Allison Bennington

She is Chair of the Activism practice and led the ESG Sustainability & Transition Advisory practice. Ms. Bennington advises C-Suites and board chairs of some of the largest international companies on navigating complex strategic issues and event-driven crises. Drawing on her successful, 17 year career as an Activist investor, she provides expert insight into overcoming an ever-more testing environment, whether challenges stem from Activists, investor discontent, governance, ESG, reputational issues or regulatory headwinds.

Prior to joining PJT Partners, Ms. Bennington was a Partner and the Chief Global Relations Officer at ValueAct Capital, a $14 billion activist investment fund that works constructively with its portfolio companies to build sustainable value for the long‐term. Over her 17-year tenure, Ms. Bennington led ValueAct’s global strategy and engagement efforts with a diverse set of international stakeholders. As Chief Global Relations Officer, she was also responsible for ValueAct’s Legal, Regulatory, Government Relations, Communications, and certain Risk Management issues.

Prior to joining ValueAct, Ms. Bennington was the General Counsel and helped to found Atriax Ltd., an institutional electronic foreign exchange trading platform formed by Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and Reuters. Before joining Atriax, Ms. Bennington was a Managing Director and ran the legal department for Robertson Stephens, a full service investment bank. Ms. Bennington began her career as a corporate finance and M&A lawyer in London, New York and San Francisco.

Ms. Bennington was appointed by former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) and was on its Market Structure and Investor as Owner Subcommittees, where she authored multiple recommendations to the SEC’s Commissioners. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Business School of Imperial College London, a member of the American Legal Institute and a former member of the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance, the Institute of Corporate Governance and Finance at the NYU School of Law, and the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and Economics, as well as the Business in Society Institute at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Ms. Bennington received her undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley and her J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.