Blair W. Effron, Partner, co-founded Centerview in 2006. The Firm has advised on nearly $3 trillion of transactions since its founding. The Firm’s over 350 professionals are in New York, London, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Paris and San Francisco as well as in investing offices in Palo Alto, California, and Greenwich, Connecticut.
Mr. Effron began his career at Dillon Read Co. Inc., where he worked ten years before it was merged into several successor firms, in what was to become UBS. While at UBS, Mr. Effron was among the most senior bankers in the organization. He was Group Vice Chairman of UBS AG and a member of the Board of UBS Investment Bank, where he also sat on several management committees. In his over 30-year career, Mr. Effron has advised Fortune 500 and multinational companies across a range of sectors including in the Consumer and Retail, General Industrial, Healthcare and Media industries.
While at Centerview, selected clients with which Mr. Effron has executed multiple transactions include: 21st Century Fox (advisor on its $6 billion acquisition of Dow Jones, advisor on the $9.0 billion spinoff of its publishing assets, advisor on its acquisitions of Shine Media and Harlequin Enterprises, and advisor on its $85 billion sale to The Walt Disney Company); Emerson (advisor on its divestiture of its Network Power business, advisor on its divestiture of its Leroy Somer and Control Techniques businesses); GE (advisor on its disposition of $200 billion of GE Capital assets, its $32 billion combination of its oil & gas business with Baker Hughes, and the $18 billion sale of its remaining 49% interest in NBCUniversal to Comcast); H.J. Heinz (advisor on its $28 billion sale to Berkshire Hathaway and 3G and advisor in its proxy contest with Trian Partners); Honeywell (advisor on its spinoff of Garrett Motion, advisor on its acquisition of Xtralis, advisor on its sale of its Honeywell Technology Solutions business, advisor on its spinoff of AdvanSix); Kraft (advisor on its $58 billion merger with Heinz); PepsiCo (advisor on its $21 billion joint acquisitions of The Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas, advisor on its $5.4 billion acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in Russia, $4.2 billion acquisition of RockStar, $3 billion acquisition of Soda Stream); Procter & Gamble (advisor on the $15 billion merger of its beauty business with Coty and advisor on its defense against Trian Partners). Other transactions include advisor to Tiffany on it’s pending $16.6 billion sale to LVMH.
Mr. Effron has advised on many of the most high profile, large cap activism defense and proxy fight situations; and against all major activist investors. Recent assignments include: AT&T, Emerson, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, 21st Century Fox, Honeywell, Janus Henderson Group, PepsiCo, Starbucks, athenahealth, Cognizant, ConAgra, H.J. Heinz, Time Warner Cable and Xerox, among other clients.
Other notable transactions include advising CBS on its $48 billion merger with Viacom; athenahealth on its $5.7 billion sale; ConAgra on its $11 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Foods; Henry Schein on its spin off and merger of its animal health business in a "Reverse Morris Trust;" Blue Buffalo on its $8 billion sale; BAT on its $97 billion merger with Reynolds American; Hillshire Brands on its $8.6 billion acquisition by Tyson Foods; InBev on its $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch; Lorillard on its $27 billion, four-party sale to Reynolds American and related $7 billion divestiture to Imperial Tobacco; Sprint's Independent Transaction Committee of the Board of Directors on its $146 billion merger with T-Mobile; and Time Warner Cable on its $79 billion merger with Charter Communications.
Mr. Effron currently sits on the boards of trustees of The Council on Foreign Relations (Vice Chairman), Lincoln Center (Treasurer), the Metropolitan Museum, New Visions for Public Schools (Co-Chair), the Partnership for New York City and Princeton University. He also sits on the advisory board of the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative affiliated with the Brookings Institution, and is a Member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. He holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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