

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

Apr 1, 2020 • 58min
Building a Communications Plan from Scratch
On this episode, Kison Patel speaks with Stephanie Carty. Stephanie is a corporate communications professional with more than 15 years of experience at GE, KPMG and other companies. Her expertise is in executive communications and ensuring top leaders communicate with honesty, clarity, and credibility. Currently, Stephanie is a strategic advisor, specializing in employee communications. Learn components of communication plans, when to start planning, and behind the scenes activity that makes all the difference in the success of Day 1. In this episode, she tells Kison best practices for Day 1 and gives advice on how to avoid disasters. Stephanie also talks about a time she wrote 25 versions of a communication plan and how that unfolded at the time of signing.

Mar 18, 2020 • 47min
The Impact of People Experience on Deal Outcomes
On this episode, Kison speaks with Karen Isely of Isely Associates International regarding the impact people experience has on the outcome of M&A deals. Karen is an M&A specialist and the founder of Isely Associates International, an Australian-based global consulting business providing M&A advisory services to organizations growing by merger, acquisition or other similar business transactions. She brings experience as an HR professional, business leader and management consultant to every engagement and has contributed to nearly 150 deals, in-house as well as for corporate and private equity clients.

Mar 4, 2020 • 47min
Navigating Intangible Asset Valuation
On this episode, Kison talks with PJ Patel, Co-CEO and Senior Managing Director at Valuation Research Corporation (VRC). VRC is a full-service, independent, global valuation firm that focuses exclusively on valuations that offer judgment beyond modeling. Kison and PJ discuss how to navigate intangible asset valuation in today's market, how the current M&A climate is affecting valuation, and how to avoid the most common mistakes when conducting a valuation.

Feb 21, 2020 • 48min
The Impact of Leadership in M&A
In this episode, Kison Patel discusses the groundbreaking research done by Dr. Keith Dunbar. As a Managing Partner at JKD Talent Solutions, his team delivers actionable leadership intelligence. With this intelligence, we enhance clients' long-term profitability and growth by providing a unique, holistic view of leadership capabilities. Keith gives insight into how leadership has more of an impact than culture, which is contrary to popular belief, and who actually has a bigger impact on deal success - middle management or C suite. They also cover why it's taken so long for people to realize how much leadership impacts the success of a deal, how to look for those leadership traits in your staff, and what works the best in terms of incentivizing leadership in your team.

Feb 5, 2020 • 25min
How to Successfully Build a Corporate Development Function
Nichelle Maynard-Elliot, a seasoned corporate M&A executive with over 20 years of experience, shares her insights on building effective corporate development functions. She discusses the importance of aligning development strategies with growth goals and emphasizes structured approval processes for acquisitions. Nichelle highlights the need for specialists to validate market assumptions and the strategic balance of team dynamics. Additionally, she explores how understanding cultural differences is crucial in M&A negotiations, illustrated by a compelling case study.

Jan 8, 2020 • 35min
Demystifying the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
Kison speaks with Richard Harmon, a Managing Director at CSG Partners, a firm that helps owners of private, middle market companies achieve equity monetization while addressing personal goals. In this podcast, they discuss how ESOPs can harvest equity, enhance liquidity, and create tax advantages.

Dec 18, 2019 • 57min
Focusing Less on Cost Synergies to Increase Value Creation
Kison speaks with Anirvan Sen, the Founder and Managing Director of Fifth Chrome, a professional advisory firm that specializes in M&A integration and operational growth. In this podcast, they discuss creating deal value by focusing more on growth capabilities and revenue synergies than cost synergies.

Dec 4, 2019 • 34min
How to Plan a Divestiture from HR's Perspective
Kison speaks with Jillian Kaebel-Sisk, an HR Global Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures Manager at Caterpillar. This podcast covers how HR practitioners plan for and executive divestitures. They also discuss carve-out and divestiture challenges, as well as TSA agreements, asset vs. stock sale, due diligence, and more.

Nov 20, 2019 • 35min
How to Deliver Maximum Value from Divestitures
Kison speaks with Toby Tester, an M&A Consultant and Project Manager with over 20 years of experience driving strategic, financial and operational value through M&A. This podcast covers how you can deliver maximum value from divestitures. We will discuss how divestitures, like acquisitions, can become a positive and transformational process.

Nov 6, 2019 • 24min
How to Drive Transformational Change Through M&A
Kison speaks with Toby Tester, an M&A Consultant and Project Manager with over 20 years of experience driving strategic, financial and operational value through M&A. This podcast follows Toby's article, Driving Transformation Through M&A, in which he discusses how M&A transactions are becoming necessary transformational strategies for companies in the modern marketplace.


