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Presented by the Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance and SVDX
7:30 – 8:00 am: Continental Breakfast
8:00 – 9:30 am Program
Activist shareholders are pushing their agenda in corporate America. Today's public company can be a target of an activist hedge fund regardless of size, performance or relative success.
Boards now need to be activists, too. How can board agendas address likely shareholder concerns? How should public companies engage most effectively with their stockholders?
Our experienced panel discussed what to expect for 2015 in activist campaigns and shareholder engagement and what activism means for board strategy, leadership and culture. Directors and senior executives participated in the discussion.
Our Panel
Daniel H. Burch is the chairman, CEO and co-founder in 1990 of MacKenzie Partners, Inc. a leading proxy solicitation, corporate governance and investor relations consulting firm. In his role as advisor to issuers, boards and investors, he is responsible for developing and implementing strategies and campaigns for clients involved in proxy contests, tender offers, mergers, shareholder activism, corporate governance, financial restructurings and other complex corporate transactions. The firm also offers its clients stockholder and bondholder identification, beneficial owner analysis and market surveillance.
Abe M. Friedman is the founder and managing partner of CamberView Partners. CamberView advises boards and management teams of public companies on how to succeed with their investors in the context of shareholder activism and engagement.Previously, Abe was a managing director at BlackRock where he served as the global head of corporate governance and responsible investment. Abe lead a team of 18 professionals in 6 offices around the globe. Abe was also the global head of corporate governance at Barclays Global Investors (BGI).
Michael Jacobson is senior vice president, legal affairs, general counsel and secretary at eBay, Inc. Mike joined eBay in 1998 and oversees the company's legal department and government relations groups. He is responsible for interactions with legislators and law enforcement and for the company's commercial, compliance, IP, litigation and other legal matters. His group consists of approximately 360 lawyers and other professionals in 22 countries around the world. Previously, Mike was a partner with Cooley Godward LLP where he was recognized as an expert in securities law.
Muir Paterson, CFA, is managing director of Goldman Sach's New York investment banking office. Muir is a senior member of the mergers & acquisitions group, focused on advising clients globally on how to prepare for and respond to shareholder activism and hostile mergers and acquisitions. Muir also worked at Wellington Management Company, where he served as director of corporate governance and was responsible for governance analytics, proxy voting and company engagement. Before that, he was co-head of the M&A and proxy fight research group at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).
George Sard is chairman and CEO of Sard Verbinnen & Co., a New York strategic communications firm he co-founded in 1992 with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and London. George has represented Fortune 500 companies and private firms in many industries on long-term investor and media positioning programs and in high-profile crises and special situations. These include mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, restructurings, earnings issues, high-level executive changes and sensitive legal and regulatory matters.
Moderator
Diane Frankle is a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Kaye Scholer LLP. She represents publicly traded and privately held companies engaged in a wide variety of US and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures. Her clients include companies in the technology, life sciences and health care industries. Diane also regularly advises boards of directors and special committees on fiduciary duties, corporate governance and disclosure issues, crisis management and internal investigations. Diane was recently named the Best Lawyers' 2014-15 San Francisco Corporate Governance Law “Lawyer of the Year.” |
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