Exclusively for Corporate M&A Professionals

Leading M&A Teams Master Class

This highly interactive M&A Master Class will provide a rare opportunity to learn about performance incentives, career paths, recruiting approaches, and skill development. Inspired by a long-term study that showed a direct correlation between highly-skilled M&A teams and deal performance, this member-driven program will consider approaches for building and leading corporate development, M&A legal, and integration professionals.

  • Determining the optimal size for the M&A team
  • Ensuring high-levels of performance and retention of key talent
  • Building career paths, incentives, and organizational design

$1,500 | $0 for Members Learn About All Access Membership Accounts

Friday, December 4, 2026 | 10:00 - 3:30 (CST)

Live Online

Building the M&A team

  • Determining the optimal team size and core vs. extended deal team roles
  • Setting expectations and decision rights with executive leadership
  • Engaging investment bankers, legal counsel, consultants, and auditors
  • Crafting governance and decision-making protocols with clear authority
  • Recruiting into corporate M&A teams from internal and external roles
  • Designing base and incentive compensation structures
  • Building team culture and collaboration methods

Leading through the deal phase

  • Establishing deal objectives and success metrics
  • Managing cross-functional workstreams – finance, HR, IT, legal, tax, operations
  • Information governance – clean teams, data rooms, internal communication protocols.
  • Balancing seed vs. rigor in diligence and integration planning
  • Preparing for negotiations - mapping deal points and positional bargaining
  • Methods for pressure testing assumptions and contingencies.
  • Crafting incentives for abandoning bad deals

Leading through the integration phase

  • Working with the business on integration planning and execution
  • Engaging advisors for select workstreams and milestones
  • Retaining and motivating key talent with non-compensation perks
  • Building governance steering committees, decision rights, reporting lines.
  • Implementing an optimal communication strategy for employees, shareholders,and customers
  • Measuring post-close performance KPIs and ensuring accountability structures
  • Designing advancement opportunities for corporate M&A professionals

The Institute is an accredited provider of CPE and CLE in Illinois. This M&A Master Class offers 4.75 CLE credits and 5.50 CPE Credits. An Illinois certificate will be issued. If you are licensed in another state, please check for reciprocity regarding continuing education credits.