Speakers

Brenon oversees the financial analysis of 451 Research's Market Insight and KnowledgeBase products, having covered more than a quarter-trillion dollars' worth of deal flow for both national publications and research firms.

Brenon began his career in 1991 as one of the initial reporters at Prognosis, the first English-language newspaper in the former Eastern Bloc. While there, he covered the Czech Republic's transition to a market economy, as well as larger financial stories across the region. Expanding on that, Brenon moved to Vienna in 1995 to run the local bureau for United Press International. In addition to reporting extensively on Austrian politics and economics, he also coordinated and edited EuroBusiness stories from correspondents in Slovakia and Hungary. After UPI, Brenon moved to an analyst position with the Economist Group, where he researched and wrote reports for The Economist Intelligence Unit and the regional publication of The Economist.

Returning to the US in 1997, Brenon helped establish the editorial voice in the early days of CBS MarketWatch, the most popular online financial news site. During his time there, he helped launch OptionsWatch, covering options trading, and MarketPulse, a minute-by-minute report on stock activity licensed primarily to brokerages. Since 2000, Brenon has focused his reporting on M&A as a reporter for The Deal. During that time, he also sharpened his analytical skills, writing reports for TechDealmaker (since acquired by 451 Research) and the boutique research firm Intellectual Capital Associates.

As Research Director of 451 Research's Internet of Things practice, Christian Renaud covers the ongoing virtualization and digitization of the physical world around us.

For 25 years prior to joining 451 Research, Christian built nationwide networks at large and small enterprises, worked with Fortune 50 companies in the systems integrator channel, built products at Cisco Systems and ran the company's New Markets and Technologies team. He has been the CEO of multiple startups, worked in venture and angel capital, and has served as an advisor to G20 and European Commission projects.

Christian is a frequent speaker on emerging technology, entrepreneurship and future trends. He can be found on Twitter at @xianrenaud, or on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xianrenaud.

Ms. Liu regularly advises public companies on corporate governance matters, including disagreements between board and management, succession planning, investor relations, director and officer fiduciary duties and board “best practices”, and counsels boards and special committees in connection with conflicts of interest, proxy contests and other corporate control efforts. Ms. Liu is outside general counsel to a number of public companies with whom she has worked with for over 10 years and provides big picture, critical value-adding strategic advice. She also counsels public companies on disclosure matters and associated liability considerations, including those relating to the federal securities laws, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, and NYSE and NASDAQ rules and regulations. Her knowledge of SEC-reporting requirements is a valuable addition to counseling on public-company M&A transactions. Ms. Liu has lectured at seminars and conferences and written articles on various ’33 Act and ’34 Act law matters, and is a staff member of the Practising Law Institute.

Ms. Liu has represented a number of public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, from small asset acquisitions and divestitures, founder-driven sales and talent acquisitions to multibillion-dollar transactions such as SOFTBANK’s acquisition of Sprint, Intel’s acquisition of McAfee and Mercury Interactive’s sale to HP. In addition, Ms. Liu has been involved in a number of complex cross-border transactions in Asia, Australia and Europe, including NCR Corporation’s s acquisition of Israel-based Retalix, Intel’s minority stake in Netherlands-based ASML, PRC-based MicroPort Scientific’s acquisition of the orthopedics business of Wright Medical, DSP Group’s acquisition of the DECT business of Netherlands-based NXP B.V. and McKesson’s acquisition of Israel-based Medcon.