Mark D. Bradford is a Partner at VLP. He specializes in executive compensation, equity compensation, and employee benefits for clients ranging from start-ups to emerging growth public companies. He also represents individual executives, ranging from Fortune 500 C-suite members to start-up founders, in negotiating employment, termination, and severance arrangements. In addition, he represents individuals and management teams in significant M&A transactions.
Mark has over 20 years of experience as an executive compensation and employee benefits attorney. In over 200 cross-border and domestic M&A deals, he has represented buyers and sellers, with transactions ranging in size from a $1 million acquihire to a $7 billion sale of a major client. In connection with these transactions, Mark has negotiated and drafted deal-related agreements, including employment, incentive, retention, severance and non-competition, and worked on post-closing integration matters. He has also worked with more than 35 companies on compensation matters arising out of their initial public offerings.
Mark has drafted hundreds of executive employment, equity and cash incentive, change in control, retention, severance plans, and non-competition and non-solicitation arrangements for emerging growth companies backed by both venture capital and private equity investors. He brings a wealth of experience and perspective regarding the culture and business needs of Silicon Valley companies when providing counsel to in-house legal, human resource, finance, tax, and stock administration professionals.
Prior to joining VLP, Mark was a senior associate with Gunderson Dettmer LLP’s Executive Compensation Group. Prior to Gunderson, he was an associate with Cooley LLP’s Compensation & Benefits Group. Mark began his career in the area of executive compensation and employee benefits at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP where he was an associate in the Executive Compensation, Employee Benefits and Taxation Group.
Mark received a law degree and a master’s in taxation from Boston University School of Law. He received a bachelor’s degree in both Economics and Political Economy of Industrialized Societies from the University of California at Berkeley.
I enjoy cycling. In the summer of 2022, my son and I participated in RAGBRAI XLIX (The Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), a 7-day, 450-mile cycling event across Iowa. This picture was taken at the end of the journey, when I reached the Mississippi River on the eastern edge of Iowa.
Education
- LL.M., Boston University School of Law, Graduate Tax Program, 1995
- J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1994
- B.A., Economics and Political Economy of Industrial Societies, University of California at Berkeley, 1990
- Advised management team at publicly-traded late-stage biopharma company in $230M sale transaction.
- Advised founding management team in $1.0B sale of industrial cyber security company to Japanese conglomerate.
- Advised CEO and CFO of publicly-traded biotech in $1.0B sale transaction.
- Advised founders of technology startup in sale to Japanese specialty chemical company.
- Advised management team in sale of cloud document security company to publicly-traded cloud storage company.
- Advised co-founders of package tracking app company in connection with financing transaction.
- Advised founders of digital ad agency to cryptocurrency exchange.
- Advised executive team at Machine Learning startup to publicly-traded semiconductor company.
- Advised management team in sale of company providing platform to manage credit card loyalty programs in $275M sale to cloud-based credit card issuing company.
- Advised executive team at computational drug design company in $500M sale to publicly-traded technology company.
- Advised senior management team at electric vehicle charging company in connection with SPAC transaction.
- Advised management team of a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company in a $3.7B sale transaction.
- Advised senior executives at computer vision-powered startup to European micromobility company.
- Advised senior executives at real-time data integration company to German multinational software company.
- Advised management team at candidate search and recruitment marketing technology company in sale to portfolio company of private equity investor.
- Advised co-founders of productivity app company in sale to AI platform buyer.
- Advised executive team in IPO of AI software company.
- Advised executive team at global Industrial IoT and cloud technology company to public-traded infrastructure engineering software company.
- Advised executive team in acquihire sale to recruiting company.
- Advised executive team in sale of fraud detection startup to leading fintech company.
- Advised group of executives in $440M sale of cloud-based point of sale solution.
- Advised executive team at big data platform company in connection with investment with strategic growth equity firm.
- Advised executive team at national provider of energy solutions for utilities and their commercial customers in $120M sale of company to publicly-traded company.
- Advised executive team at video game company in sale of company to mobile app development company.
- Advised executive team at publicly-traded pharmaceutical company regarding employment and severance issues.
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Authors “Incentivizing the Executive Team Before an IPO or Sale,” for The Entrepreneur’s Roadmap, a Publication of the New York Stock Exchange (June 2017)
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in American Banker Article “How Wells Fargo Could Overcome a Shareholder Revolt” (April 17, 2017)
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in Inside Counsel Article “Will President Trump Amend Dodd-Frank?” (Jan 24, 2017)
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in Inside Counsel Article “How 5,000 Wells Fargo Employees Got Away With Opening Over 2M Accounts” (Oct 21, 2016)
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Authors Law360 Article “Where Were Wells Fargo’s Senior Management and Board of Directors?” (Oct 16, 2016)
- VLP Partner Mark Bradford Quoted in The Washington Post Article “The Unusual Change Wells Fargo Made to its Board as it Tries to Move Beyond the Fake Accounts Scandal” (Oct 13, 2016)
- Designing and Implementing an Effective Executive Compensation Plan: Your Guide for 2017 & Beyond, The Knowledge Group webinar (October 2017)
- Panelist, “Cofounder Legal Challenges and Solutions,” Silicon Valley Cofounder Academy (November 2016)
- Are You Ready For Section 409b? New Legislation Threatens Dramatic Changes to Most Compensation Arrangements
(Nov 8, 2017) - Will Traditional Stock Options Remain A Lure for Startup Employees?
(Sep 20, 2017) - It’s Time for Companies to Start Preparing for Tax Time: Annual Reporting Requirements Applicable to Equity Awards
(Jan 27, 2017)