Alison S. Ressler

Over Ressler's 30-year career, she has built a reputation for engineering global mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals involving high-profile transactions in a wide variety of industries. She specializes in blockbusters, as when she counseled investment bank Moelis & Co. LLC last year as it advised Oracle Corp. board members in the big tech company's agreement to acquire NetSuite Inc. in a $9.3 billion all-cash transaction.

She's a member of Sullivan & Cromwell's senior management committee, the first female and first non-New York partner to have been invited to join that group. She serves as co-head of the firm's private equity group and heads the firm's practice in that area in California.

"I've been on that committee for 15 years now," she said. "We have two offices in California and I coordinate them, but I still spend a lot of my time doing deals. I have had a lot of firsts in my career. Now I'm a veteran at it."

For Google Inc.'s parent company Alphabet Inc., Ressler advised its Verily Life Sciences LLC arm in becoming an independently governed legal entity as part of Alphabet's announced strategy to create autonomous organizations for its constellation of "other bets." She then represented Verily as it secured an $800 million minority equity investment from the Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Ltd. The transaction positions Verily to expand its life sciences research and engineering effort focused on improving health care outcomes.

"Verily was not only the first of Alphabet's independent companies as part of its other bets strategy, but also the first of its subsidiaries to bring in an outside investor," Ressler said. "The deal was challenging because we had to structure governance arrangements that were attractive to Verily and give it the flexibility to execute on its business plan while accommodating the needs of both Alphabet and Temasek, a very sophisticated private equity investor, that was investing $800 million for a minority interest."

Ressler also advised Google's self-driving car division, Waymo LLC, in becoming independent, signaling its transition from a research initiative to a business with the goal of becoming commercially viable by partnering with auto manufacturers and ride-sharing services.

"Alphabet's subsidiaries are doing cutting-edge technology," she said. "They are creating a lot of buzz in the industry."

Beyond Alphabet, Ressler represents United Grocers Inc. in its merger agreement with Supervalu Inc., a transaction valued at about $375 million. The deal was announced April 10 and is expected to close mid-to-late summer. It will create one of the nation's leading grocery wholesale companies.

"This is a high-profile deal in the supermarket and wholesale distribution industry," she said. "What I'm doing is the opposite of the tried and true. You have to be creative."

— John Roemer