This topic contains 10 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
1 month, 3 weeks ago.
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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.).
I think one individual should be identified to lead the due diligence process. This person should ideally be from the Finance department. This individual should work closely with the Legal, Tax, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, and the Information Technology departments to ensure that all aspects of the due diligence are covered.
The deals i have been part of we had one dedicated department – corporate development. The SVP Corp Dev (seasoned experience M&A person) was the go2guy and supported by finance, legal and HR.
As leading an M&A deal is very specialised, I would opt for an experienced professional in the area of M&A (Legal or Finance) to take the lead and work closely with the leagl, HR and finance teams.
A combination of professionals from both teams
Large corporations probably have a dedicated corporate development department that might roll-up within finance. Ideally, at least one experienced person can lead and coordinate all of the cross-functional efforts for efficiency. This individual should have a broad skill set to understand M&A essentials and a collaborative approach to depend on the subject matter experts for each relevant function.
Usually in large corporations, there is a M&A department that runs project management, DD, decision making, post integration, etc.
Aside from a dedicated M&A department, I think a broad skill set and experience is important. I don’t think a pure finance / legal expert is necessarily the best choice. Certainly, it depends on the industry sector, but I would rather go for an allrounder than a specialist. Besides, leadership and managerial skills are critical in my mind as well for this type of role
In the absence of a specific in house M&A or corporate strategy team, someone (probably from business development or finance) needs to appointed as a team lead of the DD to ensure ownership and accountability. This person can then be assisted by staff from different departments eg legal, tax, HR etc.
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