Ideally, there would be a small M&A department (sometime a department of 1), but absent an M&A department, I believe the right person should be identified first (regardless of their department). In other words, take a person with the right skills approach versus a departmental approach. But if that approach doesn’t really work well then I would think Finance/Accounting is best suited to lead the DD process, but should involve an integrated team approach (e.g., with expertise from Legal, IT, HR, Sales, etc.).
