Lucas Pers
Managing Director
Lucas provides strategic counsel and communications support to clients around a variety of special situations and high-profile corporate events, including shareholder activism defense and proxy contests, mergers and acquisitions, leadership transitions and corporate crises, among others. He also assists clients with ongoing investor relations and corporate communications strategies. Lucas advises a wide range of public companies across industries – from Fortune 100 companies to micro-caps to those beginning their public company journey.
Recent Highlights
Select Experience
M&A
Lucas has advised companies on a variety of both friendly and unsolicited M&A transactions. Notable experience includes working with: Warner Bros. Discovery in its pending merger with Netflix; Aligned Data Centers in its pending transaction with AI Infrastructure Partnership, MGX, and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP); Norfolk Southern in its pending merger with Union Pacific; STAAR Surgical in its attempted transaction with Alcon; Flowserve in its attempted combination with Chart Industries; Inari Medical in its acquisition by Stryker; Kroger in its attempted merger with Albertsons Cos.; Territorial Bancorp in its acquisition by Hope Bancorp, which was contested by Blue Hill; Cedar Fair in its merger with Six Flags; Life Storage in its defense against Public Storage’s attempted unsolicited acquisition and Life Storage’s merger with Extra Space Storage; Ritchie Bros. in its contested acquisition of IAA, which was contested by Luxor Capital; Labcorp in its spin-off of its clinical development business; Oshkosh’s acquisition of JBT Corporation’s AeroTech Business; South Jersey Industries in its acquisition by Infrastructure Investments Fund; CyrusOne in its acquisition by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners; Umpqua Holdings Corporation in its combination with Columbia Banking System; Light & Wonder (previously Scientific Games) in the divestitures of its Lottery business to Brookfield Business Partners and its Sports Betting business to Endeavor Group Holdings.
Shareholder Activism Defense and Preparedness
Lucas has advised on numerous public and private activist situations, helping companies in their engagements with some of the most notable activist investors, including Ancora, Bulldog Investors, Carl Icahn, D.E. Shaw, Elliott Management, Engaged, JANA Partners, Land & Buildings, Luxor Capital, Saba Capital, Starboard Value, Third Point and Trian Partners.
Crisis Preparedness and Communications
Lucas assists and advises clients on a number of complex crises or special situations, including cyber security incidents, large-scale corporate reorganizations, workforce reductions and facility closures, reputational attacks, litigation, workplace misconduct and sexual harassment and unplanned leadership changes.
Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
He works closely with management teams and outside financial and legal advisors to develop and enhance clients’ IR and PR materials and strategies to ensure key messages resonate with internal and external stakeholders, including around quarterly earnings, planned leadership changes and other corporate events or updates.
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Credentials
Lucas received a BS in Marketing from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and a BA in English from Boston College’s Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences.