James Allison, Executive Vice President Corporate Strategy, M&A, and Treasury, Unilever

James has 33 years in Unilever in a large number of finance roles across a number of geographies.Since 2008 he has worked in Unilever’s corporate centre in a variety of roles including Head of Investor Relations, Group Treasurer, Head of Corporate Strategy and Head of the Category Finance Organisation.

James has been head of M&A since 2010 during which time Unilever has either bought or sold close to 100 companies, spending close to €20bn and receiving €13bn in disposal proceeds. He is also responsible for Unilever’s Corporate Venturing operations which have been running since 2001.

Melissa Graebner, Associate Professor, Texas McCombs

Melissa Graebner is an Associate Professor of Management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds both MBA and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. Her research interests include corporate governance, entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions and strategic decision making.

She received her PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, with a focus on strategy and organizations. Her research interests include entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, interorganizational trust, corporate governance, and family business. She has a particular interest in process research and qualitative research methods.

Professor Philippe Haspeslagh, Professor and Honorary Dean, Vlerick Business School; Chairman at Ardo

Professor Haspeslagh is Professor and Honorary Dean at Vlerick Business School. Before joining the school he was the Paul Desmarais Chaired Professor of Active Ownership at INSEAD and Founding Director of its International Directors Forum as well as its Strategic Issues in Mergers and Acquisitions programmes. He was Visiting Professor at Stanford Business School and at Harvard Business School.

Professor Koen Heimeriks, Professor of Strategy, Warwick Business School

Koen Heimeriks is Professor of Strategy at Warwick Business School. Previously, he was faculty at Copenhagen Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, and Tilburg University and he has also been visiting at Aalto, Carnegie Mellon University, and INSEAD. He earned his Ph.D. at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Koen's research focuses on how companies develop corporate development (i.e., alliance, acquisition, and divestiture) capabilities to realize corporate growth in high-tech settings.

Professor Tomi Laamanen, Professor of Strategic Management, University of St Gallen, Editor-in-Chief Long Range Planning

Having occupied various academic and managerial positions at Aalto University in Finland, Tomi Laamanen, who has doctorates in the fields of finance and strategy, was appointed Professor for Strategic Management at the University of St.Gallen in 2011.

His research focuses on the factors involved in the success of acquisition programs, strategy processes, the handling of strategic issues and sequences, management cognition, and strategy implementation. The findings from these research projects have been published in leading international journals, for which he also serves as a reviewer.

James McLetchie, Partner, UK Head of Merger Management Practice, McKinsey & Company

James McLetchie is Partner at McKinsey & Company, based in London where is a leader in the Merger Management practice. His areas of expertise include merger integration, specifically around designing and delivering value and James focuses primarily on the healthcare field, with a particular eye toward projects dealing with technology, synergies, and strategy.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. McLetchie was a Director at PriceWaterhouse Coopers for 8 years. He holds an MBA in Finance and Management Information Systems from Purdue University, and he is certified as a Chartered Accountant by the Association for Certified Chartered Accountants in the UK.

Professor Will Mitchell, Anthony S. Fell Chair in New Technologies and Commercialization, Professor of Strategic Management, Co-Director, Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences

Will Mitchell serves as a Professor of Strategic Management and Co-Academic Director, Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences Program at Rotman, where he holds the Anthony S. Fell Chair in New Technologies and Commercialization and Co-Director, Global Executive MBA for Healthcare and the Life Sciences.

Will studies business dynamics in developed and emerging markets, investigating how businesses change as their competitive environments change and, in turn, how business changes contribute to ongoing corporate and social performance.

Watch Will's video on Emerging Markets.

Professor Thorsten Feix, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Feix is Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg since 2012. His responsibilities and research interests are focused on M&A, Corporate Finance and Corporate Strategy. Additionally, he is program director and manager of the international Master-Program „International Business & Finance“. Besides, he teaches M&A at Harvard University (US), Innovation Strategies at Geneva University (Switzerland) and Corporate Finance at Bucharest University (Rumania).

Before he rejoined the world of science and consulting he worked more than 15 years as inhouse-consultant for Daimler AG, and as Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy for Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH and later Knorr-Bremse AG. Within this timeframe he realized globally more than 70 transactions with his teams. Additionally, he is board member of the Bundesverband M&A since 2007.

In early summer 2019 his new M&A-book „An end-to-end, digital M&A Process Design – The Challenges and Upsides of Digitalization and Business Model Innovation“ will be on the market. Early 2019 also his M&A and strategy advisory boutique tfX-advisory was inaugurated, which initiates in 2019 an international M&A-Best Practice circle with leading international Blue Chip companies.

Professor Maurizio Zollo, Imperial College Business School and visiting Professor at MIT Sloan and Bocconi University

Maurizio Zollo is Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability at Imperial College Business School, and visiting Professor at MIT Sloan and Bocconi University.

His research focuses on the study of organizational learning in strategic processes such as M&A, alliances and sustainability transitions. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Organization & Environment and a former President of the European Academy of Management. The author of over 50 scholarly publications, cited 15,000+ times by his peers, he is currently working to set a new research center at Imperial College on the transition toward inclusive and sustainable enterprise logics

A past president of the European Academy of Management (EURAM), he was also former editor of the European Management Review.

Ari J. Salonen, CEO and Board Member, Midaxo

Ari Salonen is Midaxo’s CEO. The company’s cloud platform enables enterprises to execute M&A and corporate development systematically, collaboratively, and efficiently. Prior to Midaxo, Ari ran the North American business at Basware, a listed purchase-to-pay software firm. Ari also played senior roles at CellExchange, Cambridge Technology Enterprises, eCredit.com, and F-Secure – all software startups that exited successfully. For over 5 years, Ari focused on M&A and corporate development engagements at McKinsey’s Boston and Helsinki offices. Ari has an MS from Aalto and a PhD for which he studied at Aalto and MIT Sloan.