M&A Science Podcast

Let’s learn how great leadership and focus on culture made one of the biggest M&A deals possible. In this episode Tim Wentworth, CEO of Evernorth, shares the story of the deal between Cigna and Express Scripts, and what made it a success.

The decision to pull the trigger and sell your business could come with many complexities. Sharing his experience and the complexities of sell-side M&A is Noah Waisberg, Co-Founder & CEO of Zuva. In this episode, he talks about his learnings as his company Kira Systems got acquired by Litera.

M&A is a tool to achieve your strategy, and your strategy should dictate how you hire your head of corporate development. In this episode, Charles Breed, former VP of Corporate Development at Corel Corporation, talks about the skills and roles of a great corporate development leader.

The biggest value leak in an M&A deal is people leaving your company after the deal is done. In this interview, Klint Kendrick, Chair of the HR M&A Roundtable, talks about how empathy, strategy, and integration can all contribute to a better people experience in M&A.

A go-to-market plan should be a top priority during an acquisition. In this episode of the M&A Science Podcast, Gwen Pope, Head of Global Product M&A at eBay, talks about how to make our M&A GTM successful.

The markets change all the time, and the M&A industry is no exception. Especially with COVID-19, changes in the market have been crazy these past years. Helping us understand the M&A market trends from a banker's perspective is Kunal Jain, Director, at William Blair Health Care Investment Banking.

Change management is the tilting point of every M&A deal. Preserving the value that you just acquired is dependent on how you retain key employees. In this episode of the M&A science podcast, Harry Kraemer, Jr, Professor of Management and Strategy at Kellogg School of Management, talks about how effective leadership helps overcome change management challenges.

M&A practitioners love to go into details. And while that could be beneficial, it doesn’t often help with team alignment. According to Jim Buckley, former Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions Integration at VMware, keeping integration simple is the real key to success.

We all know that integration can make or break the deal. In this interview, Jim Buckley, former Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions Integration at VMware, talks about how to succeed in M&A integration and measure that success.

In this interview, Ken Bond, former Head of Corporate Development at Cetera Financial Group, talks about how to structure your M&A team as you approach diligence, look for a project manager, and source deals.

An NDA is not a routine document in an M&A deal. It is vital in setting up the relationship of both parties as they move forward. Discussing in-depth how to negotiate and structure NDAs in an M&A deal is Mark Khavkin, CFO at Pantheon Platform.

Before you start any acquisition, you should always consider whether to buy it or build it yourself. In this episode of the M&A science podcast, Cameron Weiner, VP of Strategic Development, Head of M&A at Shopko Optical, shares how they source deals and determine whether they should buy or build.

M&A deals are never easy, and requires rigorous planning. In this interview, Punit Micocha, Executive Vice President, Business and Corporate Development at Zscaler, is going to help us execute successful deals by planning the end game.

In this interview, we are going to talk about managing sourcing, diligence and integration from a project manager's perspective featuring Sabeeh Khan, Director, Corporate Strategy & Development at Syniti and Aaron Whiting, M&A Integration and Strategic Programs at ContinuumCloud

A GTM strategy is one of the most important parts of an integration plan. In this episode, Pragnya Kashinath, M&A Consultant at Deloitte, talks about creating a successful GTM strategy from the very beginning of the transaction and the challenges that go with it.

Culture is one of the most controversial and hot topics in the world of M&A. Most people say that Culture isn’t a deal killer. But not for Trish Mosconi, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer & Corporate Development at Synchrony. In our interview, she talks about how they walked away from an almost perfect deal due to cultural differences.

Fully committing to integration starts with a deep partnership between corp dev and integration. Learn all about it featuring Karen Ashley, Vice President of Corporate Development Integration at Cisco.

We all know that M&A can transform a business overnight if the deal is done correctly. However, not everyone knows how to make transformative M&A successful. In this interview, Duncan Painter, former CEO at Ascential Plc, talks about transformational deals for their company and how they make it successful.

Bankers have a massive role in the M&A industry, and often, they help buyers and sellers connect and close deals. But regardless of popular belief, with the right amount of dedication and resources, a company can execute divestitures without a bank.

In this episode, Peter Linas, CPO & EVP Corporate Development at Bullhorn, talks about how his corporate development team looks like in an infrequent acquisition environment, and how they hire external consultants to make their deals successful.

Executing an entire M&A deal can be done remotely. Catch this interview as Christina Amiry, Head of M&A Strategic Operations, Integration at Atlassian, shares with us how to work in a fully remote environment, the tools that they use, and how they engage with people all over the world.

PE firms have a very short-term holding period and need to grow businesses fast. Adam Coffey, former CEO at CoolSys, Refrigeration and HVAC Systems, is an expert on growing these companies using the buy and build strategy. In this article, he will share what it is and how to create sustainable success.

In this episode, Jay Dettling, former CEO of Ansira, talks about preserving value in M&A. Learn how Jay creates value during integration, retains value when being acquired, and the importance of communication. Jay shares his experience being on both sides of the deal, the best tips for communicating, how you can manage FUD, and what CEOs going through acquisition should expect and prepare for.

Kison interviews Mike DeVita, Business Value Advisor at Salesforce, about how to assess value realization, what is it, how it works, the steps, and the common challenges. Mike has an impressive career history, previously serving as Salesforce's Success Strategy Lead and prior to that as Director of M&A Integration at Walgreens.

Reliance Retail is one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world. Learn how they manage multiple deal structures to make their partnerships successful directly from their President and CEO, Darshan Mehta.