Mark
HarnettSenior Managing Director

Mark Harnett is a Senior Managing Director at Okapi Partners focusing on advising boards of directors and activist shareholders on contested elections, M&A transactions and tender offers and corporate governance issues.

Mark has over three decades of experience providing counsel on hundreds of proxy contests, tender offers and mergers. He has deep expertise as the lead strategist on the timing and content of proxy campaigns; consulting and briefing corporate boards and CEOs; creating messaging for proxy campaigns; advising clients on dialogue with proxy advisory firms; and forecasting vote outcomes; managing client roadshows to all leading institutional, index and arbitrageur shareholders; and counseling company executives, boards and their attorneys on annual and special meeting scenarios.

Prior to joining Okapi Partners, Mark was a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Strategic Governance Advisors (SGA), a division of the communications firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., where he assisted clients on matters related to compensation, ESG and control contests

Prior to Sard Verbinnen, Mark was a co-founder and President of proxy solicitor MacKenzie Partners. He has worked alongside the nation’s leading lawyers and bankers who focus on contested director elections, M&A and corporate governance.

Mark is a graduate of Georgetown University and University of Wisconsin Law School.