Naveed Anwar

Anwar moved to the U.S. from London three years ago to join Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as a corporate partner. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, where he represents public and private companies and private equity firms in a variety of domestic and cross-border transactions.

"I'm married to an American," he said, "And for ten years we toyed with the idea of moving stateside. Moving is never easy, but the advantage is the exposure I've had in London with international markets. Training in European M&A you figure out what the pressure points are when dealing with private equity houses."

Of course, he added, "The U.S. culture is very different. In Europe there's more focus on work-life balance. Here it's a work hard type of culture--and that's a route the UK scene has taken ever since the U.S. banks started piling in in the 1980s. Now, the U.S. market has the biggest global M&A deals in the world."

Anwar was at the center of one of the most high-profile, market-leading and complicated transactions of 2018, advising Dell Technologies Inc. in its review of strategic options, including and IPO and a business combination with its publicly-traded subsidiary, VMWare Inc., and culminating in the simplification of Dell's capital structure.

Among the challenges for Anwar and the Simpson Thacher team was its successful defense against a proxy contest launched by investor Carl C. Icahn. In November 2018 Dell upped its offer to buy back shares tied to its interest in VMWare, persuading Icahn to give up his effort to stymie the deal.

The team devised a multi-variable exchange ratio formula that determined the amount of shares of Dell common stock the holders of tracking stock would receive based both on the trading price of the tracking stock and the proportion of holders who elected to receive cash instead of common stock. Market analysts likened the novel approach's complexity to a college admission exam question.

"This was one of the most high-profile deals I've been involved in," Anwar said. "It was transformational for me, because it pushed my case for moving from senior associate to partner. The pressures we faced dealing with Carl Icahn moved and changed on a day to day basis. It was a standout transaction for me, and it was incredibly satisfying to get it done."

Off duty Anwar works, he said, to "spread the gospel of soccer in the U.S." He plays for a men's soccer league in Palo Alto and he is the liaison between Simpson Thacher and the San Jose Earthquakes, which put together a Corporate Cup, an annual co-ed tournament among Silicon Valley organizations that helps fund Kicks for Kids for children with special needs.

Anwar plays forward. When he organized his office colleagues to compete locally, 40 people showed up, he said. In the recent Women's World Cup, he rooted for England and so did his wife.

"Our seven-year-old son would not give us a definitive answer as to his favorite," he said. "We lost to the best team in the world [the U.S. won 2-1], and there's nothing wrong with that."

-- John Roemer