Joele Frank is the founder and managing partner of Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, which provides its clients with strategic counsel and tactical support, from ongoing public relations and investor relations to high-profile and high-stakes special situations. The firm’s practice areas include corporate communications, investor relations, transaction communications, shareholder activism and corporate governance, crisis communications and special situations, litigation support, restructuring and bankruptcy, and private equity.

Having played a major role in more than 1,000 special situations, Ms. Frank understands the impact communications has on a corporate reputation and a company’s ability to achieve its overall business objectives. She has advised on some of the highest profile friendly and unsolicited M&A campaigns, including: Red Hat Software in its pending merger with IBM, Broadcom in its acquisition of CA Technologies, the merger of equals between PotashCorp and Agrium, Teva Pharmaceuticals in its offer to acquire Mylan and its subsequent acquisition of Allergan Generics; Allergan with respect to the unsolicited offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Pershing Square; Time Warner in its successful defense against 21st Century Fox; Verizon in its acquisition of Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless; US Airways in its merger with American Airlines; Airgas in its defense against Air Products; Merck in its merger with Schering-Plough; SIRIUS in its merger with XM; the Haas Family Trust in connection with Dow Chemical’s acquisition of Rohm & Haas; PeopleSoft in its defense against Oracle; and the William R. Hewlett Trust in its opposition to the HP/Compaq merger.

With a leading activism defense practice, Ms. Frank and her colleagues have defended companies against Carl Icahn more than 30 times, Elliott more than 20 times, Starboard more than 50 times, Pershing Square more than 10 times, and ValueAct, JANA, Third Point and Trian and others numerous times. Notable assignments include: Procter & Gamble, Mondelez International, DuPont, and State Street against Trian; Allergan, Procter & Gamble, Herbalife, and Target against Pershing Square; Hertz, Family Dollar, Oshkosh, Clorox and Lionsgate against Carl Icahn; and Sony, Sotheby’s and Yahoo! against Third Point.

Prior to starting her career in public and investor relations, Ms. Frank spent seven years in AT&T’s treasury department and worked closely with the investment community during the divestiture of the Bell System. She began her corporate career as a senior financial analyst at Allied Chemical. Before that, she specialized in DNA replication as a research biochemist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Ms. Frank received an AB from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from Long Island University.

Capital Markets, Financial Capital, Mergers and Acquisitions, Investing, Investment Banking, Affluent investors, Finance, Corporate Finance, Economy