Thursday, February 18, 2021We are very fortunate and pleased to be offering this special and exclusive virtual “Fireside Chat” to Wharton Club of Chicago members on Thursday evening, February 18th, from 7:00 – 8:15 pm Central Time. Join us for a very special, intimate small group discussion (limited to 15 participants) with George Garrick, Silicon Valley Serial CEO, about his key learnings and thoughts from a successful career.
George Garrick is a transformational and innovative tech and business services CEO who has both grown and turned around businesses, producing substantial value creation in the process - 1 IPO, 5 exits and raised over $230 million in VC funding, generating over $3B in shareholder value. His domain expertise spans digital, mobile, data and analytics, media, and software/SaaS. The initial 15 years of his career were spent moving up through the ranks of IRI (Information Resources, Inc.) to become CEO of North America, growing the company from startup to $300 million, and 50 to 4,000 employees. During this timeframe, he launched IRI’s entry into the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Greece, Italy, and Turkey. IRI became the leading marketing services company based in the US and a $1B+ enterprise.
In the still early days of the internet, George took a HUGE leap to a young Silicon Valley company, Flycast Communications, a Digital Ad Exchange offering ROI-based Internet advertising and direct marketing solutions. He transformed the company into a model for current-day online advertising economics, growing revenue from $2MM to $40MM in 18 months with a successful IPO in May 1999. Only seven months later he negotiated the sale of the company to CMGI for $2.3 Billion. He then went on to parlay his operating, data analytics, marketing, advertising, and media expertise into a series of 8 Internet startup/growth/turnaround CEO opportunities. . Throughout this activity, he built a reputation for quickly recognizing issues and opportunities, adapting or pivoting rapidly, raising capital, evaluating strategic and tactical options, managing complexity, attracting exceptional talent, building teams, and, above all, producing results. He is deeply experienced and highly regarded in the VC, Private Equity, and IPO markets and actively sits on the Boards of multiple technology companies. George is now CEO of an exciting growth company, Leanplum, a Multi-Channel Customer Engagement technology platform that enables companies to test and maximize digital customer engagement and build lasting and valuable relationships and revenue through digital multi-channel message optimization.
Our Chicago Club’s “off-line” equivalent to this special event in the pre-pandemic world were the popular “Executive Dinners”. The Club plans on offering several similar “Fireside Chats” throughout 2021.
Please be aware that these events are for Wharton Club of Chicago members only, limited to 15 attendees, and sell-out very quickly.
You can contact us if you have any difficulty registering at [email protected]
If you are not a member, we would love to have you join or renew.
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