News Archives -- Sage News Prior to 2008
November 2007
Natrol (Nasdaq: NTOL) Announces Acquisition --
Another Successful M&A Transaction for a Sage Client Company
Sage Partners’ Tom Doorley, Lead Director of Natrol (Nasdaq: NTOL), a leading manufacturer and marketer of nationally branded nutritional products, is pleased to announce that Natrol has signed a definitive merger agreement with Plethico Pharmaceuticals of India at $4.40 net per share in cash. In the words of Wayne Bos, President and Chief Executive Officer of Natrol, “We are pleased to announce this transaction which culminates a process initiated and directed by our Board of Directors to maximize value for our stockholders. We have gained a solid reputation in our market niches and believe the merger with Plethico will be a win-win for our customers and employees.” The offer is expected to be consummated in the first quarter of 2008.
This transaction marks the third merger/acquisition for Sage Partners operating as senior directors of public companies. Larry Bennigson, as Chairman of SBS Technologies led the process to merge SBS into GE, and David Kiser completed his nearly three decades as a Director of Kronos when it was acquired by Hellman & Friedman.
October 2007
Roland van Kralingen's Book Nominated for Award
Roland van Kralingen’s book The Growth Engine has been nominated by PIM (Platform Innovation Marketing) as book of the year. PIM is the major association of marketing professionals in Holland. This is another in a series of recognitions for The Growth Engine which is being translated now for its release in the Americas early in 2008.
September 2007
ATS Launches its "GET ME IN" Brand
Advanced Ticket Systems, a Sage portfolio company, has renamed its brand and the company as GET ME IN, to further build consumer awareness in its key marketplace of secondary ticket sales for shows, music and sporting events. GET ME IN has also announced the launch of its German and Dutch operations, designed to provide the same superb consumer experience that GET ME IN has made available to its customers in the UK.
August 2007
Sage Partners Annual Gathering
To ensure we build our community-based business model we gather, “all-hands”, each year to share experiences, insights, and intellectual capital. At a villa in the Tuscan town of Arezzo, we focused on the growth of the firm, working as we counsel our clients, to maintain flexibility and creativity, with just enough structure to smooth our journey. Core to our gatherings is sharing of our insights around client experiences, and in depth discussions of the new constructs we’ve developed. The centerpieces this year were Roland van Kralingen’s work on innovation, captured in his new book (The Growth Engine), and John Gaulding’s work on leading practices for Boards. Roland’s work has led to a series of innovation seminars (Innova-days) and nomination as management book of the year in the Netherlands. Roland will be translating the book into English and conducting Innova-days in the Americas in 2008. John led us through a case study of his work on the Board of Monster Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: MNST). With innovation and governance as cornerstones of our practice, these discussions allow us to continue to disperse our growing knowledge across our team, for the benefit of all of our clients.
August 2007
Ted West appointed acting CEO at LookSmart
Sage partner Ted West has been appointed acting CEO of LookSmart (NASDAQ: LOOK), replacing David Hills who has resigned from the company. Ted has been Chairman of the Board at LookSmart since June 2005 and a board director since November 2001. He will continue in both roles. Ted and the company's executive team will be immediately focused on maximizing the value of the company's advertising network and consumer products as well as its publisher solutions business, where the company is serving IAC Search & Media's Ask.com and has recently signed Wikia.com, both under multi-year agreements. Sage Partners knows that from time to time, our partners will devote themselves to special assignments serving the business community and society. We provide a supportive and flexible environment in which this is not only possible, but encouraged. We wish Ted the best, while he is in the acting CEO role at LookSmart.
June 2007
Sage Portfolio Company Kronos Acquired by Hellman & Friedman
Kronos Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) announced the completion of its acquisition by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, for $1.8 billion. Kronos, a market leader in HR software, plans to pursue an aggressive growth strategy as a privately held firm, under its new ownership. David Kiser, Director of Sage Partners, served on the Kronos Board of Directors from
1989 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2007.
