| Thursday, January 24, 2019 |
Morgan Lewis partner and shareholder activism defense practice leader Keith E. Gottfried was a featured speaker at the Skytop Strategies Shareholder Activism Conference held on January 24, 2019 at the Royalton Park Avenue Hotel in New York, NY.
Keith moderated a panel on shareholder activism titled, “Activist Defense: Best Practices for Responsive Actions,” that included Nicholas Lamplough, Partner, Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, Robert Marese, Managing Director & Executive Vice President, MacKenzie Partners, Inc., Alfredo Porretti, Executive Director, Shareholder Activism & Corporate Defense, Morgan Stanley, and Steven J. Pully, Speyside Partners and independent member of multiple boards of directors.
The focus of the panel was to discuss best practices for public companies to follow in responding to various actions by activist investors, including requests from an activist investor for a meeting with management and/or board members, letters from activist investors recommending various actions for the company to take to enhance shareholder value, communications from activist investors seeking board representation and/or input on board composition, private and public “white” papers issued by activist investors, and public statements made by activist investors calling for changes at the company or otherwise criticizing the company.