Investment Banking - Vice President, Shareholder Engagement M&A - London

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is highly motivated to work in a dynamic team and to contribute to our Investment Banking EMEA M&A franchise.

The EMEA Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets (“SEAMAC”) team is a critical component of the firm’s globally integrated investment banking model and M&A practice. The J.P. Morgan’s EMEA SEAMAC team is now expanding its market-leading activist defence franchise in EMEA. This role represents a unique opportunity to be involved in further building an entrepreneurial enterprise with significant senior sponsorship under J.P. Morgan’s world-class banner as part of our EMEA M&A team.

As a Vice President in the EMEA SEAMAC team, the successful candidate will play a central role in advising clients with respect to activist defence preparedness and live activist campaign defence for corporates across industry and country in EMEA.

You will work with expert professionals at the heart of a leading global investment bank and will get exposure to formal training, hands-on learning opportunities, continuous mentoring and feedback, and numerous development opportunities. You will develop strong skills in the major areas of investment banking and will be given the opportunity to develop into a senior officer who is capable of generating and executing his/her own activist defence mandates.

Job responsibilities

• Develop proprietary knowledge and insights into activist defence and the transactions resulting from shareholder activism
• Understand in detail specific activists and their campaigns globally
• Act as a primary day-to-day client point of contact and lead the process in preparing to pitch activist defence, spearhead activist defence preparation mandates, including white paper and rebuttal analysis, and drive the defence streams in live campaigns, including analysis of activist demands, crafting responses to activist demands, formulating campaign strategies, and crafting campaign narratives and organizing the broader defence advisory teams, including PR firms and proxy solicitors
• Possess and acquire superior market knowledge relating to developments in EMEA and globally of activist campaigns, shareholder engagement, governance best practices, proxy advisory firm trends, and be able to clearly articulate this knowledge to internal and external parties
• Work independently, producing high quality, differentiated, deliverables such as attack and rebuttal materials for activist defence preparedness, investor presentations, fight letters, Board materials and other presentation materials for use in strategic client dialogue or shareholder activism defence engagements (including activism with respect to M&A campaigns), while also helping advance the development of new and insightful tools to further drive strategic client dialogue
• Leverage the Bank’s resources on behalf of the client, including industry, company and country knowledge from partners in industry and country coverage groups and expertise from product partners in debt and equity capital markets and corporate finance advisory – collating various inputs and analysis and presenting findings and messaging to relevant deal teams and client management team

Required qualifications, capabilities and skills

• Relevant experience in activist defence, activism/shareholder engagement related roles more broadly (e.g., at hedge funds), M&A or Equity Capital Markets
• Deep knowledge of corporate finance and accounting and a solid understanding of equity markets and trading dynamics and key institutional shareholders and hedge funds in EMEA and trading dynamics
• Highly organized, detail oriented and proactive, with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment, handling multiple projects with different deal teams and tight deadlines
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with specific ability to communicate concepts and ideas concisely and defend their validity
• Experience in dealing with clients and other activist defence advisers in moments of high scrutiny for clients
• Outstanding financial analysis and modelling skills
• In-depth understanding of investment banking products
• Solid project management skills and ability to work collaboratively across industry and countries teams
• Experience in training juniors with varied professional backgrounds

Preferred qualifications, capabilities and skills

• Led activist defence preparation and live campaign mandates on activist defence teams at an investment bank
• Experience as an investment professional at an activist fund
• Deep knowledge of activists, activist analysis and tactics and the broader investment and activist advisory community in EMEA and APAC