Heath Winter
Heath Winter
Partner, Vice-Chair of Corporate Governance & Shareholder Engagement
Email:
hwinter@longacresquare.com
Heath Winter
Partner, Vice-Chair of Corporate Governance & Shareholder Engagement
Heath Winter is Vice Chair of the Corporate Governance and Shareholder Engagement Advisory practice. He advises public company directors, executives, and senior investment professionals on a wide range of matters, including corporate governance, proxy contests, contentious M&A, and compensation issues.
Prior to Longacre Square, he was a senior member of the Special Situations Research team at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the world’s most influential proxy advisory firm. While at ISS, Heath was responsible for engaging with CEOs, directors, investors, and other market participants to inform his development and analyses of public shareholder voting recommendations.
From 2003 to 2018, Heath worked on the buy-side at several event-driven, value-oriented investment management firms. He earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2004 and a BA in International Affairs from The George Washington University in 1997.
Jessica McDougall
Jessica McDougall
Partner, Chair of Corporate Governance & Shareholder Engagement
Jessica McDougall
Partner, Chair of Corporate Governance & Shareholder Engagement
Jessica McDougall is Chair of the Corporate Governance and Shareholder Engagement Advisory practice, where she works with company boards, management team members, and senior investment professionals. Jessica works across a range of situations, including proxy contests and M&A, as well as on an ongoing basis to implement governance, strategic, and sustainability-related best practices.
Prior to joining Longacre Square, Jessica spent seven years on the BlackRock Investment Stewardship team, where she was responsible for overseeing engagement and proxy voting activities for companies within the industrials and materials sectors in the US and Canada. Prior to BlackRock, Jessica served in a similar role at TIAA.
Jessica has over 13 years’ experience in the investment stewardship and ESG advisory space. She graduated with a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Joe Householder
Joe Householder
Partner, Head of Washington, DC Office
Joe Householder
Partner, Head of Washington, DC Office
Joe represents clients across a broad range of industry sectors, with a focus on crisis communications, public affairs, issues management, and litigation communications. He has decades of experience “looking around corners” on behalf of clients, helping them anticipate, assess, and mitigate approaching risk.
Prior to joining Longacre Square, Joe was with WPP in a senior role at two firms – Burson Cohn & Wolfe and H+K Strategies. He served as global client leader for one of BCW’s largest accounts – overseeing earned media engagement and issues management, while supporting several other clients through numerous reputational challenges.
Joe started his career as a broadcast journalist, with a focus on coverage of local and state politics and public policy. From there he led communications for one of the world’s largest law firms. He then worked in political communications, ultimately serving as Communications Director in the Senate offices of then-United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Rebecca Kral
Rebecca Kral
Partner, Head of Dallas Office
Rebecca works across multiple sectors, with a focus on complex and special situation challenges for M&A, shareholder activism, CEO transitions and corporate reputation management issues. She has extensive experience defending public companies from board takeovers and hostile tender offers, and deep expertise advising on ESG and corporate governance matters at annual/special meetings.
Prior to joining Longacre Square, Rebecca worked at Brunswick Group where she helped lead the global corporate activism defense practice and created new solutions to help corporate clients prepare for and defend against activist investors.
Select representative matters of note include:
- Canadian National on its $34 billion unsolicited bid for Kansas City Southern and defense of the Board against The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI)
- Harley-Davidson on its public affairs response to EU reciprocal tariffs and defense of the Board in its engagement with Impala Asset Management
- Arconic against Elliott Management and during its Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry
- Spotify on its $30 billion, first-ever direct listing IPO
Earlier in her career, Rebecca worked at Edelman in its Financial Communications and Special Situations group and at D.F. King where she was a proxy solicitor focused on counseling activist investors launching proxy fights.
Rebecca has an MBA from NYU, Stern School of Business and a BA from Bucknell University.
