Raman Bet-Mansour is a corporate partner in the firm’s London and Paris offices and a member of the firm’s Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities and Corporate Governance Groups. He also has extensive experience with international joint ventures and debt financings.

Since joining Debevoise in 1989, Mr. Bet-Mansour has been resident in the firm’s New York, Paris and London offices. Since July 2011, he has divided his time between the London and Paris offices.

Mr. Bet-Mansour is recommended by IFLR1000 (2020) for both Debt and Equity Capital Markets, as well as for Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions. Mr. Bet-Mansour was also recommended for Private Equity Transactions in The Legal 500 UK (2018).

Mr. Bet-Mansour has published numerous articles and is a frequent public speaker at various conferences.

Mr. Bet-Mansour received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1985, his M.A. in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University in 1986, and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1989. He is fluent in French, Farsi (Persian) and Aramaic.

Senior investment banking professional, with a background as a legal practitioner, amassing over 17 years’ experience working either in the strategy, development and execution with international, Private and Institutional, Investors, having extensive cross border activities between Europe and Latin America.

Prior to joining Wimmer Family Office in London UK (2017), in charge of Private Capital Advisory, Antonio was a senior investment team member of a Private Equity Fund (Fir Capital Partners) and an IB boutique firm (G5Evercore&Sao Paulo Investments SA) based in Brazil for 9 years and began his career at an International Law Firm in Italy&Brazil. Antonio has extensive experience in Real Estate, Renewables, Infrastructure, Mining&Commodities and Consumer Goods across Europe & LatAm.

Antonio holds a MBA from MIP Business School by Polytechnic of Milan, Italy 2012, along with a Bachelor degree in International Law from University of Milan, Italy 2003.

Antonio is, from 2019, a Non-Executive Director at Academy Ambassador the School’ Network by Department of UK Education in London, UK and from 2018 at Eurus Financial Education in Zurich, Switzerland.” Antonio is frequently guest Panelist and Moderator at International financial conferences either the co-creator of Financial and Economic Series.

He Speaks fluently Italian, English and Portuguese.

Anne-Sophie is Co-Founder and Deputy CEO at CIAM, a European Event Driven & Activist investment management firm, which she co-founded with Catherine Berjal in 2010. Over the last five years, the funds managed by CIAM have been involved in a number of engaged situations, the most public ones being Club Med and Euro Disney, which each time addressed poor corporate governance practices.

Anne-Sophie has a professional experience of more than twenty years in Finance, amongst which fifteen years in the Hedge Fund industry. Prior to launching CIAM, Anne-Sophie worked eight years at Systeia Capital Management, a Paris based hedge fund manager, subsidiary of Amundi, mainly as a portfolio manager of their Event Driven funds.

Before this, she worked six years at PwC from 1995 to 2001, first in their Audit department and then in their Corporate Finance department, doing M&A advisory to non-listed companies. During that period, she spent three years in New York.

Anne-Sophie holds a Master degree in Finance from Rouen Business School (NEOMA).

Originally an activist investor, he switched to predominantly advising boards/management and investors of companies under attack.  He has held senior positions in a number of investment banks and boutiques including Rothschild and Fidante Capital.

John has advised companies and funds on a wide range of transactions (public and private) including management disputes, shareholder requisitions (initiating and defending), fund launches, secondary fund-raisings, reconstructions, mergers, hostile takeovers (both bid and defence) and liquidations. He has experience of a spectrum of sectors and asset classes including equities, property, property securities, structured products, hedge funds and funds of funds.  He has been involved in situations in the UK, US, Australia, HK, China, Europe and various other offshore jurisdictions.

He has twenty years experience in investment funds and asset management having worked both on the ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ side. He has worked for a number of European investment banks and boutiques.

He has an honours degree in law from Edinburgh University and an MBA from London Business School.

Gianluca A. Ferrari head of shareholder activism at Shareholder Value Management AG (“SVM”), an employee owned investment company based in Frankfurt, Germany. SVM advises over €3bn in AUM through various investment vehicles, allocating capital under a value-oriented framework and frequently engaging with portfolio companies’ management teams to improve shareholder returns.

Gianluca also sits on the board of directors of Retelit SpA and BE-TSE, two publicly traded portfolio companies of SVM in Italy.

Lauren Gojkovich is a Managing Director and the Activism Practice Lead at PJT Camberview, based in New York.