May 2007
Sage and Deloitte partner in corporate governance services
Sage Partners and the Deloitte & Touche Center for Corporate Governance have reaffirmed their commitment to working together in the corporate governance arena, for the fourth consecutive year. This partnership includes joint marketing efforts and client engagements.
April 2007
Pete Bonee joins Sage Partners
Pete Bonee has joined Sage Partners as a Director. Pete is based in California’s Silicon Valley, and will focus on serving Sage’s venture development portfolio companies. Pete comes to us from Sylantro Systems Corporation, where he was founder and CEO for the first 8 years of the company.
March 2007
Tom Doorley Discusses Leading Practices of Effective Boards in Podcast
Being a board member is more demanding than ever before. A wave of high-profile corporate scandals and the introduction of stringent new regulations have pushed boards to implement real change for the first time in a generation. While board membership often was considered little more than a hobby, today it requires a willingness to engage in value-creating activities and oversight. As part of our ongoing relationship on governance with Deloitte, Tom Doorley outlined Sage Partners’ perspective on Leading Practices for an Effective Board in a joint Sage Partners-Deloitte podcast. It is available at: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,sid=26551&cid=138644,00.html
February 2007
Sage Article appears in FWW
The April 2007 issue of Financier Worldwide (www.financierworldwide.com) includes an article by Sage Partners CEO Tom Doorley, entitled “Engaging the Board in Strategic Dialogue”. Tom has worked with Financier Worldwide for several years, sharing Sage Partners intellectual capital with the international corporate finance community. This article outlines steps that can be taken to achieve deeper involvement between boards and management in strategic dialogue that will result in improved corporate performance.
January 2007
Grahame Sewell joins Sage Partners
Grahame Sewell has joined Sage Partners as a Director. Grahame is based in London. Grahame brings an extensive background in venture development. He was founder and CEO of GTS Ventures, where he invested in and developed a number of companies in the health and technology sectors. Grahame will focus on Sage’s venture development practice in the U.K.
November 2006
Tom Doorley elected Chairman of Natrol
Tom Doorley, CEO of Sage Partners, has been elected Lead Director of Natrol Incorporated (NASDAQ: NTOL), a manufacturer of dietary supplements and sports nutrition products. While the duties of Natrol’s CEO and Chairman have been separated, with the Founder remaining as Chair, good governance practice deemed the election of a Lead Director. Tom will continue to serve as Chair of the Compensation Committee on the Natrol Board.
October 2006
Hugo Van Der Zee appointed Chairman of the Board of Aqua Society
Sage partner Hugo Van Der Zee was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aqua Society Incorporated, a developer and supplier of applied technologies in the areas of air conditioning and water extraction. Aqua Society is headquartered in Herten, Germany.
October 2006
Gerhard Blendstrup joins Sage Partners
Gerhard Blendstrup has joined Sage Partners as a Director. Gerhard is based in Berkeley, CA, and will be actively involved in Sage’s venture development portfolio, particularly with West Coast and Silicon Valley companies in the U.S. Gerhard comes to Sage with a strong backgrounds in management and business strategy, as well as in technology. He comes to Sage from IBM, where he held a variety of senior positions in business development, corporate strategy, and IT.
Corporate Governance Forum
Working with the Center for Corporate Excellence, Sage Partners will be leading the panel discussion around the role of the Board in the stratetgic dialogue. The Forum will be held on November 1-3 in Denver. For further information see www.centerforcorporateexcellence.com.
New Board Positions:
Tom Doorley has been named the Lead Director for Natrol (NASDAQ) a leader in vitamin/supplements; Ted West is the new Chairman of LookSmart (NASDAQ) a specialized internet search engine; Dave Kiser has joined the board of Haley & Aldrich a leading environmental consultancy; and John Gaulding has been named Chairman of Advanced Ticketing Systems (UK), the number one provider for sold-out events in the UK and Europe-Tom and Ted join him on the board.
Sage Partners Gathering 2006
Cape Cod, October 22-23, 2006
Sage team will gather on Cape Cod for its annual "all hands" work session. This year's themes are three fold, namely, deepening our relationships especially around three new partners, planning for the growth of Sage in Europe, and our normal client review and experience-sharing. Our venue will be the Wequassett Inn in Harwich, MA.
