Before co-founding the firm in 1992, Mr. Sard was Chairman of the New York office of Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart, a corporate/financial public relations firm.

For over 30 years, he has represented Fortune 500 companies and private firms in many industries on long-term investor and media positioning programs and in high-profile crises and special situations. These include mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, restructurings, earnings issues, high-level executive changes, and sensitive legal and regulatory matters.

Recent representation highlights include:

• The Special Committee of the Dell Board on a contested take-private transaction
• Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile on the contested acquisition of MetroPCS
• McGraw-Hill on the DOJ lawsuit against Standard & Poors
• Wynn Resorts on a dispute with its largest shareholder
• NYSE Euronext on its pending acquisition by ICE

Mr. Sard attended Swarthmore College and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in English from Clark University.

He co-founded Sard Verbinnen in 1992 and is actively involved with many of the firm’s clients, advising on M&A, proxy fights, defensive planning, special situations and crises, restructurings, and investor relations and corporate positioning programs.  Previously, he was Executive Vice President, International for The Ogilvy Public Relations Group, and, before that, regional director for Asia/Pacific.

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• Illumina defense against Roche
• Vulcan Materials defense against Martin Marietta
• URS acquisition of Flint Energy Services
• International Paper acquisition of Temple Inland
• Forest Laboratories proxy fight against Carl Icahn
• Commercial Metals defense against Carl Icahn
• Alpha Natural Resources acquisition of Massey Energy
• The New York Times on two proxy fights
• The Stanley Works acquisition of Black & Decker
• Mosaic and Cargill on their split-off announcement

Mr. Verbinnen has a B.A. degree in political science from Syracuse University.

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• Development and execution of a comprehensive strategic communications campaign for Leap Wireless
• Corporate positioning and transaction work for Sunoco
• Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s corporate positioning, including the acquisition of a 20% stake in Morgan Stanley
• Centex’s sale to Pulte
• Actelion in its successful defense against a proxy challenge by Elliott Advisors (UK)

Prior to joining Sard Verbinnen in 1999, Jim was Director of Corporate Relations for British Telecom in North America where he was responsible for all of BT’s U.S. based corporate communications including public relations, advertising and relationship marketing.

Jim has a B.A. degree with honors from Liverpool University in England and a certificate in strategic marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• Illumina in its defense against a $6.7 billion unsolicited tender offer from Roche
• THL Partners for overall firm positioning as well as buyout of Clear Channel Communications in a transaction valued at $19 billion and other portfolio transactions
• Development and execution of a comprehensive strategic communications campaign for a leading wireless communications company
• Steamboat Ventures in its investments in Go Pro, YY, Playdom and others
• Freescale Semiconductor in its IPO and its litigation with former bondholders

Matt joined the firm after serving as a Senior Director of the Washington, DC-based public affairs firm of Bivings Woodell.  Prior to that, Matt was a senior Legislative Assistant to US House of Representatives Democratic Whip David E. Bonior. His background in communications also includes staff work on several national, state and local election campaigns extending back to 1987.

Matt earned an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Michigan’s Residential College.

Brandy represents U.S.-based and international clients, across a broad range of industries including consumer products, industrial manufacturing, media and entertainment, financial services, technology and energy.

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• Del Monte Foods on its IPO, subsequent acquisitions and sale to KKR
• Group of current and former manufacturers of welding rods in their defense of mass tort actions in federal and state court
• Major international bank on SEC investigation and settlement
• National Amusements on its debt restructuring
• Eliot Spitzer following his resignation as Governor of New York

Brandy, an attorney, was previously a senior assistant district attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.  Brandy holds a J.D. degree from Fordham University School of Law (1992) and a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan (1989).

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• Ongoing positioning and investor relations work with a broad range of insurance, reinsurance and beverage companies
• Universal Health Services in its acquisition of Psychiatric Solutions.
• Millipore on its sale to Merck KGaA
• Agrium in connection with its contested offer to acquire CF Industries
• The New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys on the launch of Legends Hospitality Management

Drew joined Sard Verbinnen from Ogilvy & Mather, where he was a Senior Account Executive with a focus on emerging digital & interactive communications.  Prior to joining Ogilvy, Drew worked for AT&T in its large business sales division.  Drew holds a B.A. degree in history from Yale University.