Before joining PJT Camberview, Ms. Gojkovich was a Vice President, Assistant General Counsel in the corporate governance group in the legal division of Goldman Sachs, focusing on the corporate governance of the Goldman Sachs board of directors.

Prior to that, Ms. Gojkovich worked as a corporate attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, proxy fights and takeover defense. Ms. Gojkovich began her career as an analyst in the equities trading division of Goldman Sachs.

Ms. Gojkovich is a member of the State Bar of New York and Massachusetts. She holds a JD from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree in public policy studies from Duke University, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Harald Kinzler is a specialist for complex ECM and cross-border M&A transactions as well as dual-track processes, investor relations, shareholder activism and financial communications. Harald spent 15 years in the investment banking industry in London and New York, starting as an economist at Lehman Brothers and moving through a range of roles in the equities business. He later worked as Head of Corporate Broking at Berenberg Bank in London. Harald holds MSc Economics degrees from the University of Saarbrücken and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ele Klein is a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel where he serves as co-head of the firm’s Global Shareholder Activism Practice and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Ele practices in the areas of shareholder activism, mergers and acquisitions, securities law and regulatory compliance. He represents activists and companies in matters ranging from corporate governance and control to proxy contests and defensive strategies. His recent representations have included representing Trian Fund Management, Starboard Value in Papa John’s, Elliott Management in Akamai Technologies, Hess Corp and Marathon Petroleum, Jana Partners in Bloomin’ Brands, Calloway Golf, Whole Foods, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Tiffany, Greenlight Capital in General Motors, Cevian Capital in Autoliv, ABB and LM Ericsson, Blue Harbour in Investors Bancorp, Blackwells in Colony Capital, Caligan and Falcon Edge in Knowles Corporation, venBio Select Advisor in Immunomedics, Saba Capital in First Trust, Oasis Capital in Stratus Properties, Altimeter Capital Management in United Continental Holding, SRS Investment Management in Avis Budget Group, Clinton Group in Campus Crest Communities, and Anchorage in connection with board representation at Houghton Mifflin. Ele is also well-known for his expertise since the early 1990s in the development and implementation of alternative investment structures for private equity investments and, specifically, the structuring and negotiating of private investments in public equity, or PIPEs, and related products including registered direct offerings, convertible 144A offerings, reverse mergers, equity lines and SPACs. Ele works on numerous activist campaigns, regulatory and reporting matters and PIPE or PIPE market-related transactions every year for some of the largest private investment groups and investment banks in the United States and abroad.

Recognized as a leading lawyer in rankings including The Legal 500 United States, New York Super Lawyers — New York Metro Top 100 and Super Lawyers Business Edition, Ele has served as a moderator and speaker at numerous conferences and events addressing shareholder activism, regulatory and reporting issues, PIPEs, M&A deals, the capital markets and other topics of interest to the alternative investment industry. He contributed to The Activist Investing Annual Review 2019 (Activist Insight, in association with SRZ), and authored the “Transaction Reporting” chapter in Investment Management: Law and Practice (Oxford University Press) covering Schedules 13D and 13G and Section 16 filings.

Ele received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.S., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Simon Lyons is a Partner at PJT Partners, based in London. He joined the firm, prior to its inception in 2015 from UBS where he had served as Head of U.K. M&A. Over the course of his career, Mr. Lyons has advised clients on transactions totalling more than $300bn across 6 continents.

During his time at PJT Partners, Mr. Lyons has advised a variety of clients on complex transactions including: Access Industries/DAZNon the carve out and sale of Perform Content, Anacapon the sale of Aldermore plc (£1.1bn), Blackstoneon the sales of Logicor(€12bn) and CenterParcsEurope ($1bn), Flutter plc on the merger with TSG ($17bn), GSK plcon its acquisition of Tesaro($5.1bn), Inmarsat plcon the unsolicited approach from EchostarCorporation and the subsequent offer from a private equity consortium led by Apaxand Warburg Pincus($6bn), LetterOneon its offer for and recapitalisation of DIA (€1.9bn), MGM Resortson its US joint venture with GVC, PayPal on its acquisition of GoPay, Rothesay Lifeon the acquisition of Aegon’sUK portfolio (£6bn), Sky plcon its sale to Comcast, following a competing offer from Fox (£36bn), Stars Groupon a number of acquisitions including SkyBet($4.7bn) and the recapitalisation of the Co-Operative Bank(£700m).

