Barrett Golden is a founding member of Joele Frank. She advises boards and management teams facing complex, high-profile events including proxy contests, mergers and acquisitions, unsolicited takeovers, and special situations that threaten the company’s reputation and their leadership’s credibility. Her cross-sector clients include large, global public corporations and smaller, private enterprises within the U.S. and abroad. She has counseled scores of companies navigating engagement with and front-page contests involving prominent activist investors, such as Carl Icahn, D.E. Shaw, Elliott Management, JANA, Starboard, Third Point, Trian, and ValueAct. Golden develops and executes multi-stakeholder communications strategies that influence successful outcomes in unsolicited, shareholder contested, and negotiated M&A transactions. In addition, her crisis management experience touches a wide range of issues from the C-suite to the heart of a company’s culture. Golden was named to PR Week’s inaugural “40 Under 40” list. She joined Joele Frank from Abernathy MacGregor Frank. Earlier, she worked for Kirby McInerney & Squire and served in the office of Congressman Bob Goodlatte.