I've been really interested in shareholder activism lately and was wondering if there were any asset management firms that utilize shareholder activism in their portfolio to potentially enhance returns. We often read about high-flying activist hedge funds like Pershing Square and Starboard Value, buy I don't see why other types of investment firms can't engage in the strategy.
Does anyone have a list of asset managers that are known to engage in shareholder activism? How might one be able to break into such a firm? Currently an incoming industry group analyst at a BB...
Generally firms either consider themselves activists and go all in, or they don't make it a part of their strategy (other than voting proxies). There is almost no grey area. Also keep in mind that it is difficult to run a large (read >$10bn) fund activist fund since it becomes harder to find targets. Finally, a lot of large institutional managers don't want an activist reputation since many of their clients are large company pension funds; they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
There isn't a clear/direct career path to working at an activist fund. One of my classmates interned at one during our MBA program, so that's one option. There are also JD programs that specialize in securities and corporate law, some even offer activism classes, which would be another route. It's still a small field overall though.
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