Previous clients have included FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies such as: BAT, BHP Billiton, British Airways, Direct Line Group, FirstGroup, GSK, Ladbrokes, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Rio Tinto, Royal Mail, RSA, Saga, SEGRO and Smith & Nephew.

Mr. Lyons received a first class degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University in 2000.

Pat McHugh is a Founder and Senior Managing Director of Okapi Partners. He has over 20 years of experience in managing complex solicitations and campaigns. Pat has managed solicitation campaigns related to annual and special meetings (domestically and abroad), M&A solicitations, consent solicitations as well as fixed income-related matters, including numerous tenders and exchanges.

In addition to hundreds of annual and special meeting solicitations, Pat has represented Fortune 500 corporations involved in complex transactions including contested M&A deals, proxy fights and restructurings. He frequently works on contested solicitations where he provides strategy and advice to clients including campaigns on behalf of activist investors as well as providing defensive counsel to corporations that have been targeted by activists.

Prior to establishing Okapi Partners, Pat was a Senior Managing Director of Georgeson Inc. and a member of its Global M&A Advisory team. He received his B.A. in Economics from East Stroudsburg University.

Malcolm McKenzie is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal and Head of the European Corporate Transformation Services practice in London. He brings 30 years of experience in advising senior management and boards on improving top-line and bottom-line performance and has completed over 70 cost reduction, transformation, mergers and acquisitions and carve-out engagements across corporate and private equity owned businesses. Mr. McKenzie has worked with clients across the industrials, automotive, aerospace, telecommunications, technology, retail and distribution, media, energy, utilities, transportation and healthcare industries.

Since joining A&M thirteen years ago, when Mr. McKenzie set up the European Performance Improvement practice, he has led and advised some of A&M’s largest turnarounds and performance improvement engagements. These include the operational restructuring of a major aerospace player, turnaround of a steel business, operating model design and performance improvement for a major automotive OEM, turnaround and business sale for a major bus operator, carve-out and 100-day plan for a European telecom operator, cost reduction for a telecommunications specialist, the turnaround of a software business, global merger integration for two TV production businesses and improvement of a London teaching hospital.

Additionally, Mr. McKenzie has served on several boards and worked with Chairmen and Boards of Directors on evaluating and improving board and company performance. He has also led a series of research programmes into Board leadership (e.g. through disruptive change) and for many years has served as a judge on the Non-Executive Director Awards.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. McKenzie was a Partner with Ernst & Young and Cap Gemini. He also founded and led a JV consultancy with Robson Rhodes and has run his own business.

Mr. McKenzie earned a master’s degree from Cambridge University, an MBA from London Business School and the Certified Diploma from the ACCA.

Liad Meidar oversees all aspects of portfolio management including our direct investments.

Prior to founding Gatemore in 2005, Liad had a background in both finance and operations, including running a Seattle-based technology company incubator. Liad began his career in New York in leveraged finance at BT Alex Brown, the investment banking division of Bankers Trust (Deutsche Bank).

Liad has extensive experience as a board member of companies undergoing turnarounds, including Jazz Technologies, a publicly-traded semiconductor wafer foundry based in Newport, California, and MAG Industrial Automation Systems, a privately-held global machine tool builder with dual headquarters in Michigan, USA and Germany.

Liad is Chairman of GSE Worldwide, Inc, a fully integrated talent and sports marketing agency which is a Gatemore Partners LP portfolio company. He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University and on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London. He received an AB in economics from Princeton University.

Member of the Board of Directors of Sterling Strategic Value Limited 2006-2016. Became Member of the Board of Directors of SSVL (Monaco) S.A.M. in January 2017 and is a Member of the Investment Committee. Board Member of ST Group Holding Inc. Giulia has more than 30 years’ experience in Corporates, boards and Investment Banking. Experience in strategy, business development, restructuring, operations and integration. She started her career in Private Equity at CVC and then in Investment Banking at Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers. In 1999 she joined Telecom Italia with the responsibility for International Strategy and Corporate Development. In 2003, she joined Cable & Wireless as Group director for Strategy and Business Development and was also a member of the board of Monaco Telecom in 2007. In 2007 she then moved to Diageo as a member of the senior management team with responsibility for global M&A and integration management. From 2011 to 2018 Giulia was a partner in Ares Life Sciences, a PE healthcare fund managed by Waypoint Capital. Degree in Economics and an MBA from Bocconi University.

