M&A Advisory, SEAMAC - Executive Director

JPMorgan Chase & Co.•New York, NY

About The Position

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is highly motivated to work in a dynamic team and to contribute to our Investment Banking North American M&A franchise. The North American Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets (“SEAMAC”) team is a critical component of the firm’s globally integrated investment banking model and M&A practice. The J.P. Morgan’s SEAMAC team seeks to strengthen its market-leading activist defense franchise in North America. This role represents a unique opportunity to be involved in further building an entrepreneurial enterprise with significant senior sponsorship under J.P. Morgan’s world-class banner. As an Executive Director in the SEAMAC team, the successful candidate would play a central role in advising clients with respect to activist defense preparedness and live activist campaign defense for corporates across industries. They would work with expert professionals at the heart of a leading global investment bank and would get exposure to formal training, hands-on learning opportunities, continuous mentoring and feedback, and numerous development opportunities. They would develop strong skills in the major areas of investment banking and be given the opportunity to develop into a senior officer who is capable of generating and executing his/her own activist defense mandates.

Requirements

Relevant experience in activist defense, activism/shareholder engagement related roles more broadly (e.g., at hedge funds), M&A or Equity Capital Markets
Outstanding financial analysis and modelling skills
In-depth understanding of investment banking products
Solid project management skills and ability to work collaboratively across industry and countries teams
Highly organized, detail oriented and proactive, with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment, handling multiple projects with different deal teams and tight deadlines
Deep knowledge of corporate finance and accounting and a solid understanding of equity markets and trading dynamics and key institutional shareholders and hedge funds
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with specific ability to communicate concepts and ideas concisely and defend their validity
Experience in training juniors with varied professional backgrounds
Experience in dealing with clients and other activist defense advisers in moments of high scrutiny for clients

Nice To Haves

Led activist defense preparation and live campaign mandates on activist defense teams at an investment bank
Experience as an investment professional at an activist fund
Deep knowledge of activists, activist analysis and tactics and the broader investment and activist advisory community in EMEA and APAC

Responsibilities

Develop proprietary knowledge and insights into activist defense and the transactions resulting from shareholder activism
Understand in detail specific activists and their campaigns globally
Act as a primary day-to-day client point of contact and lead the process in preparing to pitch activist defense, spearhead activist defense preparation mandates, including white paper and rebuttal analysis, and drive the defense streams in live campaigns, including analysis of activist demands, crafting responses to activist demands, formulating campaign strategies, and crafting campaign narratives and organizing the broader defense advisory teams, including PR firms and proxy solicitors
Possess and acquire superior market knowledge relating to developments in the U.S. and globally of activist campaigns, shareholder engagement, governance best practices, proxy advisory firm trends, and be able to clearly articulate this knowledge to internal and external parties
Work independently, producing high quality, differentiated, deliverables such as attack and rebuttal materials for activist defense preparedness, investor presentations, fight letters, Board materials and other presentation materials for use in strategic client dialogue or shareholder activism defense engagements (including activism with respect to M&A campaigns), while also helping advance the development of new and insightful tools to further drive strategic client dialogue
Create timely updates on significant campaign developments to provide context for clients and to deepen client relationships
Leverage the Bank's resources on behalf of the client, including industry, company and country knowledge from partners in industry and country coverage groups and expertise from product partners in debt and equity capital markets and corporate finance advisory – collating various inputs and analysis and presenting findings and messaging to relevant deal teams and client management team