Lyndon Park, Former Governance Leader at BlackRock and Dimensional Fund Advisors, Joins ICR to Advise Boards and Management Teams on Corporate Governance Matters
New York, NY – October 31, 2018 – ICR, a leading strategic communications and advisory firm, announced today that Lyndon Park has joined the firm as Managing Director to lead its Governance Advisory Solutions practice, which advises Boards of Directors and management teams on complex corporate governance matters, and how to effectively engage with institutional investors to establish constructive, long-term relationships. Mr. Park was formerly Head of Global Corporate Governance at Dimensional Fund Advisors and a Vice President for BlackRock Investment Stewardship.
Tom Ryan, CEO of ICR, stated, “We founded ICR twenty years ago with the mission to help companies better communicate their stories to the investment community. As the investor landscape continues to shift, we are committed to ensuring our clients have access to the very best expertise to navigate this new territory and continue to protect and maximize equity valuation. We could not ask for a better person to lead this new effort than Lyndon; he is widely respected in the industry for his knowledge, expertise and ability to advise clients on highly sensitive and consequential matters.”
ICR’s Governance Advisory Solutions practice will assist Boards and management teams on matters, including:
* Engaging with institutional investors on both routine and event-driven matters;
* Responding to, and preemptively preparing for, activism and hostile situations;
* Providing consultation and engagement strategies for issues related to executive compensation and other proxy-related matters;
* Advising on shareholder expectations in the areas of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) and corporate social responsibility programs;
* Enhancing, customizing and maximizing disclosure practices to meet shareholder expectations;
* Assisting with C-level and Board talent review, self-evaluation, skill mapping and succession planning;
* Providing ongoing support and counsel on the evolving shareholder landscape.
Mr. Park stated, “The best defense is a good offense in corporate governance: boards and management teams must proactively engage with their shareholders and those that influence them to understand their priorities and develop a mutual understanding over the long term. After years of interfacing with many of the world’s leading companies on behalf of some of the largest institutional investors, I realized there is a need for enhanced advisory support to guide boards and management teams on their governance and engagement strategies. ICR is a firm most recognized as being the trusted advisor to Boards and management teams when it comes to communicating with the investment community and I’m excited to build on the firm’s unique platform to establish this critically important new practice area.”
Phil Denning, Partner at ICR, added, “Clients look to ICR for help in navigating the dynamic landscape of shareholder activism, increasing concentration of assets at passive funds, the role of proxy advisory firms, the integration of ESG factors into investment processes and decision-making, among other issues. Lyndon will provide our clients with a deep understanding of activist tactics and motivations having led engagements and determined proxy outcomes for most of the key activist, hostile takeover, contentious M&A situations and other event-driven situations in recent years while at Dimensional and BlackRock.”
Lyndon joins a team of more than 150 professionals with backgrounds as sell-side analysts, investment bankers, public relations professionals, political advisors, and journalists, including a team dedicated to transactions and special situations. Other recent additions to that team include Dan McDermott, formerly Senior Associate, Proxy Contests & M&A at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), and Jake Noone, who served in strategic activist-related roles at Houlihan Lokey, Olshan Frome Wolosky and SpringOwl Asset Management LLC. ICR represents more than 500 clients and has advised on billions of dollars of M&A, activist and proxy contest assignments.
In his combined tenure as a governance leader at BlackRock and Dimensional, Mr. Park oversaw global governance and stewardship initiatives covering thousands of global portfolio companies for those respective firms, spanning all business sectors. In such capacity, Mr. Park regularly engaged with hundreds of board and management team members on matters related to corporate strategy, governance, ESG and event-driven/crisis situations, and has covered and made decisions on most of the key contentious proxy battles in recent years, which include Procter & Gamble v. Trian Partners and Valeant/Pershing Square v. Allergan, among others.
About ICR
Established in 1998, ICR partners with companies to execute strategic communications and advisory programs that achieve business goals, build credibility and enhance long-term enterprise value. The firm’s highly differentiated service model, which pairs capital markets veterans with senior communications professionals, brings deep sector knowledge and relationships to more than 500 clients in approximately 20 industries. Today, ICR is one of the largest and most experienced independent communications and advisory firms in North America maintaining offices in New York, Norwalk, Boston, San Francisco and Beijing. ICR also advises on capital markets transactions through it ICR Capital subsidiary. Learn more at www.icrinc.com. Follow us on Twitter at @ICRPR.
