News and Events

—Managing Director

Ken Bender is the Founder and Managing Director of Software Equity Group. For more than twenty-five years he has advised, counseled and guided literally thousands of software entrepreneurs, executives and equity investors worldwide. Industry newsletter Software Success and others have recognized him as “The Nation’s leading expert in midcap software and internet M&A transactions.”

Ken is former President and Chairman of the Arizona Software Association, and is a recipient of the Association's prestigious Software Industry Leader of the Year award. From 1998-2003 he served as a Director of the San Diego Software Industry Council. An acclaimed speaker, Ken has keynoted or addressed conferences and seminars sponsored by such groups as Software Business Magazine, Software Publisher's Association, VAR Magazine, Software Success, SoftLetter, The Daily Deal, Tech Coast Angels, Venture Network and the Colorado, Arizona, Chicago, Denver, Southern California, Boulder and San Diego Software Associations. He has been widely quoted by such leading publications as Information Week, U.S. News & World Report, The Daily Deal, Mergers & Acquisitions, Entrepreneur, USA Today, Reuters, Software Business, Software Success and SoftwareCEO. Ken is also the featured speaker at quarterly M&A Web seminars sponsored by leading software provider Softrax.

Before founding our firm in 1992, Ken was Vice President, Software and Chief Administrative Officer of MicroAge, Inc., a Fortune 500 systems integrator/aggregator. Ken also served as President & CEO of Access Solutions, Inc., a value-added distributor of vertical solutions to software companies serving vertical markets, and as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Information Systems Consultants Inc., a software developer and systems integrator. A corporate and computer lawyer by training, he was Assistant General Counsel of Honeywell Inc. and Honeywell Bull, specializing in corporate and computer law, software licensing, and mergers and acquisitions. He is a member of the State Bar of Arizona and the New York State Bar.

Ken was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree (Political Science and History) from Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law.