M&A Integration

Emilie Feldman Professor of Management Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The pairing of strategic frameworks and practical insights drives this highly interactive M&A Master Class, which delivers guidance on the key decisions and inflection points that create value. Through recent cases and representative transaction, the program delivers perspective that can be immediately applied. 

  • Develop methods for delivering the deal thesis and expected synergies
  • Head-off inconsistent integration methods to ensure an optimal process
  • Assess integration risks and design mitigation techniques to deliver value

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

Friday, November 14, 2025 | 10:00 - 3:30 (CST)

Live Online

Planning M&A integration

  • Linking the integration strategy to the deal thesis and value drivers
  • Methods for linking diligence to the integration planning process
  • Defining and recruiting the right leadership / setting up the PMO office
  • Establishing clear and measurable synergy and value drivers
  • Articulating the future state goals early in the process
  • Determining the pace of integration and value creation
  • Planning to capture synergies during integrations


M&A Integration Strategies

  • Developing integration plans to address cultural issues
  • Using a slow or rapid phase-in of changes in human capital policies
  • Technology platforms to manage integration
  • Curtailing negative synergies
  • Integration levers to establish appropriate integration plan
  • Tactics to avoid common integration mistakes/pitfalls


M&A Integration Special cases

  • Understanding the range of deal types, with integration approaches for each
  • Planning for and risks of global/cross-country deals
  • Key priorities and approaches for various types of deals
  • Overall integration planning framework
  • Aligning integration plans with the type of deal
  • Capturing integration best practices and building institutional capabilities

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


Emilie R. Feldman Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Professor Feldman teaches courses on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate strategy, and corporate governance. Her expertise is in corporate strategy and governance, with particular interests in the role that divestitures, spinoffs, and mergers and acquisitions play in corporate reconfiguration.

Professor Feldman is the author of “Divestitures: Creating Value Through Strategy, Structure, and Implementation”.

She has been teaching for the Institute since 2022.

James Harris M&A Integration Leader

James Harris joined Google in September of 2011 and has worked on a wide range of deals including Motorola (acquisition and divestiture), Looker, Niantic spinout, Quickoffice, Titan Aerospace and Makani Power.

Prior to Google he worked in Corporate Development at Amazon where he managed Amazon’s second largest acquisition of Quidsi (Diapers.com). Prior to Amazon, James managed integration for F5 Networks for 8 years.

He has been teaching for the Institute since 2018

“This course was excellent. The professor was engaging and did a great job keeping people focused and participating. It's great to be part of a diverse Institute that includes senior, experienced M&A people from across different functions. I always come away from these sessions with new perspectives and food for thought."

Vice President, Associate General Counsel, M&A and Integration

Fortive

Assistant General Counsel

Olympus Corporation of the Americas

"This class was fantastic and should be attended by in-house counsel."

Senior Vice President of M&A & Strategy

Envoy Solutions

"I am extremely pleased that I signed up for the M&A Integration Master Class. I would highly recommend it to anyone involved with M&A integration. No matter if you're new to it or have been doing it for 20 years!"

Director

Protective Life

"As an Acquisition Integration Lead, the M&A Master Class was a great investment of my time. The instructor not only has 'book knowledge", they also have practical experience. The material covered, cases studies and discussion were very beneficial. I was able to walk away with some new thoughts about successful integrating, as well tools to use to get there. I HIGHLY recommend this class!”

Head, R&D Asset Transition & Integration Office

Takeda Pharmaceuticals

"M&A Integration is a very practical and useful course to dive deeper into the various aspects that are critical for successful integrations."

Corporate HR M&A, Global Project Manager

DuPont

"As an M&A HR professional working mostly on divestitures, I was able to tie key integration concepts and decisions to the deal thesis. The course's content was very insightful and made a lot of sense even if my experience with the integration of targets is very limited."

Principal Director, Corporate Development

Workday

"I recommend the M&A Integration Master Class to any M&A related professional looking to further strengthen their understanding of the process."

Business Development Manager - Growth Strategy, M&A

Caterpillar

"I would like to congratulate Transaction Advisor for putting together such a comprehensive and practical training session for M&A Integration... Very useful, easy to understand and apply in real life."

M&A Integration Lead

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

"I particularly liked the work on case studies and practical application of the concept of going back to the thesis statement when working on cases synergies and integration approach. Very knowledgeable professor, and students were all professionals working on M&A's in some capacity, so it was very fun to hear different perspectives from them."

M&A Integration Change Lead

Dentsu

"Highly recommend. great insights and opportunity to network with other professionals to hear about their best practices."