Sage Partners Gatherings – 2005
Woodstock VT, October 3-6, 2005
The second "all hands" conference took place at the Woodstock Inn, in the midst of the Green Mountains and fall color splendor. The organizing theme of this session was to review our progress as an enterprise and reaffirm our core strategies and values. Our client review focused on the growth of our Emerging Growth Client (EMG) practice around formalized Venture Development service package, and the evolution of our Corporate Governance services for Expanding Growth Clients (EXG's-mostly public companies) and our EMG's.
Sonoma, CA, April 14-16, 2005
Sage Partners “gathered” for its biannual all-hands conference at the Sonoma Mission Inn from April 14-16, 2005. The organizing theme of this event was to deepen our insights around how Boards can work with the enterprise leadership team to exercise their performance role more effectively. We discussed our current client work, and interacted with a panel of Board members to explore how they engage their own Boards.
New Sage Partners: 2006
We welcomed three new Sage Partners in 2006:
Dr. Lawrence Bennigson
Larry is a senior fellow in customized programs in Executive Education at the Harvard Business School. Our connection to Larry comes via John Gaulding. John and Larry were partners at the Management Analysis Center (The MAC Group) in the 1980's and pioneered the firm's work in Corporate Culture. Larry's focus is on the Corporate Governance across EXGs and EMGs, with special competency in organizational development and corporate culture
Hugo van der Zee
Hugo is the former head of Deloitte's Central European Tax Practice, and a seasoned consultant to and an investor in EMGs. In addition to his EMG focus he brings deep knowledge of the large, family owned enterprise, an especially important element within the Euro-Community. Hugo and Tom Doorley met in 1999, through their mutual involvement in the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers program, which Hugo developed while on full time assignment with the WEF. Hugo will work closely with the leaders of EMGs and the Family-Owned Enterprise. Hugo's home is Switzerland.
Roland van Kralingen
Roland is an experienced management consultant whose concentration on marketing and branding issues dovetails nicely with our strategic theme of Value Creating Growth. He has founded and built series of successful European consultancies and currently leads his new firm, integrating marketing with the strategic imperative of innovation (INNOVA). Roland comes to Sage Partners via his relationship with Hugo on EMG client programs.
New Roles for Sage Partners
Tom Doorley
Sage Partners and Tom Doorley are pleased to announce a new strategic alliance with the Deloitte Center for Corporate Governance. Sage and Deloitte will initiate a new round of targeted research to deepen our intellectual capital around the issues facing management teams and their Boards as they seek to move beyond compliance to improving corporate performance. We will collaborate on those clients where Deloitte does not confront an independence issue. If Deloitte is restricted, Sage Partners will work with other professional service firms to develop and implement effective solutions.
Ted West
Since 2001, Ted West has served on the Board of Directors of LookSmart (Nasdaq: LOOK), an internet search and marketing services company, and has recently been appointed its Chairman of the Audit Committee. Ted also sits on the Compensation and Nominating/Governance committees.
Ted has also been elected to the Board of Directors of BlueSpace Group Ltd (UK), a promising global enterprise messaging technology company, for whom he serves as U.S.-based principal in its expansion to this market.
David Kiser
After serving as a senior strategic leadership advisor to Haley & Aldrich, a leading environmental consulting firm, Dave has joined the Board of Directors. He continues to serve on the Board of Kronos, thus blending his work on Sage Partners’ leading edge Intellectual Capital on Creating Value with the Board, with practical experience.
Bob Edmonston
Bob Edmonston has become President of EC Pigments, USA based in Fall River ,MA. EC Pigments is a UK listed (EUC.L) specialty pigments company. Bob’s role includes developing the next generation of leadership at which point he will return to active duty as Sage Partners’ COO.
John Gaulding
John Gaulding adds another public company Board to his duties. He joined the Board of Directors of YPG (the spin off of Bell Canada’s Yellow Pages division), a Canadian listed company with substantial private equity funding.
