Six founding partners have advised clients and broken news on the highest profile M&A, shareholder activism and crisis matters of the last 20 years
Collected Strategies LLC, an independent advisory firm, launches to provide a new alternative for clients who demand leading financial communications, media relations and stakeholder engagement strategies.
“A world-class professional services firm is more than a franchise or a brand; it’s a collection of people who work hard, together, to serve their clients”
Combining decades of experience in strategic communications, news media, and legal and professional services, Collected’s six founders provide the clear, actionable advice that companies and leaders need to succeed in today’s market. The founders are joined by additional senior financial communications advisors with significant experience in event-driven situations.
The partners of Collected have provided PR and IR representation on more than $3.5 trillion worth of hostile and friendly transactions, advised hundreds of companies through engagements with shareholder activists and bring to each client engagement unique perspectives from having broken and covered the biggest stories in business. Collected also combines relevant, real-world newsroom experience with data-driven insights to help clients better manage and enhance their reputations.
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“Business news coverage, whether of transactions, high-profile crises, or ongoing corporate activity, has evolved. Communications advice needs to as well,” said founding partner Ed Hammond. “We founded Collected Strategies to be the solution for leaders who demand quality advice to meet the challenges of this evolution.”
“A world-class professional services firm is more than a franchise or a brand; it’s a collection of people who work hard, together, to serve their clients,” said founding partner Jude Gorman. “We are excited to create a culture that will attract the most talented professionals in our industry and help them thrive in their careers as we build the next great strategic communications firm.”
Collected provides support across a wide range of practice areas, including:
- Media relations and corporate reputation management;
- Strategic investor relations;
- Transaction communications;
- Shareholder activism defense and corporate governance;
- Corporate communications;
- Financial and operational crisis; and
- Bankruptcy and restructuring.
Founding Partners
Scott Bisang has been a trusted advisor to senior executives, chief communications officers and investor relations practitioners for nearly two decades. A once aspiring sports journalist, he brings the same on-deadline tenacity to the work he provides his clients. Over the course of his career, he has helped hundreds of companies manage both complex special situations and every day corporate matters, including Twitter (sale to Elon Musk), Lyft (IPO), and Allergan (hostile defense against Valeant), among numerous others. Scott was most recently a partner at Joele Frank, and before that worked at IBM and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he helped lead internal and marketing communications efforts.
Jim Golden spent the first half of 2023 advising financial institutions on the bank crisis, including First Republic and PacWest. Over his 18 year career, Jim has counseled hundreds of public companies with high-stakes crises, contested annual elections, management turnover, and M&A, including: Emerson Electric, Syneos Health, Red Hat and dozens of bank mergers. Jim regularly advises companies on short attacks and shareholder activism threats; he spent two years defending the short attack against Herbalife. Jim, a former partner at Joele Frank and member of the firm since 2005, is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), and was named to PR Week’s 40 Under 40 list in 2019.
Jude Gorman has seen the business life cycle from a variety of angles, beginning as a corporate and bankruptcy lawyer at Latham & Watkins LLP and then joining startup Reorg Research as one of its first employees. While at Reorg, Jude oversaw many aspects of growth–including legal, marketing and public relations–before managing the process leading to its sale to Warburg Pincus in 2018. From 2019 to 2023, Jude was a partner and the Chief Operating Officer of Joele Frank.
Ed Hammond possesses a deep understanding of the news media, having spent 17 years as a leading business journalist. At the Financial Times and then Bloomberg, Ed covered every aspect of corporate deal-making and shareholder activism. He founded Bloomberg Television’s Deals Report, interviewing leaders across business and politics, chaired dozens of conferences around the world, and led coverage for several of the largest transactions in history. The winner of numerous awards, including from the National Press Club and the Foreign Press Association, Ed was named one of the world’s most influential financial journalists in 2021. He is also a member of the British German Forum.
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Nick Lamplough has advised on some of the largest mergers in history and defended companies against Wall Street’s most high-profile activists for nearly two decades. He has advised companies on communications and investor relations strategy in connection with dozens of friendly, unsolicited and contested M&A transactions, over 100 shareholder activism situations and countless crises. Nick began his career in 2007 at Joele Frank and was named partner in 2018. He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and was named to the 2022 class of NIRI’s Rising Leaders Under 40 and recognized by the 2023 M&A Advisor Emerging Leader Awards.
Dan Moore has been a crisis communications advisor for the last 15 years, during which time he has counseled hundreds of companies around proxy fights, transactions and restructurings. He thrives in the intense, high-profile situations that change the fabric of companies and their leadership teams. He started his career at FTI Consulting in the special situations and strategy consulting practices. While at FTI, he spent time embedded in Louisiana counseling Transocean on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He was a partner at Joele Frank until 2023.
Senior Team
Jack Kelleher has helped clients develop and implement thoughtful communications strategies around key strategic and financial matters. His experience includes having supported some of the largest and most complex M&A and spinoff transactions in recent years and he has advised dozens of companies in engaging with and defending against activist investors, including Starboard, Trian, JANA, Carl Icahn, and Third Point. With unique expertise in media engagement, Jack has supported companies facing a variety of crises, including reputational issues, defense against short-sellers, data breaches, earnings surprises, SEC investigations, regulatory actions, litigation, unplanned leadership changes, closures and workforce reductions. Prior to joining Collected, Jack was a Managing Director at Joele Frank.
Tali Epstein has advised companies as they navigate high-profile and complex situations, including friendly and hostile M&A. She has helped companies through integration, executive leadership changes, and operational crises. With a particular focus on shareholder activism, Tali has gone up against the highest-profile hedge funds, including Starboard, Elliott, JANA and Carl Icahn. Notably, she was an integral member of the defense team responsible for back-to-back proxy contest wins against Starboard, representing both Box and Huntsman. Tali was previously a Director at Joele Frank after joining the firm in 2017.
Clayton Erwin has provided strategic communications advice and support to public and private companies in the U.S. and abroad in a variety of complex special situations for the past nine years. Navigating the intersection of business, media and the investment community, Clayton has generated and executed on tailored ideas and delivered tangible results. His areas of expertise include friendly and hostile mergers and acquisitions, corporate crises and issues management, and shareholder activism, in addition to ongoing public and investor relations. Prior to joining Collected, Clayton was a Managing Director at Joele Frank.
Alexandra LaManna (Senior Advisor) is a senior communications and public affairs expert with significant experience operating at the highest levels of politics, government, and the private sector. Alexandra served as White House Spokesperson and Assistant Press Secretary focusing on reproductive rights, the economy, and technology and crypto regulations. Alexandra was also the senior spokesperson for Secretary Janet L. Yellen and the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Day One political appointee in the Biden Administration. Prior to that, she was part of the Biden-Harris Transition, working to secure Senate confirmation of Cabinet nominees. Alexandra joined the Administration from Lyft where she led a team of strategic, executive, financial, and crisis communicators as head of the corporate communications function.
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