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Sharon Stern provides strategic corporate, financial and crisis communications counsel and services to clients across a wide range of industries, including retail, consumer products, technology, healthcare, forest products, energy and oil & gas. Ms. Stern joined Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher in 2000.
Ms. Stern works with a number of clients to develop and manage ongoing investor and media relations programs, including Charter Communications, Jones Apparel Group, Salesforce.com, St. Jude Medical and Weyerhaeuser Company.
She also develops and implements targeted communications strategies for companies involved in corporate transactions and special situations, including friendly mergers and acquisitions, unsolicited takeovers, proxy contests and restructurings.
Special situations on which Ms. Stern has advised, include Jones Apparel Group in its sale of Barneys New York; Topps in its pending sale to Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners; Great Plains Energy on its pending acquisition of Aquila; Pogo Producing on a number of M&A transactions, including its pending sale to Plains Exploration and Production; Adidas on its acquisition of Reebok; Weyerahesuer in the merger of its fine paper business with Domtar and its acquisition of Willamette; Knight Ridder in its sale to McClatchy; and TRW in its merger with Northrop Grumman (and in its prior response to Northrop’s unsolicited offer).
Ms. Stern has also advised on a number of successful going private transactions including Kinder Morgan and Kerzner International.
Recent projects involving shareholder activism and/or proxy contests that Ms. Stern has advised on include, Topps in its responses to Pembridge and Crescendo; Pogo, The Brink’s Company and Glatfelter in their respective responses to Pirate Capital; and Bausch & Lomb and Weyerhaeuser in their respective responses to Franklin Mutual.
Ms. Stern also has significant experience advising companies during situations arising from product recalls, regulatory investigations and executive departures.
Ms. Stern has provided pro bono public relations counsel to the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School, when HMI was preparing to launch its new, publicly-funded New York City high school.
Prior to joining Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, Ms. Stern worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC as an External Affairs officer for the East Asia & Pacific Region where she implemented public relations strategies. Ms. Stern received a B.A. from The George Washington University in international economics. She lived in Jerusalem and worked there at the Israel Museum as a copyeditor and Hebrew-English translator. | 