Kaitlin provides strategic communications counsel to clients across industries and in a wide range of special situations, including crisis management, mergers and acquisitions, and shareholder activism. She also partners with companies to develop and refine their investor and public relations programs. Her areas of expertise include:

Mergers & Acquisitions

Notable transactions include, among others: Varian in its pending sale to Siemens Healthineers; Grubhub in its pending sale to Just Eat Takeaway.com; Salesforce in its acquisitions of Tableau, MuleSoft and Demandware; Cray in its sale to Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Symantec in the sale of its enterprise security business to Broadcom; Silver Spring Networks in its sale to Itron; Gilead in its acquisition of Kite Pharma; Thermo Fisher Scientific its acquisition of Patheon; VCA in its sale to Mars, Inc; SolarCity in its sale to Tesla; and Commune Hotels & Resorts in its merger with Destination Hotels.

She also has experience advising on unsolicited and shareholder-contested transactions, including HP in its defense against Xerox; Pattern Energy in its contested transaction with CPP Investments; EZchip Semiconductor in its contested transaction with Mellanox Technologies; and CalAmp in its successful acquisition of LoJack Corporation.

Crisis and Issues Management

She has crisis experience spanning both contingency planning and response for issues such as data breaches, litigation, management succession and unplanned leadership changes, internal/Board investigations, workforce reductions, earnings surprises and restatements, and reputational attacks. In these situations, she helps companies determine how best to control the dialogue, minimize business disruption and protect their corporate reputation.

Shareholder Activism

She has supported companies in public activism situations opposite Starboard Value, Carl Icahn, Elliott Management, JANA Partners, Corvex Management and Marcato Capital Management, among others. She also advises clients in situations where an activist agitates privately and works to develop preparedness plans around escalating scenarios, including public attack.

Investor Relations & Public Relations

She assists companies in enhancing their overall communications strategy, including corporate positioning, profile-raising, thought leadership, employee communications and quarterly earnings preparation.

Kaitlin joined Joele Frank in 2015. Previously, she was a Teach for America corps member in the Bay Area. She received a BA in Finance and Marketing from the University of San Diego.