Beyond AI Fever: Navigating a Complex IPO Environment, 6th Palm Beach CorpGov Forum

CorpGov hosted the sixth annual Palm Beach CorpGov Forum on Nov. 4-5, 2026, at the Palm Beach Lake Pavilion and The Cove Club, both located waterfront with sweeping views of Palm Beach Island, along with a reception at Cucina Palm Beach. The panel called “Beyond AI Fever: Navigating a Complex IPO Environment” took place on Thursday morning.

The panel featured Craig DeDomenico, Managing Director at Stifel and Charles Soranno, Managing Director at Protiviti, with Don Duffy, Chairman at ICR Capital, as the moderator.

Key comments from the panel:

“Let’s start to act like a public company before we go public,” said Craig DeDomenico. “Let’s start to look at our reporting. Let’s start to talk quarterly. Let’s start to act like we’ve got to get those processes in place.”
“We recommend to our clients, if they have the timeline to think about getting ready 18 to 24 months out,” said Charles Soranno. “And we focus on, regardless of the exit, things that we call no regrets activities.”
“On one side of the equation, there’s a record amount of private companies north of a billion in enterprise value,” said Don Duffy. “On the other, we survey a lot of institutional investors where they are looking for products. Small to mid-cap managers, don’t see enough of IPO flow.”

Photo Gallery of the 6th Palm Beach CorpGov Forum

Speakers: CorpGov Forum 2026:

Keynote: Paul Abrahimzadeh, Partner, 1789 Capital
Keynote: Vishal Garg, Founder and Head of Product, Platform and Innovation, Better Home & Finance Holding Co. (Nasdaq: BETR)
Andrew Bair, President and CEO, Capital Defense Technologies
Jeff Buzen, Head of M&A, McGill and Partners
Marcos Cervantes, Founder and CEO, Q-Branch
Doug Chia, President, Soundboard Governance; Host, The Public Company Series Podcast; Former Corporate Secretary, Johnson & Johnson
George Corbin, Board Director, Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE: EPC); Former Chief Digital Officer, Marriott and Mars
Craig DeDomenico, Managing Director, Equity and Equity-Linked Capital Markets, Stifel
Robert DuPuy, Former President and COO, Major League Baseball
Adam Dobrik, Senior Director, Shareholder Activism Practice, Forward Global
Don Duffy, Chairman, ICR Capital
John Ehrhard, Co-Founder, XQai
Andrew Freedman, Co-Managing Partner; Chair, Shareholder Activism Practice, Olshan Frome Wolosky
Chuck Garske, Senior Managing Director, Okapi Partners
Joe Germani, Partner and Co-Founder, Longacre Square Partners
Bruce Goldfarb, President and CEO, Okapi Partners
Brenda Gosselin, Partner, Goodmans LLP
John Grau, President, InvestorCom
Mary Guzman, Founder and CEO, Crown Jewel Insurance
Mark Harms, Chairman and CEO, Global Leisure Partners
Benjamin Heriaud, Partner, Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions, Vinson & Elkins
Rick Horrow, CEO, Horrow Sports Ventures
Rafique Jiwani, Head of GTM Value Creation, Operating Advisor, Goldman Sachs Private Equity
Andy Katz, General Partner, BrknPar Ventures (Sport Tech Growth Equity Fund)
Ryan Keating, Partner, Industry Leader, Venture Services, EisnerAmper
Harrison Lance, Head of Capital Markets, Southeast, New York Stock Exchange
Jonathan Lo, Vice President of Startup Finance, EisnerAmper
Robert Maciejko, Founder, Board AI Institute; Co-founder, INSEAD AI (Alum-Led); Member, INSEAD’s AI Advisory Group
Mark Martini, Senior Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets, E.F. Hutton & Co.
Ron Orol, Senior Editor, The Deal
Charles Orozco, Senior Vice President – Group Director, Flagstar Private Bank
Kory Patrick, Principal, Risk Advisory Services, Kaufman, Rossin &Co.
Matthew Player, CEO, Zoneomics
Joseph Quintilian, Partner, Distributed Capital Partners, and co-founder, Ajna Labs LLC
Michael W. Robinson, Chairman and CEO, The Montgomery Strategies Group
Patrick Rooney, Family Owner, Pittsburgh Steelers; President, Palm Beach Kennel Club
Joshua Siegel, General Partner, Acronym Venture Capital
Emma Sissman, Vice President, Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Dorothy Sluszka, Partner, Shareholder Activism, Corporate/Securities Law, Olshan Frome Wolosky
Charles Soranno, Managing Director, Protiviti
Adam Tamzoke, Counsel, Latham & Watkins
Sebastian Tiller, Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets, Vinson & Elkins
Greg Veltri, Stock Plan Lifecycle Director, Infinite Equity
Karen Walker, CFO, Sysdig
Judson Wallace, Managing Director, White Rabbit Capital
Candice Wilson, Managing Director, CFO Advisory Practice, EisnerAmper
Joseph Yaker, Founder and CEO, Xpand Global Inc.
Ned Zelles, Director, Head of GTS Corporate Services, GTS
Katie Creaser, Partner, Technology, ICR (Moderator)
Adam Kommel, Activism Data Product Manager, Bloomberg (Moderator)
Stuart Levine, Chairman and CEO, Stuart Levine & Associates (Moderator)
Jarrett Banks, Editor-at-Large, CorpGov (Moderator)
John Jannarone, Editor-in-Chief, CorpGov (Moderator)