Nicki Locker (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati)
- Wade Loo (Guidance Software Board of Directors)
- Margit Wennmachers (Andreessen Horowitz)
- Moderator: Donna Petkanics (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati)
Following the panel, we will lead participants in a crisis workshop, providing a hands-on opportunity to explore crisis response.
Seating for our program is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register today.
This activity has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.0 hour, all of which will apply to general credit. No hours will apply to legal ethics, competence issues and substance abuse, or to recognition and elimination of bias credit.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.
Mr. Braham has been on Yahoo!’s board since April, 2016. Previously he was Managing Director & Global Head of Technology Mergers and Acquisitions for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., from 2004-2012. From 2000-2004, he served as Managing Director & Co-Head of West Coast U.S. Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions for Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment bank. Earlier in his career, he worked at Warburg Dillon Read LLC and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Mr. Braham is currently on the board of Viavi Solutions Inc. and previously served on the boards of directors of NetApp, Inc. (Sept. 2013-March 2016) and Sigma Designs, Inc. (June 2014-Aug. 2016).
Nicki Locker is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She has represented companies and their officers and directors in more than 75 shareholder class actions and derivative suits throughout the United States. She has advised numerous boards and special committees in internal investigations regarding accounting improprieties, FCPA violations, stock option backdating, insider trading, off-label marketing, and embezzlement. She is a member of WSGR's Policy Committee and has chaired the Nominating Committee.
Wade Loo currently serves as Audit Committee Chair of Guidance Software (NASDAQ:GUID), maker of the EnCase digital investigations and endpoint data security platform. Previously, Wade served as a Partner at KPMG, where he led KPMG's Audit Committee Institute Roundtables and Audit Committee Chair Peer Exchanges in Silicon Valley. Wade started his career with KPMG in 1980 in Denver, Colorado after graduating from the University of Denver. He is a CPA and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public and serves as the audit committee chair of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in the United States.
Donna Petkanics is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where she focuses on growth companies, particularly corporate and securities issues. Donna represents both privately held and public companies across multiple industries, including telecommunications, Internet infrastructure, networking, life sciences, software and hardware, clean technology and energy, and electronics.
Margit Wennmachers is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and is best known for her ability to create market-leading brands. Margit has launched more than 50 companies and 250 products, guided multiple IPOs, built profiles that resulted in 10 mergers and acquisitions and navigated crisis communications from ousted CEOs to website outages, patent lawsuits and personal tragedies. Margit is a16z's chief marketer, advising the firm and entrepreneurs on their communications and marketing strategies. Prior to joining a16a, she cofounded The OutCast Agency, which has partnered with companies including Amazon, Box, General Electric, Instagram, Lyft, Oculus, Spotify, and more. Margit also serves on the board of the World Affairs Council.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is the premier legal advisor to technology, life sciences, and other growth enterprises worldwide. We represent companies at every stage of development, from entrepreneurial start-ups to multibillion-dollar global corporations, as well as the venture firms, private equity firms, and investment banks that finance and advise them. The firm's broad range of services and practice areas are focused on addressing the principal challenges faced by the management, boards of directors, shareholders, and in-house counsel of our clients.
theBoardlist is a curated talent marketplace for the tech community to recommend, discover and connect highly qualified women leaders with great tech board opportunities at scale.
Our vision is that 100% of tech company boards use gender diversity as an opportunity to realize greater company performance. By our estimate, 75-78% of private funded tech company boards have no women. Yet we know that board diversity is a proven driver of business performance. We also know that creating diversity earlier in a company's development allows us to create a more diverse and productive culture now, not later.
