Joseph Laird

Jed Laird is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Laird Squared, LLC (styled "Laird²"), a New York boutique that provides investment banking, research and strategic advisory services to owner-entrepreneurs and investors in the business-information economy. He founded the firm in 1999 with Christine Balcius Laird; the two run it alongside principal Stephen N. Case II. The firm represents sellers, buyers and investors in mergers and acquisitions, sales of database/information properties, joint ventures, and management buyout financings, focusing on the convergence of information services, consulting, and software.

Laird holds an AB from Franklin & Marshall College and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career in the securities industry between 1971 and 1985 in executive positions at Stillman Maynard & Co., Paine Webber Mitchell Hutchins, and Cyrus J. Lawrence & Sons. In 1986 he moved into the database-information industry, creating what the firm describes as the first analytical template for the sector as a senior securities analyst at Hambrecht & Quist, where from 1986 to 1989 he served as a principal, senior investment analyst and venture capitalist managing a venture portfolio in information and marketing services.

From 1989 to 1999 Laird was Managing Director of the Database Information Strategic Industry Group at Veronis, Suhler & Associates, Inc. (VS&A), a decade spent advising and investing in the information-services sector before he left to launch Laird Squared. In February 2009, Jed and Chris Laird joined the investment bank Petsky Prunier to help lead its Information Services practice, extending their long-running specialization in business-information M&A.

Over his career Laird has held or been associated with a number of board and directorship roles in information companies, including FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS) and The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), and has been linked to boards/advisory roles at SNL Financial (now part of S&P Global Market Intelligence), Valassis, Luxury Link, and others.

• Deep sector specialization in the "business information economy": database information services, marketing and financial information, consulting, and vertical-market application software.
• Targets entrepreneurial, emerging-growth companies with revenues of ~$5M–$50M — small enough to be founder-owned but with proven traction.
• Serves corporate information functions (marketing, finance, HR/legal, IT/telecom, scientific/technical) across Global 5000 verticals such as healthcare/pharma, media, financial services, automotive, CPG and retail.
• Engages primarily through transactions — M&A (buy- and sell-side), joint ventures, and management buyout financings — reflecting an investment-banking and former-VC background rather than a check-writing angel practice.
• The firm's stated positioning is to provide "tailored investment banking, research and strategic advisory services to owner/entrepreneurs and investors" at the convergence of information services, consulting and software.