Shamrock Holdings was founded in 1978 by Stanley Gold to invest the assets of certain Disney family members, including Walt Disney’s nephew Roy E. Disney. It mostly kept below the radar until a couple of years ago, when Gold and Disney waged their highly public campaign to oust Michael Eisner as head of Walt Disney Co. and change the corporate governance practices in general.
Today, it has over $1 billion under management in several funds, including an “Activist Value Fund” and a corporate governance fund. To understand how activist and hedge funds are targeting companies, making investment decisions, and tying governance to performance, we talked with managing director Michael McConnell.
