How To Build A Successful Corporate Development Function

“M&A is not an everyday type function in terms of business operations. It’s more important than filling out expense reports… No disrespect to anyone who handles that as part of their day job. But I find people around the company want to be part of it, so the trick is really managing them and their involvement - Especially if you’re working with people who may not have a lot of deal experience.” - Russ Hartz

Russ Hartz is the VP of Corporate Development at ANSYS, Inc. and former VP of Corporate Development at SAP. He’s an experienced Corporate Development professional with specific expertise in M&A and investments and post-merger integration. His role at ANSYS involves M&A strategy and deal sourcing, as well as managing transaction execution.

Together, Kison and Russ also discusses how deal strategy affects company alignment and how he measures the success of a post-merger integration.

Russ Hartz

Russ Hartz is VP of Corporate Development at GlobalFoundries, where he leads corporate development and M&A activity. He previously led corporate development at Ansys and SAP, with deep experience across M&A strategy, deal sourcing, transaction execution, investments, divestitures, and post-merger integration. He has also appeared on M&A Science to discuss building a corporate development function and synchronizing deal and integration teams.