Governance in Acquisitions with Liz MacRae

The Boardroom 180 Podcast

Munir Haque is joined by exit plan advisor and co-founder of Village Wellth, Elizabeth MacRae, to talk about the buying and selling of business and why Village Wellth was founded to facilitate those needs. What is the board of directors’ role in an acquisition or sale? What is typically overseen by the board? Liz sheds light on how they operate in her world and what makes exit planning such a vital necessity.

The manner in which businesses seek growth is varied, whether they consider growth through acquisition, by taking the traditional path through organic growth marketing and sales, or via accessing debt to grow capacity. The viability of different growth options is discussed and Liz explains the factors that lead even smaller companies to consider acquisitions, which is where Village Wellth’s role is significant.

Learn how governance is affected by a merger or sale, how the choice of growth pathway will affect the governance and board decisions and why. There are reasons to consider a change of governance if the business is to become more profitable before the sale, or to form a board if investors require it. Liz delves into how a board of directors can lead a company to success by guiding the processes and procedures and a certain standard and quality of financial reporting, important factors if a company is changing hands. This episode reveals the importance of governance from an exit plan and acquisition perspective.

About Elizabeth MacRae

Liz is a certified exit plan advisor and co-founder of Village Wellth, an acquisition management platform supporting entrepreneurs in accessing deal flow and capital for business acquisitions. Her journey into entrepreneurship stemmed from a pivotal moment when she missed the chance to take over her father's family business due to a lack of succession planning. Together with her husband Scott, they embarked on business ownership by purchasing a franchise. Their experience of navigating the inception and the eventual sale of the franchise sparked Liz's passion for business succession. Over the past decade, Liz has acquired and successfully exited two companies. Her expertise spans transaction services running a boutique, business brokerage, facilitating deals between buyers and sellers, and as an exit planning advisor.

Drawing from her client interactions and personal ventures, Liz is an avid speaker dedicated to empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and founders by sharing insights into business acquisition and the strategies for proper exit planning. Her commitment to simplifying and enhancing the business acquisition process underscores her vision for improving access to entrepreneurs and business sustainability. She also serves as co-president of the Calgary M&A Club.

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Contact Munir Haque | ActionEdge Executive Development:

• Website: AEEDNow.com
• Linkedin: Action Edge Executive Development Inc.
  
  

Contact Elizabeth (Liz) MacRae:

• Website: VillageWellth.com
• LinkedIn

Podcast Production:

• Recording: PushySix Studios
• Production Assistance: Astronomic Audio

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Transcript

Elizabeth MacRae: [00:00:03] I'm a big philosopher of this too, is if you plan to exit someday, have those exit strategies in mind because if you understand how you can exit a company, you'll make different decisions every single day. At the micro level, because you'll understand that when you get to due diligence, how those decisions are going to be looked at. I'm a huge proponent for understanding, even if you don't plan to exit yourself for 10, 15 years, if you're not necessarily raising capital today, but you plan on raising capital, understand how that works now, because it's a tremendous amount of work if you have to get prepared for due diligence.

Munir Haque: [00:00:48] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Boardroom 180 Podcast. I'm your host Munir Haque, an executive coach and senior board strategist. I have partnered with Action Edge Executive Development to lead their governance and political acumen division. In each episode, we meet with governance leaders and step into their boardrooms where decisions shape the world around us. We'll hear the good, the bad and the ugly, but with a keen focus on where the gaps are, discover emerging best practices and real world tools to better evaluate, guide and grow you and your boards.

Munir Haque: [00:01:18] Our guest today is Elizabeth MacRae. Liz is a certified exit plan advisor and co-founder of Village Wellth. That's w-e-l-l-t-h. It's an acquisition management platform supporting entrepreneurs in accessing deal flow and capital for business acquisitions. Her journey into entrepreneurship stemmed from a pivotal moment when she missed the chance to take over the father's family business due to a lack of succession planning. Together with her husband Scott, they embarked on business ownership by purchasing a franchise. Their experience of navigating the inception and the eventual sale of the franchise sparked Liz's passion for business succession. Over the past decade, Liz has acquired and successfully exited two companies. Her expertise spans transaction services running a boutique, business brokerage, facilitating deals between buyers and sellers, and as an exit planning advisor. Drawing from her client interactions and personal ventures, Liz is an avid speaker dedicated to empowering aspiring entrepreneurs and founders by sharing insights into business acquisition and the strategies for proper exit planning. Her commitment to simplifying and enhancing the business acquisition process underscores her vision for improving access to entrepreneurs and business sustainability. She also serves as co-president of Calgary M&A Club. Hello Liz, and thanks for taking the time. I know you've got a busy schedule. Thanks for joining us on The Boardroom 180 Podcast.

Elizabeth MacRae: [00:02:56] Thanks for having me, Munir. It's a pleasure to be here.

Munir Haque: [00:02:58] Is there anything in the intro that I missed or that you wanted to expand a little bit on?

Elizabeth MacRae: [00:03:02] No, that pretty well sums it up. I think one of the missing pieces is that I'm not originally from Calgary. I know we're recording this in Calgary. I'm originally from the East Coast, which coming from that community in such a close knit community fostered in me the support local, the sustainability philosophy. And a lot of the businesses in that area are farms and family enterprises. I was raised in that environment which certainly plays into how I conduct my business and what drives me.

Munir Haque: [00:03:41] Nice. Maybe we'll just jump right into it right now and maybe ask you a little bit more about Village Wellth. What led you and why did you see that there was a need for it?

Elizabeth MacRae: [00:03:49] We started Village Wellth, the conversation for Village Wellth started in 2019, and one of my business partners comes from a wealth management background. At the time I was in transaction services and the business brokerage space and conducting exit planning and working with business owners on their succession plans. When my business partner and I collided, we just started talki...