Dynamic Portfolio Strategy: Rebalancing Using Divestitures
Strategic focus is the foundation of corporate performance, yet most companies drift over time as portfolios expand, priorities blur, and underperforming.
What you’ll learn
- How to approach acquisitions with a clear strategic lens
- Why to rebalance a portfolio
- How to determine which business units should be divested
Who is this course for
This course is for corporate development professionals and strategy leaders responsible for portfolio decisions — not just deal execution. If you're thinking about how to use acquisitions to build toward a category leadership position, when to divest assets that no longer fit the platform thesis, or how to balance a high-volume M&A program with deliberate portfolio rebalancing, Jerome brings a practitioner's playbook from one of the most acquisitive companies in life science software.
Instructor
Jerome Combs-Noak leads Strategy and Corporate Development at Dotmatics, a life science software company backed by Insight Partners that has completed 14 acquisitions to build a comprehensive platform of research tools for scientists. Jerome came to the role with a deliberately constructed skillset — computational science from Carnegie Mellon, investment banking for foundational finance and quantitative chops, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and strategy consulting at BCG. He spent three years leading M&A at Standex before moving to PerkinElmer, where he executed five acquisitions deploying $6 billion in capital. Now at Dotmatics, he's putting all three pillars he believes define great corp dev — quant, strategy, and social — to work building a category leader in life science software.
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Have any questions?
The Intelligence Hub is where M&A practitioners access Buyer-Led M&A™ playbooks, frameworks, templates, and real-world insights from experienced deal leaders. Courses are taught by practitioners who've run deals — not academics or advisors. Topics include integration planning, due diligence, deal sourcing, valuation, and more.
The Intelligence Hub is available 24/7 through your M&A Science membership. Access them on-demand at your pace, on any device.
It depends on where you are in your M&A journey. If you're building foundational knowledge, start with the M&A Fundamentals Track — five courses covering the full deal lifecycle from sourcing through integration. If you're already running deals and want to build a repeatable, scalable process, explore the Buyer-Led M&A™ Certification. New courses are added regularly as we deepen the curriculum.
