Charlie is a regular speaker, moderator, panelist, or conference leader with respect to a variety of industries, as well as more general events focused on private equity investing and middle market transactions. Since 2016, Charlie has annually served as the Chairman and Emcee of a Reuters Events conference in the US. He has regularly been a judge for energy technology competitions at Carnegie Mellon University. Over many years, Charlie has been listed in a variety of Who’s Who publications, including Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in Energy.
As a founding Board member and officer (and now Chairman of the Board) of the non-profit Energy Innovation Center Institute, Inc., Charlie has spearheaded a number of energy, construction, and environmental-related initiatives. Through two entities that he co-founded and chaired, the non-profit Huddle Up for Kids Foundation and Pro Football Alumni LLC, Charlie has worked with blue chip companies, including Evoqua Water Technologies, Shell Polymers, Chevron, UPMC, PJ Dick, MSA Safety, and retired NFL player/celebrities to raise money for children’s and veterans’ charities in the region.
Charlie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BS from the Wharton School and BA in Russian and Slavic Studies), which he attended on a competitive merit scholarship from the Pipe Fitting & Air Conditioning Council for children of pipefitters; and he is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law, which he attended as the Elliott E. Cheatham Scholar, at the time the school’s largest merit scholarship, providing full tuition and living costs.
Supplemental Information of Potential Interest
Charlie initially practiced law in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, where he joined out of law school the city’s pre-eminent law firm, Blackwell Sanders Matheny Weary & Lombardi (now Husch Blackwell). He became the firm’s youngest ever partner on December 31, 1979. In between his law firm partnerships at Blackwell Sanders and Jones Day, Charlie served in executive positions at NYSE companies including Hospital Corporation of America (“HCA”), where he co-founded HCA Venture Capital, the company’s in-house venture arm, investing in emerging healthcare companies.Although no longer practicing law today, prior to and through his years as a Jones Day partner, Charlie's work earned him an AV® Preeminent™ certification (with the highest preeminent rating of 5.0 out of 5.0) from Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings, the highest available mark for professional and legal excellence (1 percent of all lawyers). [See: http://www.martindale.com/Charles-A-Schliebs/1553640-lawyer.htm?view=cr]
While at Blackwell Sanders and Jones Day, Charlie refused all client board opportunities, believing that to be contrary to best practices in corporate governance. However, immediately after concluding his legal career, Charlie was asked to join the board of directors of Sunquest Information Systems, Inc., a Tucson, Arizona-based healthcare information systems company (SUNQ: NASDAQ-NMS) for which he had served as outside counsel while at Jones Day. In his board role, in addition to serving on the Audit and other committees, he actively coordinated and oversaw the sale of the company to Misys plc for three times the price of the company’s stock when he was appointed ($8 to $24 in 18 months).
In addition to serving on the boards of both publicly-traded and privately-held for-profit companies, Charlie has served on a variety of boards involving entrepreneurship, social justice, education and workforce development, ethical issues, children, and cultural ties, including, for example, Pittsburgh’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University (founding Board Member), Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cross-Cultural Ethics at LaRoche University (Board Chair), the President’s Visiting Committee on Social Justice at West Virginia University, British-American Connections Pittsburgh and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Pittsburgh.