Contested M&A, 6th Palm Beach CorpGov Forum

CorpGov hosted the sixth annual Palm Beach CorpGov Forum on Nov. 4-5, 2026, at the Palm Beach Lake Pavilion and The Cove Club, both located waterfront with sweeping views of Palm Beach Island, along with a reception at Cucina Palm Beach. The panel called “Contested M&A” took place on Thursday afternoon.

The panel featured Bruce Goldfarb, President and CEO of Okapi Partners, Adam Tamzoke, Counsel at Latham & Watkins, and Joe Germani, Partner and Co-Founder at Longacre Square Partners. Adam Kommel, Activism Data Product Manager at Bloomberg, moderated the discussion.

Key comments from the panel:

“I think there’s a lot more that goes into an announcement today,” said Bruce Goldfarb. “Not to say that it always works out, and not to say that there won’t be opposition, but you have immediate reactions to transactions that can make or break the deal ultimately.”
“I think the strategy of preemption has actually been among one of the most effective things that a board can do,” stated Adam Tamzoke.
“I think it was much broader than a typical M&A situation,” said Joe Germani. “You had unions, you had the creative types, the writers’ guilds. You had theater owners. Let alone the state and federal officials and regulators and whatnot.”
“There are 36 of those situations this year versus 23 year to date last year,” mentioned Adam Kommel. “And the general full year totals have been somewhere around that mid-20s number over the last decade. It’s a lot higher this year.”

Photo Gallery of the 6th Palm Beach CorpGov Forum

Speakers: CorpGov Forum 2026:

Keynote: Paul Abrahimzadeh, Partner, 1789 Capital
Keynote: Vishal Garg, Founder and Head of Product, Platform and Innovation, Better Home & Finance Holding Co. (Nasdaq: BETR)
Andrew Bair, President and CEO, Capital Defense Technologies
Jeff Buzen, Head of M&A, McGill and Partners
Marcos Cervantes, Founder and CEO, Q-Branch
Doug Chia, President, Soundboard Governance; Host, The Public Company Series Podcast; Former Corporate Secretary, Johnson & Johnson
George Corbin, Board Director, Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE: EPC); Former Chief Digital Officer, Marriott and Mars
Craig DeDomenico, Managing Director, Equity and Equity-Linked Capital Markets, Stifel
Robert DuPuy, Former President and COO, Major League Baseball
Adam Dobrik, Senior Director, Shareholder Activism Practice, Forward Global
Don Duffy, Chairman, ICR Capital
John Ehrhard, Co-Founder, XQai
Andrew Freedman, Co-Managing Partner; Chair, Shareholder Activism Practice, Olshan Frome Wolosky
Chuck Garske, Senior Managing Director, Okapi Partners
Joe Germani, Partner and Co-Founder, Longacre Square Partners
Bruce Goldfarb, President and CEO, Okapi Partners
Brenda Gosselin, Partner, Goodmans LLP
John Grau, President, InvestorCom
Mary Guzman, Founder and CEO, Crown Jewel Insurance
Mark Harms, Chairman and CEO, Global Leisure Partners
Benjamin Heriaud, Partner, Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions, Vinson & Elkins
Rick Horrow, CEO, Horrow Sports Ventures
Rafique Jiwani, Head of GTM Value Creation, Operating Advisor, Goldman Sachs Private Equity
Andy Katz, General Partner, BrknPar Ventures (Sport Tech Growth Equity Fund)
Ryan Keating, Partner, Industry Leader, Venture Services, EisnerAmper
Harrison Lance, Head of Capital Markets, Southeast, New York Stock Exchange
Jonathan Lo, Vice President of Startup Finance, EisnerAmper
Robert Maciejko, Founder, Board AI Institute; Co-founder, INSEAD AI (Alum-Led); Member, INSEAD’s AI Advisory Group
Mark Martini, Senior Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets, E.F. Hutton & Co.
Ron Orol, Senior Editor, The Deal
Charles Orozco, Senior Vice President – Group Director, Flagstar Private Bank
Kory Patrick, Principal, Risk Advisory Services, Kaufman, Rossin &Co.
Matthew Player, CEO, Zoneomics
Joseph Quintilian, Partner, Distributed Capital Partners, and co-founder, Ajna Labs LLC
Michael W. Robinson, Chairman and CEO, The Montgomery Strategies Group
Patrick Rooney, Family Owner, Pittsburgh Steelers; President, Palm Beach Kennel Club
Joshua Siegel, General Partner, Acronym Venture Capital
Emma Sissman, Vice President, Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Dorothy Sluszka, Partner, Shareholder Activism, Corporate/Securities Law, Olshan Frome Wolosky
Charles Soranno, Managing Director, Protiviti
Adam Tamzoke, Counsel, Latham & Watkins
Sebastian Tiller, Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets, Vinson & Elkins
Greg Veltri, Stock Plan Lifecycle Director, Infinite Equity
Karen Walker, CFO, Sysdig
Judson Wallace, Managing Director, White Rabbit Capital
Candice Wilson, Managing Director, CFO Advisory Practice, EisnerAmper
Joseph Yaker, Founder and CEO, Xpand Global Inc.
Ned Zelles, Director, Head of GTS Corporate Services, GTS
Katie Creaser, Partner, Technology, ICR (Moderator)
Adam Kommel, Activism Data Product Manager, Bloomberg (Moderator)
Stuart Levine, Chairman and CEO, Stuart Levine & Associates (Moderator)
Jarrett Banks, Editor-at-Large, CorpGov (Moderator)
John Jannarone, Editor-in-Chief, CorpGov (Moderator)