Rose Ohanesian is a partner in the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. Rose advises public and private companies across various industries, private investment funds, executives and boards on a broad range of compensation and employee benefits matters, including the negotiation, structuring and implementation of employment and severance agreements, equity and cash-based incentive compensation arrangements, retirement and deferred compensation plans and change in control and retention programs. Rose’s practice includes the compensation and employee benefits aspects of private equity transactions, strategic mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, spin-offs, financings and other corporate transactions. Rose also works regularly with public companies to prepare executive compensation disclosures for annual proxy statements, initial public offerings, merger proxies and other information statements in connection with corporate transactions and periodic filings.
Rose has been recognized as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA (2025-2026) for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (New York) and named to the 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers.
Experience
Rose has advised on the following significant matters:
- Ryerson Holding Corporation (NYSE: RYI), a leading value-added processor and distributor of industrial metals, on its merger with Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZEUS)
- Famille C, the Courtin-Clarins family holding company and owner of the Clarins brand, in its acquisition of ILIA Beauty
- Saks Global, a leading luxury retail and real estate company, on its acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group for a total enterprise value of $2.7 billion
- Saks Global in connection with its Chapter 11 reorganization
- Novacap in its $1.9 billion take-private acquisition of Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS)
- Platinum Equity on the initial public offerings of two of its portfolio companies, McGraw Hill (NYSE: MH) and Ingram Micro Holding Corporation (NYSE: INGM)
- Insight Partners in its investment in CentralReach and its portfolio company CentralReach on the $1.65 billion sale of CentralReach to Roper Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROP)
- Insight Partners in its investment in WorkForce Software and the sale of WorkForce Software to ADP (Nasdaq: ADP)
- NXMH on the sale of its portfolio company Whitebridge Pet Brands’ North American premium cat feeding and pet treating business, including the Tiki Pets and Cloud Star portfolio of brands, to General Mills, Inc. (NYSE: GIS) in a transaction valued at $1.45 billion
- Hachette Book Group, a subsidiary of Lagardère SA, in its $240 million acquisition of Workman Publishing
- PharmaCord, a leading provider of patient services for the pharmaceutical industry, in connection with a substantial investment from global investment firm Permira
- Kaseya on numerous transactions, including its $6.2 billion acquisition of Datto and its acquisitions of INKY and RocketCyber
- Insight Partners in its investment in Appriss and Appriss in its acquisition of PatientPing, a care collaboration software provider, and its sale of Appriss Insights, LLC, a wholly owned business unit, to Equifax, Inc. for $1.825 billion
- Holley in its merger with SPAC Empower Ltd., in which Holley became a publicly traded company (NYSE: HLLY) valued at approximately $1.55 billion
- Franchise Group in its acquisition of Pet Supplies Plus for approximately $700 million
- Third Point in its acquisition of AS Birch Grove LP, a diversified alternative credit fund manager, from American Securities
- Zurich Insurance Group and its subsidiary Farmers Group, Inc. in the $3.94 billion acquisition by Farmers Group of MetLife’s property and casualty business
- Zurich Insurance Group in its sale of its U.S. Corporate Life and Pensions (Group Benefits) business to Aflac
- Arch Insurance North America, part of Arch Capital Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACGL), on its $450 million acquisition of the U.S. middle-market commercial lines (MidCorp) and Entertainment insurance businesses, including select specialty insurance programs, from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE
- E2open in its $2.57 billion combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I, in which E2open became a publicly traded company (NYSE: ETWO)
- Franchise Group, Inc. in its acquisitions of the Sears Outlet stores business and American Freight Group, Inc.
- Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) in its sale of its life insurance operations to Resolution Group Holdings Ltd. for $1.25 billion
- The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) in its approximately $4 billion take-private acquisition of National General Holdings Corp. (NYSE: NGHC)
- Insight Partners in numerous investments, including EveryAction, Inhabit, Ministry Brands, DistroKid, PSPDFKit, and Solovis
- HealthEquity, Inc. (Nasdaq: HQY) in its acquisition of WageWorks, Inc. (NYSE: WAGE) for approximately $2 billion
- Lagardère Travel Retail in its acquisition of Hojeij Branded Foods
- Virgin Pulse, an Insight Partners portfolio company, in its sale to Marlin Equity Partners
- Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT) in its $34 billion sale to CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL)
Credentials
Education
New York University School of Law, LL.M., 2012 Loyola Law School, J.D., 2011 University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., 2008