M&A Science
Kison Patel
M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice.
Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process.
Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world
Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process.
Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 26, 2026 • 1h
Cross-Border M&A: Doing Deals in Latin America
Rodrigo Dominguez Sotomayor, a White & Case partner with 25 years in cross-border Latin America M&A. He breaks down antitrust consent timelines, labor and severance pitfalls, auction vs bilateral deal mechanics, negotiating with family founders, and why reps and warranties insurance is becoming expected in LATAM transactions.
Mar 19, 2026 • 53min
Partnering Before Purchasing: How Booz Allen Wins Proprietary Deals Early
Chrissy Cox, VP and Head of Corporate Development at Booz Allen Hamilton, who built their corp dev function twice. She explains how they cultivate proprietary pipelines years ahead. Short takes on culture as a deal breaker, partner‑first pre-acquisition strategies, carve‑out complexities, when to spin out versus build, and why founders should still hire bankers.
6 snips
Mar 12, 2026 • 1h 1min
Cultural Fit Over EBITDA: How Salas O'Brien Built a 30-Merger Program Without a Single Failure
Nathan Rust, Senior VP of Corporate Development at Salas O'Brien, leads 30+ mergers with a focus on people over numbers. He explains screening for committed, likable leaders and using short, story-driven first calls. Hear how CEO-led integration, equity rollovers, reverse diligence, and a referral-driven sourcing flywheel keep retention high.
Mar 5, 2026 • 1h 8min
Cross-Border M&A: How to Do Deals in Italy with Mauro Sambati and Donato Romano
Mauro Sambati, Partner at Gianni & Origoni with deep experience advising foreign buyers in Italy, and Donato Romano, Partner focused on cross-border structuring and regulatory clearance, unpack cross-border deals in Italy. They discuss Italy's Golden Power and timing, strict labor law implications, cultural negotiation differences across buyers, lockbox versus closing accounts, and structuring minority protections.
Feb 26, 2026 • 1h 4min
Four Questions That Defined a $1 Billion Deal with Robert Lovegrove
Robert Lovegrove, President & CEO of The ChemQuest Group and former Milliken VP of Corporate Strategy, explains how focus and alignment shaped a billion-dollar acquisition. He outlines adjacency-driven moves, the four go/no-go questions that cut through analysis, the role of trust over price, and treating culture as a deal risk.
Feb 19, 2026 • 1h 8min
Stop Falling in Love with the Deal: Guardrails for High-Volume Acquisitions with Birgitta and Lars Elfversson
Lars Elfversson, entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Netlight and advises roll-up platforms. Birgitta Elfversson, seasoned M&A and strategy executive from McKinsey/Unilever and board director. They discuss designing strict acquisition frameworks, avoiding deal fever with large pipelines, choosing integration depth early, managing people risk in roll-ups, and the governance needed to keep consolidation programs disciplined.
13 snips
Feb 16, 2026 • 14min
The Next Chapter After 400 Episodes
Kison shares big operational updates after 400 shows and explains why releases move to Thursdays. He outlines a shift in focus toward building a practitioner community and standardizing buy-side M&A. The new Intelligence Hub and upcoming buyer-led certification are introduced as practical tools for real deal work. Ways to join and contribute to the community are also explained.
Feb 9, 2026 • 44min
Integration Focused M&A: Why Execution Should Inform Strategy Before You Sign Part 2 with Ciprian Stan
Ciprian Stan, M&A integration practitioner and Integration Manager at SALESIANER Gruppe, returns with sharp, practical thinking. He argues integration should shape strategy before signing. Short takes cover customizing diligence, using a red team to surface cultural non-negotiables, aligning integration to value drivers, preserving trust through execution, and cautious, judgment-first AI use.
Feb 2, 2026 • 58min
Integration Focused M&A: Why Execution Should Inform Strategy Before You Sign Part 1 with Ciprian Stan
Ciprian Stan, an M&A integration manager with a computer science background and hands-on integration experience, talks about making execution a strategic input. He stresses involving integration early, running red teams to surface risks, and practical pre-LOI preparations. Cultural diligence, protecting a target's secret sauce, and balancing IT with broader operational alignment are highlighted.
Jan 26, 2026 • 1h 4min
How Experienced Buyers Actually Make M&A Work with Carlos Cesta
Carlos Cesta, M&A advisor and partner at Makanta with ~30 years buy-side experience across Verizon, Dentsu, Presidio, and NP Digital. He explains why strategy must state what not to pursue. He describes the deal spiral where structure, diligence, and integration reshape each other. He shows why integration planning starts before LOI and how earnouts can be designed to manage risk.
