JPMorgan Chase hires Lissauer for activism defense

JPMorgan has over the last 18 months expanded its team that works with corporate clients under attack from prominent hedge funds that push for changes. Activism defense, once a nice-to-have add-on service, is now a lucrative business that major investment banks and many boutiques are scrambling to offer clients.

Activist investors stepped up campaigns against global companies in the first half of 2026, with calls for businesses to sell themselves emerging as the most common demand, Barclays data showed.

Bank of America hired Lissauer from Evercore in 2019. Since then, she has advised companies including Southwest Airlines in its defense against Elliott Investment Management and Norfolk Southern in its fight against Ancora Alternatives. At Evercore she worked with Bill Anderson, one of the industry's most prominent defense bankers.

The Financial Times first reported the move.

JPMorgan Chase is hiring Bank of America executive Amy Lissauer, a veteran adviser to companies facing pressure from activist investors, to bolster its global shareholder engagement practice, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

JPMorgan said on Wednesday that Lissauer will join later this year as the global head of Shareholder Engagement and M&A Capital Markets (SEAMAC). She will be a global chair and be based in New York, the memo said.

She was global head of Activism & Raid Defense at Bank of America.

At JPMorgan she will report to Filippo Gori and John Simmons, co-heads of Global Banking, the memo said, adding that "the SEAMAC senior leadership team will report to Amy."

Lissauer is the latest in a string of bankers to leave Bank of America. The bank announced earlier on Wednesday that technology banker Ed Liu has resigned and plans to join a competitor.