Recent engagement and representation highlights include his work on:

• The planned IPO by Malkin Holdings of 18 properties including the Empire State Building;
• The opposition by Forest Laboratories to the federal government’s attempt to exclude its CEO from its healthcare programs and the defense of two successive  proxy contests brought by Carl Icahn;
• A management change at Allscripts Healthcare Solutions;
• The response of Prestige Brands to Genomma Lab’s unsolicited acquisition proposal and threatened proxy contest;
• URS Corporation’s acquisition of Flint Energy Services; and
• Simon Property Group’s unsolicited proposal to acquire General Growth Properties.

Prior to joining the firm, Hugh practiced law with both Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell, where he focused on securities, international and commercial litigation and arbitration. He has appeared numerous times before United States District Courts, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second and Fourth Circuits and the Delaware Chancery Court.  In 1998, Hugh received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York for his pro bono representation of a North Carolina death row inmate in habeas corpus proceedings.

Hugh graduated cum laude from Fordham University School of Law in 1992, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served as an Associate Editor of the Fordham Law Review.  He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1988.

Recent engagements and representation highlights include:

• Chesapeake Energy on crisis communications, asset divestitures and executive change
• Cole Credit Property Trust II on its merger with Spirit Realty Capital
• Southern Union on its acquisition by Energy Transfer Equity amidst a competing bid
• Private entities, including leading law firms and hedge funds, on complex civil and criminal litigation
• Casey’s General Stores in its takeover and proxy defense against Alimentation Couche-Tard
• Fortune 100 companies on a data theft and the re-introduction of a recalled medical product

Prior to joining Sard Verbinnen, Mr. Caminiti practiced law and represented individual and corporate clients from the securities, airline, professional sports and art world in federal criminal and civil cases. He holds a J.D. degree from the Fordham University School of Law (1992) and a B.A. degree in history from Princeton University (1989).

Recent engagement and representation highlights include:

• SoftBank on its pending $20 billion control investment in Sprint Nextel
• Intel on its pending $4.1 billion investments in ASML Holding
• Nexon on its $1 billion Tokyo-listed IPO
• News Corporation with events related to phone hacking at News of the World

Before joining Sard Verbinnen in 2009, John was head of West Coast Equity Capital Markets for Cowen and Company, where he was responsible for the origination and execution of over $26 billion of public and private equity offerings.  He also worked extensively with companies on investor targeting, shareholder outreach, positioning and investor relations.

Prior to Cowen, John spent over ten years at Morgan Stanley in Investment Banking and Institutional Equities.  As a member of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Investment Banking Group in Silicon Valley, he was involved in 49 financing and M&A transactions.  He also helped establish the firm’s Institutional Corporate Marketing group, which worked with companies on their investor marketing activities.

John holds a B.A. magna cum laude with high honors from Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University.

Andrew’s communications experience spans a wide variety of industries including agriculture, biotechnology, healthcare, media, private equity, retail, telecommunications, technology, and venture capital.

Recent and ongoing engagements include:

• GlaxoSmithKline’s acquisition of Human Genome Sciences
• Integrated Device Technology’s agreement with activist investor Starboard Value
• Pharmasset’s sale to Gilead Sciences
• Pulse Electronics’ defense against a hostile takeover attempt and related proxy contest attempt by Bel Fuse
• Casey’s General Stores’ defense against a hostile takeover attempt and related proxy contest by Alimentation Couche-Tard

From 2006 to 2009, Andrew worked in the firm’s San Francisco office. Prior to joining Sard Verbinnen, he served as a Senior Associate in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Gavin Anderson & Company.  Andrew earned a B.A. in English from Connecticut College in 1997.  Andrew is a member of the Junior Board of the Family Services of Westchester.