Speaker Bios:  (back to Event Summary)

Jonathan has been head of M&A at Sandvik since 2021. He was previously a Partner at Kerney and Head of the Nordic Private Equity and M&A Practice.

Jonathan has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Staci leads a global team of Integration and Disengagement Program Managers supporting the pre- and post merger integration and disentanglement efforts as part of Philip’s global Strategy, Mergers & Acquisition and Partnership objectives.

She previously worked in other roles in Philips. Before this, she worked at WPG Uitgevers and Reed Elsevier.

Theresa has over 10 years’ experience in various corporate roles including HR and Project Management. At Danfoss, she leads and project manages all HR areas in Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures, covering the full cycle from Due Diligence to Post-closing Integration.

Theresa is a firm believer of finding the “golden middle ground” where both employee engagement is maintained and the business still sees a good return on their investments. She believes integrity is fundamental to achieving this – but a realistic Due Diligence Business Case certainly also helps.

Steffen Scholz has been Head of the M&A Department of TRUMPF GmbH & Co. KG since 2007. In addition to acquisitions, this function also includes post-merger processes for the successful integration of acquired companies. In his more than 20-year M&A activity, he has led takeovers and the formation of joint ventures in Asia, the US and Europe. Prior to his time at TRUMPF, he led numerous M&A projects and strategic planning at the automotive supplier Mann + Hummel. As a mechanical engineering graduate with a later industrial engineering qualification and then an MBA in London, he also gained additional business experience in various management functions selling mechanical engineering products.

Dr. Houben is an experienced Senior Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Automotive, Chemical and Manufacturing industry. Strong professional skills in Growth, He has worked for Accenture, Deloitte and currently BASF. He has skills in: Organizational Design, Business Transformation, Valuation, Corporate Finance, and Mergers & Acquisitions, Post Merger Integration (PMI) and Carve-out. He holds a PhD in Financial Economics from Kiel University.

Lupe is passionate about people, teams or any type of human organization, and a firm believer in the power of collective intelligence. Her career has developed through the areas of customer service, operational excellence, internal consulting and strategic corporate transformations, in companies like Sun Microsystems, then Oracle, American Express and currently Amadeus, where she works in the CEO Office. Her areas of expertise and toolbox has in it Group Facilitation, Personal and Team Coaching, Program Management, Lean/Agile methodologies and Change Management strategies.

Something personal? She tends to be mistaken with an extrovert, but she is actually an extroverted introvert, so if you see her around and want to chat, please reach out! 

Yolanda is an experienced Change Manager at Amadeus CEO Office, after a 10 years in Talent & Organization strategy work in Accenture.

Through her role in various transformation programs and M&A integration projects, plus her experience in the fields of training, coaching and leadership development, she has developed a deep understanding of people dynamics in their transitioning through changes, both individually and in groups. She currently supports  M&A transactions worldwide for Amadeus

At WTW, Amanda Scott is the Global Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Leader and is based in London. She leads a global team that helps clients evaluate and address the critical people-related issues, assets, liabilities, risks and opportunities surrounding corporate transactions. She inspires people to think differently about the future as they implement large-scale organizational change to drive innovation, diversity, and positive growth.

Amanda also serves as a Global Client Relationship Director to several of WTW’s top global clients across a range of industries including pharma, advertising, shipping, FMCG, transport and retail. Her geographical expertise is primarily across Europe and the US, with additional educational experience in China, India and Ecuador. Unique experiences include assignments in Nanjing, China, for the Dingman Centre for Entrepreneurship on Quay Magnesium; Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, for the Globalisation of Finance study; and the Galapagos and Amazon Rainforest as a biologist studying with a shaman.

Gabe leads M&A consulting for Western Europe at WTW. He partners with multinational companies on all aspects of their HR aspects in M&A situations, including compensation and benefit arrangements, HR project management, cross border benefit and compensation reviews, SPA and TSA reviews, benefit audits and actuarial / pensions reviews and purchase price adjustments.

Emma is a Business Development professional with over fifteen years of industry experience and a track record of successful transactions and post-deal management. Broad business development experience spanning search and evaluation, transactions and strategic alliance management. Current specific focus on deal value delivery from M&A and divestment activities to ensure efficient asset & business transfer across US, EU and International markets.

Susanne has built a profound knowledge in Business Operation and development. Combined with several years of project and program management, she recently supported all M&A transactions in all countries for Telia. This includes integrations and carve-outs.

She had previously worked as Director HR Operation for Lantmännen.

Robin leads corporate development at James Fisher and Sons and has 20 years of experience working across several industrial groups driving strategic focus and leading future ambition, completing over 40 transactions in that process. Robin trained as an engineer at Rolls-Royce before joining Bain & Company, has an MBA from Wharton and is an active business coach.

