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Laura A. Bissell is a Managing Director at Okapi Partners and focuses on providing strategic guidance to the firm’s mutual fund and investment management clients including campaigns for closed-end funds and ETFs. Laura also provides expertise toward developing the retail portion of investor response campaigns for corporate client campaigns.
Laura directs the Okapi Partners mutual fund team on activities including:
- Development of strategy for solicitation efforts
- Campaign planning and execution
- Review and analysis of fund investor composition, including identification of institutional investors, corporate pension and 401k plans, “objecting beneficial owners,” as well as retail investors
- Advice on proxy voting advisory services recommendations
- Solicitation campaigns for closed-end funds, including representation of management teams in contested elections
- Information Agent engagements for closed-end funds
Laura’s track record of excellence is well-known in the mutual fund proxy solicitation arena. She has been involved in some of the largest and most complex proxy solicitation campaigns in the last decade for clients including: Neuberger Berman, Merrill Lynch, SEI, DWS Scudder, Credit Suisse Asset Management and TD Ameritrade. She consistently executes successful campaigns on all types of issues including: mergers, change of control matters, 12b-1 plans, fee increases, amendments to articles of incorporation and bylaws, re-incorporations, and fundamental investment restrictions.
Laura was previously a Vice President of Computershare Fund Services and its predecessor, Georgeson Shareholder Communications, largely focusing on that firm’s mutual fund business. While there, she developed, executed and managed all aspects of mutual fund proxy solicitation campaigns – from pre-record date to post-meeting analysis. She was responsible for doing extensive quantitative research and analysis to identify key statistics and demographics designed to enhance the effectiveness of solicitation campaigns and she created customized proxy strategies for successful results.
Prior to joining Okapi Partners, Laura was a Strategic Relationship Manager for SunGard Reference Data Inc., a premier technology solutions provider to capital markets firms. At SunGuard, she worked closely with the key executives at top-tier financial services firms to analyze and address their business needs.
A Boston native, Laura earned a B.A. with a concentration in International Relations and a Minor in Economics from Colgate University.
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