Over his nearly 20-career, Jim has counseled hundreds of public companies with high-stakes crises, contested annual elections, management turnover, and M&A, including: Emerson Electric, Exact Sciences, Honeywell, Red Hat, State Street, Syneos Health, Valspar, and dozens of bank mergers and crises. Jim regularly advises companies on short attacks and shareholder activism threats; he spent two years defending the short attack against Herbalife. A former partner at Joele Frank and member of the firm since 2005, Jim is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He was named to PR Week’s 40 Under 40 list in 2019.
Recent & Notable Assignments
Mergers & Acquisitions

• Chart Industries in its $13.6 billion acquisition by Baker Hughes
• MRC in its $1.5 billion all-stock acquisition by DNOW
• The Azek Co. in its $8.75 billion acquisition by James Hardie Industries
• SpringWorks Therapeutics in its $4 billion acquisition by Merck KGaA
• Cross Country Healthcare in its $615 million acquisition by Aya Healthcare
• Masonite International in its $4 billion acquisition by Owens Corning
• The Cigna Group in its $3.7B sale of its Medicare Advantage, Cigna Supplemental Benefits, Medicare Part D and CareAllies businesses to Health Care Service Corporation
• Subway in its $9 billion sale to Roark
• HireRight Holdings in its $1.7 billion sale to General Atlantic and Stone Point Capital
• StarBulk Carriers in its $610 million acquisition of Eagle Bulk Shipping
• GRIID Infrastructure in its $155 million sale to CleanSpark
• Vanda Pharmaceuticals in its defense of unsolicited acquisition proposals
• Veradigm in its $140 million acquisition of ScienceIO
• Utz Brands in its $183 million divestiture of assets and brands to Our Home
• Activism Defense
  Collected Strategies only represents issuers and targets of activism, and Jim has defended companies against private approaches and public attacks from high profile activists, including:
  Starboard; Elliott; Carl Icahn; Third Point; Sachem Head; Engaged; Pershing Square; Jana; Engine; Corvex; Trian; Barington; Voce, and Blackwells, among others.

Financial Institutions
With a particular focus on the financial services sector, Jim has counseled banking institutions on a number of matters including M&A, reputation management, proxy solicitations, earnings issues, litigation and regulatory concerns.  Clients have included:

• AEGON; Bancorp Rhode Island; Cantor Fitzgerald; Central Pacific Financial; Comerica; Citizens Republic Bancorp; Deutsche Bank; Doral Financial; Eastern Bank; ELGA Credit Union; Fifth Street; First Horizon; First Niagara; First Republic; Hudson Valley Credit Union; Independence Community Bank; LPL Financial; Merchants; Metro Bancorp; PacWest; PFF Bancorp; PNC; South Financial Group; Selective Insurance; Silicon Valley Bank; Sovereign/Santander; SunTrust; SWS Group; Synovus; TIAA-CREF; Wells Fargo; and Whitney Holding Corp, among others.

Areas of Expertise

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Shareholder Activist
• Short Attacks
• Investor Relations
• Media Relations
• Capital Markets
• Financial Services
• Retail
• Energy & Utilities
• Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
• FinTech