Meredith L. Cole, CFA, heads the Investor Relations/Analytics practice. Working with shareholders, custodians, central depositories and vote execution services on numerous solicitations for over 20 years, she has developed an expertise in global voting systems and the custodial chain of shareholdings. Her in-depth knowledge of DTC settlement trends and activist trading patterns enables Innisfree to accurately monitor shareholder trading activity and to identify potentially hostile positions and, where activist accumulations lead to full-blown proxy contests, to work with issuers to develop a specifically targeted outreach/solicitation strategy to maximize the probability of success.
Notable activist situations she has worked on include: the defense of ADP in its proxy contest against Pershing Square; Qualcomm in its proposed acquisition of NXP Semiconductor and simultaneous defense of an unsolicited proposal by Broadcom; the successful merger vote at Samsung C&T over the opposition of Elliott Associates; the defense at DuPont against the proxy contest waged by Trian Partners; the defense at Allergan against the unsolicited offer by Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Pershing Square Capital Management; the proxy contest by Third Point LLC at Sotheby’s; the acquisition of Dell Inc. by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management despite opposition by Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management; the defense at Agrium against JANA Partners’ proxy contest; and the defense at Oshkosh Corporation against a proxy contest and unsolicited tender offer by Carl Icahn.
Ms. Cole received a B.S.B.A. with a concentration in finance from Georgetown University. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of the CFA Society New York, National Investor Relations Institute, and New York Society of Securities Analysts.