Tom Doorley
Tom Doorley was honored as an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus by Penn State University in April. Ten alumni are recognized each year for their “professional accomplishments and leadership qualities, and the significance of their impact on their professions and society.”
Bill Ebeling
After a successful career as a Founding Partner of Braxton Associates, and a senior partner during the integration of Braxton into Deloitte, Bill retired from Deloitte in January, joining Sage Partners as a Director. In addition to his extensive career as a strategy consultant, Bill brings a special focus around technology and business development to our practice.
John O'Neil
It is a delightful privilege to announce that Seasons of Grace, co-authored by Alan Jones and John O'Neil with the invaluable assistance of Diana Landau, has won the notable 2004 Nautilus Award in the spirituality category. Our gratitude extends to all who have read and considered this gentle book, and found it worthy.
Paradox of Success, originally published in 1993, has been released with a new introduction. The ongoing interest in the book and topic caused Penguin to reissue the book as a tenth anniversary edition. In addition John has agreed to remain on the Board of Directors of AM Todd Company, a manufacturer of flavors and other natural product components.
Activities for Sage Partners
Changing the Game Forum: 2006 Raising the Level of Ethical Business Behavior Denver, Co
The Center for Corporate Excellence www.centerforcorporateexcellence.com was created in the wake of the business scandals of the early 2000's to rebuild the sense of business as an ethical profession holding itself and performing to high standards of behavior. This years's forum focuses on Corporate Governance, especially the Board's role in helping shape Strategy, Risk and Culture around the need for strong enterprise performance balanced with ethical behavior. Sage Partners will lead the session on "Strategy, Risk, and Ethical Behavior." As part of this session we will present finding around the topic based on our research and work with Boards of Directors.
Creating Value with the Board: Getting the Big Things Right. Webcast, October 13, 2004.
In conjunction with Deloitte’s Center for Corporate Governance, Sage Partners invites our clients and others to participate in a live webcast (2-3 PM, ET). This is part of a Deloitte “Dbrief series for Financial Executives”. Tom Doorley will present Sage Partners’ new framework, the “Governance Cycle”. Tom, Bob Go (senior Deloitte consulting partner and active counselor to Boards) and Barry Huff (senior Deloitte Audit partner with a special focus on Audit Committees) will use the framework to structure a hands-on dialogue outlining how financial executives can and should play a central role in improving the value Boards can add. To join the webcast either go to www.deloitte.com(click on Dbriefs). The direct link is also available below:
www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0,2332,sid%253D5456,00.html
The FAST 500 Global CEO Summit, Naples, FL, June 2003
The FAST 500 Global CEO Summit www.fast500.com is the premier gathering of the leaders of successful, high performance enterprises in the technology, media and telecom business space. Tom Doorley and Sage Partners, LLC have been keynote speakers at more than half of these events over the years. This year, Sage’s focus was on the critical issue of how to “Create Value from the Board-Management Relationship.” While the legal, media, and investor pressures on Board members to become more involved have increased, too often the dialogue has stressed the issue of compliance. That is, what Boards need to do to ensure they meet new rules and regulations. The attached deck presents a sharp shift in direction, from compliance to performance. The presentation triggered active dialogue with an exceptional panel of Board members. We defined the need and the methods for creating value. Further, we learned that CEOs are open to greater involvement by the Board. In fact they intend to work to create more active Boards. The CEO’s indicated their willingness to change members and redesign governance processes to accomplish this goal.
Clearly, we’ve identified an emerging, critical issue. As we deepen our knowledge around how to build a New Leadership Team, the Board and Management working actively together, we’ll continue to share our insights. Let this slide deck -Fast 500 presentation- affirm the importance of assistance to achieving your goal of building a high performance, value creating enterprise
NRF (National Retail Foundation) Annual Conference, February 2003, New York City.
At the NRF Conference Tom will focus on the use of Leading Indicators (the theme of the Sage-Tuck work) to lift enterprise performance. Specifically, he will illustrate the availability and value of such indicators and signals to guide the CEO's decisions and actions. This presentation will be the first public discussion of Sage's work with Tuck and its client, Bigresearch, the leading online market research company. Bigresearch provides customer-based Leading Indicators to its clients. Tom will show how to turn this "advanced knowledge" into enhanced enterprise performance.
