Derek Zaba: Partner and Co-Chair of Sidley’s Shareholder Activism Practice.
Welcome to the Boardroom Governance Podcast. I’m your host, Evan Epstein. In this episode, I talk with Derek Zaba, a partner and co-chair of Sidley’s Shareholder Activism practice. Derek counsels companies on a variety of matters, including activism defense/proxy contests, activism preparedness, takeover defenses, shareholder engagement and corporate governance. Prior to Sidley, Derek was the head of the activism defense practice at Camberview Partners (now PJT Camberview). He also served as a Partner and investment professional at activist and event driven hedge funds. Derek began his career as a corporate associate at a New York-based law firm. In this podcast, we talk about the current state of shareholder activism, the most relevant take-aways from the last proxy season and the rise of ESG in some campaigns. We also discuss the market downturn, hostile M&A trends, the impact of activism in the tech sector and the practice of dual-class share structures in founder-controlled companies. Finally, we address the adoption of universal proxy cards and lessons for directors on how to approach some of these activism trends. 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