Shareholder Activism in Europe

Rich Thomas is a Managing Director in Lazard’s Shareholder Advisory group, where he leads the European practice for advising corporate clients shareholder related matters, including activism response, strategic investor relations, shareholder base enhancement and ESG communication. 

Selected recent European advisory experience includes advising easyJet in the general meeting contested by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Capgemini on its acquisition of Altran (Elliott contested), Kirkbi (LEGO family) in its acquisition of Merlin Entertainment (a ValueAct investment), Pernod Ricard in its engagement and negotiations with Elliott, EDP’s Supervisory Board in relation to Elliott’s white paper, Hammerson in its engagement, negotiations and settlement with Elliott, AkzoNobel on its defense from PPG’s unsolicited offer and its engagement with activist shareholder Elliott and Rolls-Royce on its settlement with ValueAct.

Olivier de Vilmorin is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Paris office and the head of the Firm’s European M&A practice. He is a member of the Paris and New York Bars. Olivier frequently advises both French and international clients on a wide variety of prominent mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and capital markets transactions.

Patrick Siebert is Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal and Co-Leader of A&M Germany. Mr. Siebert brings 15 years of experience in restructuring and corporate transformation for both private and public companies across Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Guillaume Granier is a Senior Managing Director and Head of FTI Consulting Strategic Communications France.

For more than 20 years, Mr Granier has advised clients confronted with critical reputational issues such as crisis, M&A transactions or complex advocacy campaigns.

Mr Granier has deep experience of working with diverse industries including Life Science & Healthcare, IT and Communications, Energy and Financial Services. Mr Granier regularly leads cross-border assignments involving a multi-stakeholder and multi-expertise approach, with recent achievements in legal disputes, activism, restructuring as well as foreign direct investment control. Mr Granier has also advised CEOs and C-Suite members on image building, thought leadership programs and capital market communications strategy.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Granier was a Vice-President at an international corporate communications firm. Mr Granier obtained a degree in Law from the Paris University Panthéon-Sorbonne and is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.