With over two decades of experience in proxy solicitation and shareholder engagement, Laura Bissell leads Okapi Partners' Investment Management Group, advising clients on some of the industry's most complex and high-profile shareholder campaigns. She specializes in open-end and closed-end funds, BDCs, ETFs, and contested situations, with particular expertise in developing innovative strategies to engage retail and intermediary-held shareholders.

Laura has played a pivotal role in growing Okapi Partners' investment management practice, leading strategic engagements for many of the industry's largest asset managers, including Invesco, RBC Global Asset Management, Neuberger Berman, Franklin Templeton, and HSBC Global Asset Management. Laura and her team combine data-driven strategy with hands-on execution, partnering with clients from the earliest stages of campaign planning through final vote certification to develop tailored solicitation strategies that maximize shareholder participation and voting success.

A recognized voice in the investment management industry, Laura frequently speaks and writes on shareholder voting trends, retail shareholder engagement, and closed-end fund activism. She has been quoted in FundFire and Fund Directions on topics ranging from activist campaigns in closed-end funds to the industry disconnect between financial advisors and shareholder voting.

Before joining Okapi Partners, Laura was a Strategic Relationship Manager at SunGard Reference Data, where she worked with leading banks and broker-dealers supporting investment management clients. Earlier in her career, she served as a Vice President at Computershare Fund Services and its predecessor, Georgeson Shareholder Communications, managing mutual fund proxy campaigns from pre-record date planning through post-meeting analysis and helping develop quantitative research frameworks to improve solicitation outcomes.

A Boston native, Laura earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, with a minor in Economics, from Colgate University.