By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two executives who helped make recommendations in some of America's biggest proxy contests and contested mergers left BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) to lead a new governance unit at Longacre Square Partners, people familiar with the moves said.
Jessica McDougall, a former director in asset management firm BlackRock's stewardship group, and Heath Winter, a former vice president in proxy advisory firm ISS' special situations research team, will head the corporate governance and shareholder engagement practice at Longacre, said the people who were not permitted to discuss personnel matters publicly.
Both will be partners at Longacre, which was launched in early 2022. McDougall covered the industrials and materials sectors, while Winter worked on fights including Carl Icahn's battle at genetic testing equipment maker Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) and Sachem Head Capital Management's battle at US Foods Holding (NYSE:USFD) Corp.
McDougall and Winter could not be reached for comment and Longacre Square declined to comment.
Their moves come as proxy season is ready to kick off with activist investors identifying new corporate targets where they want to push for change.
To defend against these attacks, banks, law firms and other advisers are eager to hire experts who have made voting recommendations and can explain the dynamics of corporate battles from a new vantage point to clients.
Longacre Square advises both companies and investors on shareholder activism situations, as well as mergers and acquisitions and other corporate crises.