Amazing IVCA Awards Dinner Celebrated The Broad Impact of Our Industry

The 435 guests at IVCA’s Thirteenth Annual Award Dinner could hear a pin drop as each and every speaker captivated the crowd with speeches that were funny, insightful and delivered with absolute sincerity.  The overall tone of the evening amplified what could be accomplished through collaboration: within management teams and between investors and management teams.  Also highlighted were the collaboration that takes the form of a strong entrepreneur able to develop a deep partnership with an experienced venture capitalist or private equity investor and the collaborative relationships that develop between IVCA members who  contribute to our shared mission of a stronger VC/PE industry in Illinois.
 
Lee Mitchell, IVCA Chair delivered opening and closing remarks that were humorous and thoughtful including a strong suggestion to all of us to decide to participate in the political processes because political winds are clearly impacting the way we do business.   The emcee for the award presentations was IVCA Vice-Chair Bob Fealy of The Duchossois Group who did an amazing job keeping the award presentations on track and offering great observations (and a good joke - delivered off-the-cuff) that helped to set the tone for the evening.
 
An especially compelling part of the evening celebrated the successful partnerships between investor and portfolio company management teams who achieved a successful exit on behalf of their Limited Partners.

The Awardees included:
 
Matt Maloney accepted the IVCA Venture-backed Portfolio Company of the Year award on behalf of GrubHub which IPO’d in 2014.    This award was presented by GrubHub’s first VC investor (and former GrubHub board member) Origin Ventures’ Founding Partner Bruce Barron.  To view the presentation and acceptance of this award, CLICK HERE.
 
Jai Shekhawat founder and CEO of Fieldglass, which was purchased for $1.2 billion dollars by SAP, accepted the IVCA Private Equity-backed Portfolio Company of the Year award from Doug Grissom, Partner at Madison Dearborn Partners.  View the award presentation and acceptance HERE.  (please be patient, the video will return shortly!)
 
Darren Snyder of Prairie Capital received the IVCA Fellows Medal for his dedicated support of and contributions to IVCA.  Darren received this award from the 2013 Fellows Medal recipient, Jim Dugan of OCA Ventures.  This presentation and acceptance can be viewed HERE.

Steve Miller (and Second City trained) Founding Partner at Origin Ventures who received the Richard J. Daley Medal for his outstanding civic contributions.   The award was presented to Steve by his partner, Brent Hill.  Click HERE to view Brent & Steve’s remarks.

Ending the evening was Lee M. Mitchell (Thoma Bravo), IVCA Chairman.  View Lee's closing remarks HERE.

As with the prior 10 years, the IVCA Awards Dinner was presented by IVCA member Kirkland & Ellis LLP.  As is de rigeur with this event, the program ran very smoothly with an end time of 8:30 pm.    Greenberg Traurig, LLP sponsored the Dessert Reception that many guests continued to enjoy until 10 PM.  Platinum Sponsors included Greenberg Traurig and also Kutchins, Robbins & Diamond, Ltd. 
 
We are grateful to Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Kutchins, Robbins & Diamond, Ltd. and extend our thanks as well our Gold sponsors who made this special evening possible:  Adams Street Partners, Baker Tilly, The Duchossois Group, Edwards Wildman, EY, Frontenac Company, GTCR, Madison Dearborn Partners, McGladrey, OCA Ventures, Origin Ventures, Plante Moran, Prairie Capital, Pritzker Group, RCP Advisors, Shore Capital Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Square 1 Bank, Sterling Partners, Thoma Bravo, William Blair and Winston & Strawn LLP.

View a small selection of the evening's pictures HERE.