Laura A.
BissellSenior Managing Director and Head of Mutual Fund Group

Laura Bissell is a Senior Managing Director at Okapi Partners focusing on providing strategic guidance to the firm’s mutual fund and investment management clients including campaigns for closed-end funds, BDCs and ETFs. Laura also develops strategies for reaching individual or retail shareholders in corporate elections, M&A transactions and proxy fights.

Laura’s work on behalf of mutual fund clients has distinguished Okapi Partners in the proxy solicitation industry. She has been involved in some of the largest and most complex proxy solicitation campaigns for close to 20 years for clients including: Neuberger Berman, SunAmerica Asset Management, HSBC Global Asset Management, Artisan Partners and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Prior to joining Okapi Partners, Laura was a Strategic Relationship Manager for SunGard Reference Data Inc., a premier technology solutions provider to capital markets firms.

Before her work at SunGard, Laura was a Vice President of Computershare Fund Services and its predecessor, Georgeson Shareholder Communications, primarily focused on the firm’s mutual fund clients. While there, she developed, managed and executed all aspects of mutual fund proxy solicitation campaigns – from pre-record date to post-meeting analysis. She was responsible for doing extensive quantitative research and analysis to identify key statistics and demographics designed to enhance the effectiveness of solicitation campaigns and she created customized proxy strategies for successful results.

A Boston native, Laura earned a B.A. with a concentration in International Relations and a Minor in Economics from Colgate University.