Activism’s New Paradigm
The Society for Corporate Governance and NIRI-Los Angeles cordially invite you to attend a conversation and luncheon with Greg Taxin, founding principal of Spotlight Advisors, a boutique advisory firm that specializes in providing assistance in activist investor situations. Greg will highlight the latest activism trends and provide insight on how we can work with our Board and executives to prepare for activist pressure from shareholders.
Additionally, as a precursor to the event, we are providing links to a Forbes interview with Spotlight Advisors on things to do (and not do) in a proxy fight and an article that Greg co-authored for the Corporate Board Member magazine titled “Activism’s New Paradigm.”
Please join us at the Palm Restaurant in Los Angeles for this informative event and an opportunity to network with your peers.
Time: 11:30 to 12 noon (Registration)
12:00 to 1:30pm (Lunch & Discussion)
Location: Palm Restaurant (Los Angeles)
1100 S. Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Link for Directions
Complimentary valet parking is available at Palm Restaurant
Cost: Society Members: $40
Nonmembers: $55
Nonmembers can also join the Society at a discounted rate, $635, for the first year by adding it to the registration.
Pre-registration is required. No walk-ins will be allowed.
Meet our guest speaker, Greg Taxin:
Greg has been on all sides of activist investing over the last 15 years: he has advised companies responding to activists; he has been an activist investor at more than 40 companies; he has advised investment funds leading proxy fights; and he has been the Chief Executive of the world’s second largest proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis, helping to provide voting advice to institutional investors in proxy contests.
Greg is the founding principal of a boutique advisory firm, Spotlight Advisors, that specializes in providing assistance in activist investor situations. In 2017, Spotlight was an advisor in six proxy fights (including Arconic and General Motors) that went to a final vote and advised another dozen companies that avoided or settled proxy fights. In previous years, Spotlight was involved as an advisor in activist situations involving United Airlines, Neuberger Berman and iRobot, among many others. Greg has advised on one recent proxy fight in Europe and is engaged in an ongoing activist situation in Switzerland.
Before forming Spotlight Advisors, Greg was the President of the Clinton Group, a multi-strategy hedge fund that engages in activist investing. While there, Greg guided the firm through four proxy fights (three of which Clinton won) and to a dozen settlement agreements with public companies. As an investor, Greg was called “consistently one of the best performing activists” (Activist Insight, 2013), one of “five successful activist investors whose names aren’t Icahn or Ackman” (Barron’s, 2013), “one of the most effective activists in the country” (APB Financial, 2015) and one of five leaders of the “new guard in shareholder activism” (IR Magazine, 2014).
Previously, Greg was the Chief Executive Officer of Glass, Lewis & Co., an independent research firm that assists institutional investors in making more informed investment and proxy voting decisions. While Greg was the Chief Executive, Glass Lewis covered more than 13,000 public companies from 65 countries and sold research to more than 350 institutional investors that collectively managed more than $13 trillion.
Prior to co-founding Glass Lewis, Greg was an investment banker. He provided strategic and financing advice to public and private companies, principally in the technology and telecommunications industries. Greg was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co., a Director of Epoch Partners and a Managing Director with Banc of America Securities.
Greg is an attorney and was associated with the firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Greg is a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.