Carlos Keener is Founder and Managing Partner of BTD Consulting, a specialist advisory, consulting and resources firm helping client deliver and accelerate inorganic growth. Carlos has over 20 years of experience in M&A, post-deal operating model design, integration strategy & planning for organisations across multiple sectors and sizes. Carlos has worked with clients including GSK, Coca-Cola, E.On, Xstrata, Novartis, Tata Steel, Colgate-Palmolive and dozens of mid-sized and smaller firms throughout the US, UK, Western Europe, Russia, South America, Africa, India, South-East Asia and the Middle-East. A regular faculty member with the IMAA and occasional speaker at Warwick and Imperial College’s Business Schools, Carlos is also co-author of Leading the Deal, in which he and former Xstrata Head of Strategy Thras Moraitis provide experience, insights and guidance for executive management for their role in delivering high-performing M&A and integration.

Julius is a Multi-skilled professional with more than 20 years of successful experience in international veterinary and human health care, medical and pharmaceutical industries; He has extensive experiences in Business Development, Mergers & Acquisitions and Project Management, as well as in entrepreneurial thinking and acting (developing new businesses / start-ups, acquiring and successfully integrating existing businesses); He is leading cross-functional teams to success in an international environment

Philip joined IBM UK in 1997 as Head of HR for the Personal Computing Manufacturing facility, a site of 3 thousand employees based in Scotland. Since then he has performed a number senior HR Business Partner roles at the UK & European level and completed a two year international assignment at IBM's then European Headquarters in Paris, France.

In 2005, while based in Paris, Philip took over the leadership of the European Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures team and is responsible for a team of 5 dedicated MA&D professionals all based in Europe.  He has personally led several global acquisitions and divestitures from Europe as well as completing over 100 acquisitions and over 50 divestitures based in Europe.

He lives in Stirlingshire Scotland, is a Level 2 Rugby Union coach, enjoys all sports and an outdoors life.

Matthias Homann has 8 years of professional experience in Post-Merger-Integration at SAP focusing on sales strategy and sales operations for acquisitions varying from small-tuck-ins to integration of major software companies. Prior to his work at SAP, Mr. Homann worked at a strategy consulting company that was part of the BMW Group where he focused on strategy and process projects in the sales and services area.

George Goudriaan is Head of HR I&T and Functions at ABN AMRO.

Before joining Human Resources, George worked as a Private Banker in Rotterdam, followed by a role as Business Manager, expanding the bank’s global Corporate Banking footprint. As a long standing employee of ABN AMRO George knows all aspects of the banking business and is now a passionate HR leader who enjoys working on projects that relate to organisational design and continuous improvement of the bank and its employees. 

George holds a Master’s Degree in International Business Administration from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

George lives together with his partner in The Hague, The Netherlands. Next to being an avid reader, when not traveling for work, George spends his time enjoying the beach and being an active member of several clubs and associations.  

Michael is an HR Professional with more than 15 years experience, and currently is Head of HR M&A at BASF

Claire-Marie is currently Head of M&A Integration at dentsu. As the most acquisitive agency group, dentsu international has welcomed over 170+ acquisitions in the last six years, most notably, the Merkle acquisition placing dentsu as the market leader for data, analytics and CRM.

Before joining the advertising industry, Claire-Marie has gained substantial transformation and change experience by leading teams in the Financial and Technology Industries. She participated in the development of strategic agendas for fast growing firms and led on the associated delivery, with a focus on post-merger integration and separation programmes.

Ana has over 18 years in the LATAM and EU markets with a proven track record of meeting or exceeding performance targets within both start-up/ scale-up and corporate environments.

At AkzoNobel, Ana is responsible for globally managing M&A Integration programs and assuring projects from the different workstreams deliver the synergies committed in the business case.

Americao has experience in leading projects setting up Target Operating Models including M&A Integrations, Shared Service Centers & Outsourcing, Organizational Redesign and Process Improvement, performing Functional Performance Assessments and the implementation of enterprise-wide information systems within the Finance, HR, IT and Procurement functions.

Americo is managing 3 M&A Integration projects (operations in 13 countries revenues over 300M€) in accordance with the Corporate M&A Integration Playbook.

Jacob Buchardt was appointed VP for Corporate PMO & Quality in January 2017. Jacob is responsible for cross-organisational transformation and post merger integration projects. Prior to this, for a ten year period Jacob was a management consultant with among others Implement Consulting Group and before that worked for IKEA for 12 years in management positions, e.g. in Holland and Germany. Jacob holds an MA (Law) from the University of Copenhagen and a higher diploma in Business Controlling & Process Management from Copenhagen Business School from 2001 and studied innovation management with INSEAD in France

In addition to his role with Navima, David is a partner at BTD (a London-based M&A consultancy). He brings many years of consulting experience helping clients acquire, integrate, separate and divest businesses, particularly with private equity backed enterprises. David also has over 15 years of M&A practitioner experience having worked for PE backed high-growth and FTSE 250 companies. David has a background in finance and IT and prior to that, the military.

Prior to Navima, Tom worked at 2 M&A boutiques (leading acquisitions, divestments, strategy and venture projects) and was Head of M&A & Corporate Development for a fast-growth, VC backed SaaS company. Tom has supported companies around the world including Shell, Unilever, Philips and the Big Four with improving their M&A process and leading the development of playbooks. Tom is a chartered accountant (ACA) – having trained with PwC and has a degree and master’s in economics from UEA.

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