Our People
Dylan O’Keefe
Director
Dylan O’Keefe
Director
Dylan provides strategic counsel and communications support to companies across industries in a broad range of special situations and high-profile events, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism defense, leadership changes and crises. In addition, he works with clients to develop and refine their investor and public relations programs. His areas of expertise include:
Mergers & Acquisitions
He advises companies on a variety of transaction types, including friendly and contested, go-private and spin-off. Notable experience includes working with: Kroger in its pending merger with Albertsons Cos.; Cedar Fair in its merger with Six Flags; Twitter in its sale to Elon Musk; Johnson & Johnson in its acquisition of Abiomed; Oak Street Health in its sale to CVS Health; Johnson & Johnson in its spinoff of Kenvue; South Jersey Industries in its acquisition by Infrastructure Investments Fund; Neenah and SWM on their merger to form Mativ; Expro in its combination with Frank’s International; CyrusOne in its acquisition by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners; Scientific Games in the divestitures of its Lottery business to Brookfield Business Partners and its Sports Betting business to Endeavor Group Holdings; HP in its defense against Xerox’s unsolicited takeover proposal; Thermo Fisher Scientific in its acquisition of PPD; Perspecta in its sale to Peraton, a portfolio company of Veritas Capital; and Citrix in its acquisition of Wrike.
Shareholder Activism & Defense Preparedness
He has supported companies in public and private activist situations opposite some of the most notable activist investors, including Carl Icahn, Trian Partners, Elliott Management, Land & Buildings, Ancora Advisors, and Engaged Capital. Dylan has advised clients including: Norfolk Southern, Kroger, LXP Industrial Trust, HP, Brookdale Senior Living among many others.
Crisis and Special Situations
He has experience supporting clients with crisis preparedness and responses related to a range of issues including litigation, cybersecurity incidents, reputational attacks, regulatory inquiries, short attack campaigns, workforce reductions, facility closures and management succession and unplanned leadership changes.
Investor Relations & Public Relations
He works with clients to enhance their overall corporate communications strategy, including corporate positioning and message development, thought leadership and profile raising, quarterly earnings preparation, employee communications, investor conferences and presentations, analyst days and annual shareholder meetings.
Dylan joined Joele Frank in 2019. He received a BA in Economics and English from the University of Virginia.