Christopher Young: "After the Exxon Proxy Fight, Directors Realize That They May Be Taken Out By Sub 1% Shareholders."

In this episode, I talk with Christopher Young, the Global Head of Contested Situations at Jefferies, an investment banking firm headquartered in New York, with offices in over 30 cities around the world. Chris is an expert advisor to public company directors and senior management teams with respect to contested situations, including hostile M&A bids and responses, contested "friendly" M&A transactions and shareholder activism, including proxy contests for Board seats. Prior to Jefferies, Chris was Global Head of Contested Situations at Credit Suisse, Director of M&A and Proxy Fight Research at ISS and earlier in his career he was an investment banker, a corporate lawyer and a derivatives trader. In this podcast, we talk about his career and how proxy fights and contested M&A has evolved particularly after the mid 2000s with the advent of shareholder activists. We also touch upon the current proxy season, the Exxon Mobil proxy fight, the rise of Private Equity, Global M&A and SPACs. Finally, we talk about sustainability and ESG, and how corporate governance has been shaped by all of these developments. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this podcast on social media. You can find all the show notes on the website boardroom-governance.com and please feel free to subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com