Peter Michelsen

Pete joined Qatalyst in June 2020 and leads the firm's Activism and Shareholder Advisory practice, serving as a senior advisor to Qatalyst’s clients across all sectors of technology on matters including activism defense, proxy fights, contested situations, defense preparedness and complex ESG matters. He has over 20 years of investment banking and legal experience. Prior to joining Qatalyst, Pete spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently served as Head of Activism and Shareholder Advisory for the Americas, as well as 4 years at CamberView Partners (now PJT Camberview), where he served as President and Head of Contested Situations. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, where he worked as an M&A generalist analyst and associate.

Pete has advised on over 70 shareholder activism, proxy fight and hostile takeover engagements for clients whose aggregate market capitalization totaled more than $400 billion of aggregate market capitalization, including technology firms such as Dell, eBay, Emulex, HP, International Rectifier, Mentor Graphics, Micrel, MSC.Software, Plantronics, [Talend], Verint, Yahoo! and Zoran, as well as firms across a broad range of industries including Aramark, Bed Bath & Beyond, Clorox, Evergy, Genzyme, Hologic, Norfolk Southern, United Technologies and Valeant. He has advised on matters involving all major activist funds including Elliott, Icahn, Pershing Square, Starboard, Third Point and Trian. In addition, he has advised on a broad range of defense preparedness, shareholder engagement, vote-related and normal course M&A advisory engagements.

Pete is originally from St. Charles, Illinois and received a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.