Darren Novak

Mr. Darren Novak is a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group and heads the EMEA Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets practice.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Darren was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of UBS Investment Bank where he lead UBS’s activist defence efforts globally. Prior to joining UBS Investment Bank, Darren co-led the Activist Situations Team at Houlihan Lokey. He has advised in many of the leading situations since 2010, including campaigns with respect to Bayer, BHP, CRH, CSX, Darden, Kirin, MetroPCS and NXP. Prior to Houlihan Lokey, Darren was an M&A attorney for a dozen years, most recently as a partner at Davies Ward specialising in contested situations, and before that as a Senior Associate in the M&A department of Simpson Thacher.

Darren received a JD and MBA from the University of Toronto. He graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of Alberta.

Darren Novak

v0726

Darren Novak

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.