The Future of Family Businesses: Strategic Sales, Family Offices, PE Partnerships, or Generational Transition?

Tatjana is an M&A partner at Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC and focuses on middle market acquisition and disposition transactions across a range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, food and beverage, and technology. To date, Tatjana has advised clients in M&A transactions valued at over $20 billion in the aggregate. She is a frequent speaker on M&A topics and serves as a Chair of the American Bar Association’s “Private Target Deal Points Study,” which has been widely recognized as the gold standard for market metrics of key negotiated legal issues in M&A agreements.

Mr. Ballew co-founded Capital Alignment Partners in 2009 and serves as a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee. Since co-founding the firm, Mr. Ballew has been involved in all aspects of the firm and has had successful investments in the business services, healthcare services and industrial services industries, most of which have been consolidation strategies. 

Prior to Capital Alignment Partners, Mr. Ballew spent three years in Morgan Keegan and Company’s investment banking group. While at Morgan Keegan, Mr. Ballew focused on mergers and acquisitions, as well as public and private capital financings in a variety of industries.

Prior to his tenure with Morgan Keegan, Mr. Ballew was a senior analyst in Wachovia’s fixed income derivatives group. Mr. Ballew currently serves on the board of Communities in Schools of Middle Tennessee, chairs their Development Committee, and has held the CFA designation since 2005.

Blake Hogan is the CEO of Nashville Door, a company with a 50-year heritage founded by WWII Navy Veteran L.W. Loyd. Nashville Door was recently acquired and is backed by Cobalt Service Partners, a private equity firm. Prior to this role, Hogan served as a Marine Officer and was the CEO of Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping veterans and military spouses start and grow their businesses. Bunker Labs has supported nearly 100,000 entrepreneurs over ten years before being acquired by Syracuse University. Additionally, Hogan serves as a Senior Advisor for the Milken Institute and is an appointee to the Governor's Tri-Stars and Stripes Council.

Leonora Zilkha Williamson is a Business Professor at Vanderbilt teaching Negotiation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Family Business. Also a globally-recognized Family Enterprise Coach, she serves CEOs and leadership teams of family businesses/offices, and leads workshops and retreats. She is a Board Director and member of G2 of her family's boat company, Sabre Yachts. She is a frequent speaker on Negotiation, Legacy and Succession Planning for Love. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a MBA from Harvard Business School.