A partner in the Executive Compensation Group, Christopher Gonnella advises clients on a wide range of executive compensation matters. His transactional practice involves advising on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin offs, joint ventures and private equity transactions. He also regularly counsels both corporate and individual clients on the design, negotiation and implementation of employment agreements and incentive compensation programs. Additionally, Christopher handles securities law compliance matters relating to executive compensation, including new and evolving regulatory matters, such as clawback rules, pay vs. performance disclosure and related matters.

Christopher’s notable transactions include representing:

Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in:
- its approximately $1.5 billion acquisition of Bridge Investment Group Holdings
- their ¥311 billion investment (approximately $2.05 billion) to acquire a majority stake in Panasonic Automotive Systems Co. from Panasonic Holdings Corporation
The Special Committee of Avangrid, a U.S. subsidiary of Iberdrola, in the $2.6 billion acquisition of the company’s remaining shares by Iberdrola
Casey’s General Stores in its $1.145 billion acquisition of Fikes Wholesale
Crown Castle in its successful proxy fight against Boots Capital
General Mills in its $1.45 billion acquisition of Whitebridge Pet Brands’ North American premium Cat feeding and Pet treating business from NXMH
IBM in its $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp
Restaurant Brands International in its $1 billion acquisition of Carrols Restaurant Group
Rodina Capital in its acquisition of Rubicon Technologies’ fleet technology business unit and convertible preferred equity
Sandvine in its in and out-of-court restructurings, including in its chapter 15 proceedings in the United States
TPG Capital in its investment in G&A Partners

Prior to Paul, Weiss, Christopher’s experience includes advising:

Altra Industrial Motion in its $5 billion sale to Regal Rexnord
Amazon in its $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM
British American Tobacco in its $97 billion merger with Reynolds American
FS Investments in its combination with Portfolio Advisors, creating a $75 billion alternative investment firm
Global Blood Therapeutics in its $5.4 billion sale to Pfizer
IBM in multiple transactions, including the sale of its healthcare and data analytics assets, part of the Watson Health business, to Francisco Partners
Mylan in its $50 billion combination with Upjohn, a division of Pfizer, to form Viatris
Newcrest in its $28.8 billion acquisition by Newmont
Pinnacle Foods in its $10.9 billion acquisition by Conagra Brands
Viatris in its divestitures totaling $6.94 billion in value, including the $3.335 billion combination of its biosimilars portfolio with Biocon Biologics and the pending divestitures of its Over the Counter, Women’s Healthcare and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients businesses