Goldman’s Michelsen moves to Qatalyst Partners: source

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s head of activism and shareholder advisory for the Americas, Peter Michelsen, has left the investment company to join technology sector-focused peer Qatalyst Partners, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Michelsen was named Goldman Sachs’ co-head of shareholder advisory for the Americas in 2018 and became the sole head last year. He had returned to Goldman Sachs in 2018 after having left in 2014 to work for CamberView Partners, an advisory firm that has since been purchased by PJT Partners Inc .

Michelsen is the second senior banker to leave Goldman Sachs’ activism defense after Steven Barg, who had been the group’s global head, left in August to join Elliott Management.

Bloomberg News first reported on Michelsen’s move. Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Activism defense has become big business, as brand-name agitators including Elliott Management, Starboard Value and Third Point LLC have been pushing companies to perform better for years. Last year they were joined by more than three dozen newcomers that had never mounted a company challenge before.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst in New Orleans; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)