Corporate Boardbound Workshop—April 13, 2023

Summary

Summary of Homework

  • Read the pre-reading to deepen your understanding of the responsibilities of board directors.

  • Come to April meeting prepared to:

    • share tips from your mentor in a breakout discussion

    • participate in a discussion of the case study WM Technology

Preparation

Basic Pre-Reading

  • Read “A Director’s Perspective” which offers tips for boards dealing with activists (pages 125-127) and any other of the short articles that pique your interest in Section 3 of “Be Board Ready” by Betsy Atkins.

  • Familiarize yourself with the resources offered by the KPMG Board Leadership Center.

Homework Exercises

  • Learnings from Your Mentor—Reflect on your discussions with your mentor since the beginning of the program. Think of one or two tips you especially found helpful to share with your cohort during the first breakout session.

  • Case Study – you will have the chance to be involved in three case studies during the Corporate Boardbound program, you have worked on two and the third, is included in this Workshop.

    The objective of the case studies is to provide practice and experience in researching companies you are interested in and/or companies you asked to interview with.  In July of this year, we will provide you an opportunity for a mock interview for a board seat with your choice of the three companies included in the case study exercises. 

    For the April workshop, the case study is WM Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ CM: MAPS).  WM Technology and “WeedMap” is a leading online marketplace for cannabis users and businesses, their mission is to power a transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy. WM has been a driving force behind much of the legislative change we’ve seen in the past 10 years and produced an ad for the 2022 Super Bowl that highlighted advertisement difficulties with cannabis products.

    Please take a wholistic approach to the offer to be considered to join the Board of WM Technology by searching out difficulties inherent in the industry, forecasts for the industry and areas you could add value as both WM Technology and the industry continue to face head winds.

    We provide these resources to get you started, realizing you will need to dig a bit deeper to be ready to participate during the April Workshop:  Form 10-K for 2022 and Proxy, In addition, we include Reuters Outperform and CFRA Strong Sell analysis of the Company.

    For this exercise, you will be joining a group of current board members (including the breakout room facilitator and your fellow Cohort members) who are discussing actions needed to re-position WM Technology’s standing given earnings and stock price decline.  You will be invited to provide your viewpoint, while assuming you willingly accepted the invitation to be interviewed in this manner with WM Technology.

Optional Homework

  • Listen to the WM Technology’s Fourth Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. What impressions did you gain about the company’s prospects and the quality of their management? Listening to the conference calls is a great tool for your due diligence and preparation for board interviews.

  • Review Cannabis Industry Reports, such as Grandview Research on “North America Legal Cannabis Market Size”.

  • Akerna is an enterprise software company headquartered in Colorado with Jessica Billingsley as their CEO. They serve the cannabis industry by providing compliance, data, payments, seed-to-sale, track-and-trace, and consulting to operators, governments, and brands. They also reported decline in revenue and profits and are selling parts of their business and merging the remainder as announced recently.

Agenda

Learning Objectives

  1. To deepen your understanding of board director responsibilities.

  2. To feel confident that you can evaluate companies and conduct due diligence to evaluate whether you are interested in serving on their board and, if so, prepare for an interview.

Location:

We hope everyone will be able to join in person. The location is Denver KPMG offices, 1225 17th Street, Denver, CO 80202. However, if you are not able to, remote access is available through Zoom. Please let us know if you are attending by Zoom or unable to participate.

Refreshments and Networking begins at 4:15 pm

Program begins at 4:30 pm (See recording of the workshop here.)

Welcome and Purpose |

Tips From Your Mentor | Breakout Session

Board Governance

Being a Valued Board Director| Stephen Brown from KPMG

Discussion and Sharing Insights | All facilitated

Break

Board Journey

Case Study: WM Technology | All

Debrief and Summary |

Thanks and Closing

Next Steps | Kate Frazier

Breakout Facilitator #1—Polly Buster

Breakout Facilitator #2—Bill Heck

Breakout Facilitator #3—Georgia Phifer

Breakout Facilitator #4—Gloria Zamora

Breakout Facilitator #5—Kate Frazier