Activist Investor Conference 2024 | DealFlow Events | 21 March 2024 | Convene, 37 Park Ave, New York, NY 10017, USA

DealFlow Events welcomes the most concentrated group of investors, corporate governance specialists, advisory firms, proxy solicitors, and corporate board members to the Conference. This is your chance to engage and network with a targeted audience of highly specialized professionals working in the areas of corporate governance and activist investing. The Activist Investor Conference delivers, as it did in 2010, when we first launched the conference to an audience of over 300 attendees.

The Conference is a forum for discussing governance-related issues raised by savvy finance professionals seeking to improve the fortunes of the companies in which they’ve invested. This is an unparalleled opportunity for professional education as well as networking with colleagues and forging new business relationships. At all times, the focus is on providing the highest quality content, innovative ideas, and exceptional networking opportunities.

Topics:
Value Investing: Another Way of Saying Activist Investing:
• Proposing operational cost reductions, strategies to increase revenue
• Pushing for the sale of underperforming divisions or split a company into separate business units
• Advocating capital allocation and structure, including share repurchases and changes to a company’s capital structure.
• Demanding changes to the size and composition of a company’s board of directors

Trending Legal Issues Facing Shareholder Activism:
• Proxy solicitations and exemptions
• Universal proxy and SEC rules
• Do universal proxies increase or decrease board accountability?
• Advance notice bylaws
• Excise tax has chilling effect on promoting share buybacks
• How private placements can undercut an activist strategy

How the Lone Dissident can Prevail:
• Challenges a lone dissident board member will face
• Strategies for overcoming resistance and making your case
• Transparency and communicating your intentions to add value

Impact of corporate relations with shareholders on an activist campaign:
• Good relations with large shareholders build powerful allies
• Communication strategies for keeping shareholders content
• Corporate transparency: activists cannot attack what is easily disproven

Shifting Activist Campaign Focuses:
• Pursuing change at ESG companies
• “Woke” vs. “Anti-woke” agendas
• Large-cap companies no longer off-limits
• Targets more likely to implement counter-measures

Identifying Targets, Planning Strategy for an Activist Campaign:
• Importance of accumulating a significant stake quickly
• Industries that are more (or less) attractive as targets
• Vulnerabilities activists look for
• Importance of the company’s shareholder profile
• Timelines to consider when selecting a target
• What’s the best approach? Control slates vs. short slates? Settlement vs. proxy contest?
• Gauging the likelihood of negotiating a settlement

Who Attends:
• Activist Investors
• CFOs & Company Board Members
• Rating Platforms
• Hedge Funds & Public Equity Investors
• Investor Advisory Companies
• Financial Press & Trade Media
• Litigation Attorneys
• Corporate Governance Experts
• ESG Rating Firms & ESG Advisors
• Government Organizations & NGOs
• Corporate & Social Responsibility Advocates
• M&A Advisors
• Corporate Attorneys
• Investor Relations & PR Companies
• Proxy Solicitors

2024 Speakers

Aaron Atkinson
Partner, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

Patrice Bonfiglio
President, Sarissa Capital

Daniel J. Cerqueira
Partner Corporate, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Sean Donahue
Co-Chair, Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense, Paul Hastings LLP

Jon Feldman
Partner, Goodmans

Brendan Foo
Founder and CEO, Forward Risk

Lindsay Frost
Journalist, Agenda

Phillip Goldstein
Founder and CEO, Bulldog Investors

Elizabeth Gonzalez-Sussman
Vice-Chair, Shareholder Activism, Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP

Glenn Kaufman
Managing Director, DCubed Group

Ele Klein
Partner, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

Adam Kommel
Shareholder Activism Development Lead, Bloomberg LP

Michael Levin
Founder, The Activist Investor

Kai Liekefett
Partner and Co-Chair, Shareholder Activism & Corporate Defense Practice, Sidley Austin LLP

Paulina Likos
Reporter, CNBC

Bob Marese
President, Mackenzie Partners, Inc.

Kurt Moeller
Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Jason Palmer
Presidential Candidate and Partner, New Markets Venture Partners

Nelson Peltz
CEO and Founding Partner, Trian

Fred Pletcher
Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais

Adam Pollack
Partner, Joele Frank

Douglas A. Rappaport
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Jay Rasulo
Independent Advisor, Former CFO of Disney

Andrew Shapiro
CEO, Lawndale Capital Management

Lex Suvanto
Managing Partner and CEO of Financial Communications & Capital Markets, Edelman

Demetrius Warrick
Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Gabrielle Wolf
Director, InnisFree

2024 Sponsors

SILVER SPONSORS:
• Goodmans LLP
• RRBB Accountants + Advisors
• Schulte Roth & Zabel
• Roth MKM

MEDIA SPONSORS:
• Investor brand Network
• B2I Digital
• Mission Matters
• The Activist Investor
• Copp Gov
• Agenda