What Actually Works in M&A Integration | Intel, Coursera, Ansys & UKG

Jim Buckley, VP M&A Integration at Coursera | Todd Manley, VP of Corp Dev Integration at Intel | Carey Pugh is Sr. Director, M&A Corporate Integration at Ansys | Mahesh Ganesan, Sr. Director, M&A Integration at UKG

Don’t think of this as a product demo or a framework presentation. It’s just four operators who’ve run some of the most complex integrations in enterprise tech getting real about tools, AI, knowledge loss, and the discipline most integration teams skip.

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What You'll Learn

Why the diligence-to-integration handoff keeps failing and what actually fixes it

How to evaluate integration technology without getting sold on complexity

Where AI is genuinely useful in integration today and where it is not

How to right-size your integration effort across multiple simultaneous deals

Why knowledge loss is the biggest value leak in M&A and what to do about it

How to handle post-close direction shifts when the acquired team changes course

Why post-mortems matter and why most integration teams never run them

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If you're running integration without a clear line between your workstreams and the original deal thesis, DealPilot has a structured integration planning frameworks built on how practitioners at Intel, Microsoft, and UKG actually run it, so you stop rebuilding from scratch every deal.

Jim Buckley

Jim Buckley is VP of Strategy, Planning, and Operations at Omnissa, with deep M&A integration experience across enterprise technology. He previously served as VP of M&A Integration at VMware, where he led major integrations including Pivotal and Carbon Black, and has also held roles at Microsoft, PayPal, and Mentor Graphics. He has appeared on M&A Science to discuss integration-led diligence, keeping integration plans simple, and measuring success after close.

Todd Manley

Todd Manley is Vice President of Corporate Development Integration at Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), where he leads M&A integration work across complex technology deals. He brings 20+ years of experience across corporate development, post-merger integration, enterprise transformation, and business operations, with prior experience across companies including Cisco, HP, Symantec, and Marvell. He has appeared on M&A Science to discuss building a career in M&A, integration leadership, team dynamics, and the nontraditional path from IT and organizational behavior into corporate development.

Carey Pugh

Carey Pugh is the Sr. Director of M&A Corporate Integration at Ansys, where she leads strategic integration efforts for acquisitions. With over 15 years of experience, including leadership roles at Avalara and Cisco, Carey has successfully driven large-scale integrations, developed scalable frameworks, and implemented compliance programs for global portfolios. Known for her strategic vision and cross-functional collaboration, Carey continues to deliver impactful results in M&A.

Mahesh Ganesan

Mahesh Ganesan is Sr. Director, M&A Integration at UKG, a company formed through the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos. He has been with UKG for 7 years and manages a steady acquisition cadence across a range of deal sizes. He uses enterprise ChatGPT for risk identification and integration planning.