Casie Connolly
Casie Connolly
Partner, Head of Digital Communications & Creative Strategy
Email:
cconnolly@longacresquare.com
Casie Connolly
Partner, Head of Digital Communications & Creative Strategy
Casie Connolly advises alternative asset managers, fintech firms, financial institutions, real estate entities, and publicly-traded companies on their most critical communications needs. She specializes in digital reputation management, corporate positioning, crisis management, and special situations.
Casie has a decade of experience building and implementing brand-building and reputation management programs that span message development, content creation, media relations, and digital and social engagement. She has significant experience advising investors and financial institutions involved in strategic transactions, bankruptcies, proxy contests and complex legal and regulatory disputes.
As the head of the firm’s digital communications offering, Casie provides strategic, integrated programs designed to advance overall communications objectives. Her existing client base includes leading asset management firms, real estate entities, and publicly traded companies. Representations of note include:
- GameStop (NYSE: GME) on corporate affairs, investor relations and strategic initiatives
- L3 Technologies and its $34 billion merger with Harris Corporation
- Barneys New York on its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings
- Conagra Brands on its $10.9 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Foods
- The Meet Group, Inc.’s $500M sale to General Atlantic and ProSiebenSa.1
- Shiseido Americas Corporation’s $845 Million acquisition of Drunk Elephant
- Macellum Advisors in multiple activism engagements, including its proxy contest at Kohl’s
Prior to joining Longacre Square Partners, Casie held senior roles at Profile Advisors and Sard Verbinnen & Co. where she advised some of the firm’s top private equity clients and global financial institutions. She began her career at Edelman where she spent time in the firm’s Washington, D.C. and New York City offices. She holds a B.A. from Old Dominion University.
Charlotte Kiaie
Charlotte Kiaie
Partner
Charlotte Kiaie advises founders, boards of directors and management teams across the investment management industry and corporate sectors. She leads a number of the firm’s special situations and ongoing positioning mandates related to transactions, shareholder activism, complex litigation and issues management. She also specializes in fund launches and LP communications.
Charlotte’s client base currently includes leading asset management firms and publicly traded companies. Representations of note include:
- Carl Icahn in his ESG-focused activist campaigns at McDonald’s and Kroger, resulting in enhanced disclosures at both companies
- Revlon Inc. in its Chapter 11 restructuring
- Privet Fund in its successful proxy fight at Synalloy Corporation
- WaterMill Asset Management in its successful consent solicitation at Ziopharm Oncology
- SilverBox-Engaged Merger Corp I in its $1.7 billion combination with Black Rifle Coffee
- Solus Alternative Asset Management in CDS related litigation against GSO Capital and Hovnanian Enterprises
Prior to serving as a Vice President at Profile Advisors, Charlotte worked on the Trading/Ops desk at Farallon Capital Management in San Francisco. She holds dual B.A. degrees from The University of Colorado at Boulder and has served on the Philanthropy Board of 100 Women in Finance since 2018.
Joe Germani
Joe Germani
Partner
Joe Germani counsels clients on sensitive high stakes communications and reputational matters. He leads a number of Longacre Square’s special situations and ongoing positioning mandates for both public and private companies, as well as asset managers and other entities.
Joe’s experience encompasses friendly and hostile M&A, shareholder activism, litigation and restructuring, corporate crisis, issues and reputation management, and public affairs campaigns.
Representative matters include:
- AmeriServ Financial in its successful defense against Driver Management and ongoing shareholder engagement
- MindMed in its successful defense against Freeman Capital Management’s Board takeover attempt
- Steel Partners in its unprecedented proxy contest to break Aerojet Rocketdyne’s gridlocked board and successful litigation against the company’s CEO, as well as other contested matters
- CVS Health in its $8bn acquisition of Signify Health, executive transition and business announcements and ongoing issues management
- GoldenTree Asset Management in creditor-side litigation and engagement related to its holdings in the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and other instrumentalities
- MoneyGram International on complex litigation and regulatory issues management
Prior to Longacre Square Partners, Joe spent nearly a decade at Sloane & Company, where he was Managing Director, Special Situations. He also previously worked at Brunswick Group.
Joe graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Foreign Service and earned an M.A. in European History from New York University.