Bio

Lara Pender has more than 10 years of experience in structuring, negotiating, and managing multijurisdictional acquisitions, divestitures, and minority- and majority-stake investments. Lara worked in the City of London for seven years where she focused on complex, sponsor-backed acquisitions for global private equity sponsors such as Bain Capital, Vista Equity Partners, and Towerbrook Capital Partners. Since moving to the United States in 2014, Lara has split her time between the Bay Area and the Midwest — and deepened her commitment to the emerging company space. She has worked on more than a dozen financings of "unicorn" companies with valuations in excess of $1 billion, chiefly acting for international corporate venture capital, sovereign wealth, and pension funds. Lara is deeply engaged in the burgeoning Midwest venture scene, helping founders and venture capitalists navigate initial funding rounds and other early-stage legal and strategic issues. Lara also teaches a late-stage venture class entitled "Harnessing Unicorns" at the University of Michigan Law School.