Katherine Thompson
Managing Director, Financial Sponsors
For more than a decade, Kate has advised financial sponsors and their portfolio companies on strategic communications, leveraging her deep understanding of financial markets as a former investment banking analyst to provide thoughtful and timely counsel across fast-moving situations. Clients turn to Kate for tailored PR and IR guidance, as well as tactical support across high stakes matters, including reputation management; transactions; strategy launches and fundraising; and crisis preparedness and response. Kate brings a pragmatic, goal-oriented and results-focused approach to every engagement.
Recent Highlights
Select Experience
Financial Sponsors
As a leader in the firm’s dedicated Financial Sponsors practice, Kate primarily serves alternative asset managers and their portfolio companies. She possesses a keen understanding of the environment in which her clients operate and has strong relationships with relevant and influential financial media. Current clients include AEA Investors, Apollo, Arcline, Ares, B Capital, Blackstone, CC Capital, Coalesce, Cornell Capital, Emerald Lake Capital Management, ECP Growth, H.I.G., KSL, NexPhase, Quantum, RA Capital, Roark, Seidler Equity Partners, and ZCG.
Corporate Positioning and Reputation Management
Kate partners with clients to define goals and build corresponding communications programs to achieve them. She develops and refines key messaging, carries out strategic media engagement and identifies opportunities for participation in conferences, awards and academic events that enhance and protect public profiles. Her work includes supporting ongoing executive, firm and fund strategy visibility programs, as well as managing more discrete matters such as leadership changes, corporate and financial reorganizations, strategy launches and transactions.
Fundraising and Investor Relations
In a competitive fundraising environment, Kate advises private equity, credit and real estate investment firms on the development of differentiated and compelling messaging to reach limited partners and the broader investor community. She brings experience supporting inaugural fund launches and spin outs, new strategy formations and successor funds through pre-marketing, launch, fundraising cycles and closes. She also partners with her clients to manage investor communications around unforeseen events at both the GP and portfolio level, as well as annual meetings and quarterly updates.
Transactions – M&A and IPOs
Kate provides both strategic counsel and tactical support to help clients prepare for stakeholder communications around transformational M&A, add-ons, exits, IPOs and SPAC transactions. Recent assignments include advising CC Capital on its pending acquisition of Insignia (ASX: IFL), its strategic investment in Westaim (TSXV: WED), its buyout of Dun & Bradstreet and subsequent listing, as well as its acquisition, with Blackstone, of Fidelity, and its listing of Collier Creek; Quantum on its acquisition of Cogentrix from Carlyle and sale of Tug Hill to EQT; Apollo’s Yahoo on its investment in Taboola; Apollo on its merger with Athene and acquisitions of IGT’s gaming business and Evri; Apollo’s New Home on its take private of Landsea (Nasdaq: Landsea); Roark on its acquisition of Subway and GPRS Holdings; ACON’s New Era on its acquisition of ’47; Blackstone’s TaskUs on its public listing and subsequent pending take private; NexPhase on its investment in Insurance Systems; Oaktree and Centerbridge on their acquisition of OTG; KSL on its take private of Hersha Hospitality and sale of Village Hotels to Blackstone; Coalesce Capital on its acquisitions of Pearl Meyer and Examinetics; Bernhard Capital’s Charah Solutions on its initial public offering; Cornell Capital on its acquisitions of Advancing Eye Care, kdc/one, World Kitchen and Talcott Resolution from The Hartford.
Crisis Communications
Kate is a go-to call for sponsors and their portfolio companies when mitigating a challenge or navigating a crisis, including product recalls; workplace accidents; natural disasters; employee or leader misconduct; fraud; litigation or corporate disputes; shareholder or social activism; regulatory action or investigations; and data breaches or cyber incidents.
In Conversation
When managing a high-stakes crisis, how do you maintain clarity, composure and control?
Anyone who has been involved in a crisis knows that things move quickly, and tensions can run high. Being able to stay calm under pressure and help clients take a step back is critical. There are two things that are game changing for how we show up for clients at times of immense pressure: preparation and experience. We often counsel clients on how to be prepared for an inevitable crisis—putting in place a clear protocol for who and how to gather when an issue escalates, establishing a general response framework and putting in place communications best practices. For me, being prepared means staying up to date on lessons learned from other crisis matters, monitoring escalating issues across the industry and having a strong, close-knit team around me that I can lean on during more challenging times. When I talk about the importance of experience—I don’t just mean having dealt with the same matters before because the reality is every crisis is unique in some way—but there is calmness in knowing we come to the conversation with reps and perspective shaped from having managed thousands of sensitive events before.
What drew you most to the Financial Sponsors group at Joele Frank?
The opportunity to work some of the brightest in the industry and to build a dedicated and relatively new practice within a very established and well-respected strategic communications firm. I also saw a role that would allow me to better marry my experiences in investment banking and corporate and public affairs to drive value for my clients.
Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?
I’m at the stage of life where the majority of time outside of the office is spent with my two adorable small children and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When managing a high-stakes crisis, how do you maintain clarity, composure and control?
Anyone who has been involved in a crisis knows that things move quickly, and tensions can run high. Being able to stay calm under pressure and help clients take a step back is critical. There are two things that are game changing for how we show up for clients at times of immense pressure: preparation and experience. We often counsel clients on how to be prepared for an inevitable crisis—putting in place a clear protocol for who and how to gather when an issue escalates, establishing a general response framework and putting in place communications best practices. For me, being prepared means staying up to date on lessons learned from other crisis matters, monitoring escalating issues across the industry and having a strong, close-knit team around me that I can lean on during more challenging times. When I talk about the importance of experience—I don’t just mean having dealt with the same matters before because the reality is every crisis is unique in some way—but there is calmness in knowing we come to the conversation with reps and perspective shaped from having managed thousands of sensitive events before.
What drew you most to the Financial Sponsors group at Joele Frank?
The opportunity to work some of the brightest in the industry and to build a dedicated and relatively new practice within a very established and well-respected strategic communications firm. I also saw a role that would allow me to better marry my experiences in investment banking and corporate and public affairs to drive value for my clients.
Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?
I’m at the stage of life where the majority of time outside of the office is spent with my two adorable small children and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Personal Side
In the News
Credentials
Kate received a BA in Economics from Colgate University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She joined Joele Frank in 2017, having previously worked in Edelman’s Corporate and Public Affairs practice. She began her career as an investment banking analyst in the Global Industrials Group at Barclays.