Jeffrey Pierce is the Managing Partner of Snow Park Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm that employs an activist approach to investing in global real estate. Mr. Pierce has significant experience investing in public companies in Australia, including a recent activist engagement with Japara and past involvement with Charter Hall Office REIT. He also recently led a successful proxy contest in the U.S. that resulted in two board seats at Front Yard Residential Corporation. Prior to founding Snow Park in 2015, Mr. Pierce worked at leading hedge fund firms such as Farallon Capital and Luxor Capital.

Eric Sibbern is senior partner at VERAISON Capital, an independent asset manager based in Zurich, Switzerland investing in publicly listed small- and mid-cap companies, where long-term value can be enhanced through active shareholder engagement.

Eric has more than 15 years of experience in M&A, corporate governance and shareholder engagement. He worked at international law firms in Zurich and New York and as director in the M&A/Corporate Development team at Credit Suisse.

Eric holds a master degree in law from the University of Zurich and a master degree in Banking and Finance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA).

Cas has been with Georgeson since 1998. He is the resident expert on shareholder activism globally. Cas has worked on Activist fights in the US, Europe and Asia, for both issuers and activists. Understanding shareholders governance and voting policies allows him and his team to provide direct, impactful guidance to Georgeson’s clients, on how to navigate the choppy waters of an activism defense. Before taking on the role of Global Head of Activism in 2018 he ran the Northern European arm of Georgeson since 2002.

Prior to his time at Georgeson, Cas helped issuers in Europe and Asia develop and deliver their equity story to the US capital markets. Part of his role was to develop a proprietary method of identifying investors irrespective of their country of origin.

Cas has an expert knowledge of global proxy voting mechanics and key governance matters affecting issuers and shareholders globally.

Michiel van Esch is an engagement specialist at Robeco’ s Active Ownership department. He joined Robeco in 2008 and became member of the Active Ownership team in 2011. Within the team he focusses on corporate governance issues. Over the years he has led several engagement project for Robeco and has gained expertise knowledge on topics such as shareholder rights, corporate board oversight, nomination processes, executive remuneration, responsible tax practices and bribery and corruption. Michiel also oversees Robeco’s proxy voting team, and coordinates the implementation of the company’s voting policy and processes.

Michiel graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 2008 with a master’s degree in Sociology and a minor in Economics. In 2015 he obtained the CFA designation.

Rishi Varma serves as General Counsel and oversees Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s legal department globally. Rishi and his team handle, among other things, HPE’s corporate governance, strategic acquisitions, divestitures and investments, litigation, intellectual property, commercial contracting, sales and supply chain issues, securities law compliance and disclosure, treasury and financing transactions, and certain other corporate transactions and restructurings, bankruptcy, credit and collections matters and employee compensation and retiree benefits. From 2013 – 2017, Rishi served as Deputy General Counsel overseeing HPE’s corporate, securities and M&A practice.

Before joining Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rishi served as general counsel for two different publicly traded companies from 2005 to 2013 – TPC Group, Inc., a petrochemical company, and Trico Marine Services, Inc., a global subsea service provider. During his time at Trico, Rishi also served in additional management roles including chief operating officer and president. Prior to these companies, Rishi served as securities counsel and director of investor relations for EGL, Inc., a publicly traded global freight forwarder (2002 – 2005), and as a business associate in the New York office of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, LP (1998 – 2002).

He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and also graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Rishi and his wife, Michelle, have three children.

Amy Wilson is a senior engager at Hermes EOS: a dedicated stewardship team that represents investors from 12 countries, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, wealth managers and asset managers, with assets under advice of £634 / €717 / $781 billion (as at 30 September 2019). We believe more active ownership by investors is essential to build a global financial system that delivers improved long-term returns on investment as well as better, more sustainable outcomes for society, in the interests of ultimate beneficiaries. Amy engages with companies in the UK and US, focusing on the consumer goods and retail sectors, on topics spanning governance, social and environmental factors. She also oversees the development of Hermes EOS’ global governance guidelines and policies. She has over 10 years’ industry experience, beginning her career in consultancy before holding a number of positions at Sainsbury’s and Bupa, where she was group head of corporate responsibility and sustainability. She holds a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.