Global Forum 2002, October 18, 2002 Washington, DC.
...a conference focused on the impact of Broadband technology and the Knowledge Economy. Tom Doorley, Sage's CEO, will address the group on "Building a Truly Knowledge Based Enterprise." His presentation will target the issues an enterprise faces as it works to gain competitive advantage, that is achieving Value-Creating growth, by balancing organizational needs for technology, investment, and processes, with the core goal of productivity. He will draw upon Sage's recent research with Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business that interviewed the senior leadership teams of 55 successful companies to show how to integrate practice with policy.
CFO Conference-Deloitte & Touche, Petoski, MI September, 2002
Robert P. Edmonston, President, COO Sage will present Sage's Value-Creating Growth concepts to a group of selected CFO's and business leaders from Michigan. Growing companies create value for shareholders as well as satisfying all the other "stakeholders" in an enterprise. Research done on over 4,000 companies shows clearly that growth creates significant value. The more growth, the more value is created, but, interestingly, larger companies create more value than smaller companies at the same growth rates. Research will also be presented showing five key strategies used by successful and growing companies.
US FAST 500 CEO Conference The Breakers Palm Beach, FL, May 8-10, 2002
Tom Doorley will give a keynote speech to this group of the fastest growing technology CEOs in North America. He will focus on "Turning Growth into Profit." He will followup his general session with an informal
discussion with small groups of CEOs concentrating on a dialogue around how to deploy key ideas in their enterprises. The FAST 500 is the premier event honoring CEOs in the technology industries. Deloitte, Touche, Tohmatsu has sponsored this event for six years. This will be Tom's third opportunity to present to this group.
FAST 500 Paris, France April 8-9, 2002"Grandmasters of Growth"
Tom Doorley will be a keynote speaker. This event provides the first comprehensive view of the fastest growing companies in Europe. In addition to honoring the 500 companies it will identify the reasons for their success and highlight the behavior and attributes necessary to grow rapidly in this region of the global economy. A cornerstone of Tom's presentation will be to interpret the findings from a survey of the CEOs of the Fast 500. The survey focuses on the CEOs' perspectives on their success factors and their view of
economic prospects in the region. The event is sponsored by Deliotte, Touche, Tohmatsu's Emerging Strategic Clients Council.
ANTAD II CEO Conference Mexico City, March 18, 2002
Tom Doorley will reprise his September presentation on the issues facing CEOs as they execute programs of Value-Creating Growth. His focus will be directed toward Five New Business Models designed to provide highly productive,highly profitable revenue growth with lower levels of fresh investment. These models represent the result of a yearlong analysis of how a few successful consumer products companies have managaged to fight their way out of the low growth environment they have confronted over the past decade.
YPO University San Diego, CA Jan 07, 2002 150-200 CEO’s from the YPO (Young Presidents Organization) Sessions designed to provide practical, leading edge thoughtware on issues facing the leaders of successful enterprises. Tom Doorley will present Sage Partners’ new work around balancing the demands of productivity and growth, and how to maintain a vital culture in the face of pressures making even the most stable companies fragile.
Technology Empowerment Network (TEN www.techempower.net Annual meeting Fairmont hotel San Francisco August 28, 2001) Sage's CEO, Tom Doorley helped to found and serves as co Chair, of this unique organization comprised largely of CEOs of young, technology-based enterprises who are working to "give back" to society even as they launch their own fledgling companies. TEN identifies social entrepreneurs who need help to lift their organizations to the next level of impact and performance, then connects them to critical resources resident in the TEN network. At this inaugural annual meeting the TEN Executive Council will celebrate success of the programs it sponsored this year Schoolsonline and Greenstar)and will announce the new focus programs for the upcoming year. Tom will lead the event and will facilitate the interactive dialogue with such technology industry luminaries as Esther Dyson (CEO edventures, publisher Business 2.0) and John Gage (senior scientist Sun Microsystems).
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