Agenda Day 1, Wednesday, October 7th, 2026: (see Agenda Day 2) (back to Merger Integration Event Summary)
09.00 - Opening Remarks from the Chair
Jana Mercereau, Head of M&A for Europe, WTW
09.10 - Managing Integration Planning Through Long Regulatory Reviews
As regulatory timelines for M&A extend, maintaining momentum between announcement and close is increasingly difficult.
In this session we will cover:
· How to manage the multiple workflows of diligence, integration planning, and questions from regulators
· Navigating the ambiguity of regulatory review timelines
· How to maintain momentum on planning with both the acquiring and incoming companies
James Harris, Principal Integration Manager, Google
09.50 – Accelerating Agentic AI in M&A and Integration: The First Steps in Organisational Readiness and Adoption
The biggest barrier to autonomous agentic AI in M&A is the organisation, not the technology. As deal and integration teams experiment with AI agents, many are discovering that speed, scale, and safety depend less on the agents themselves and more on governance, trust, data access, accountability, and the ability to redesign how work gets done. In this session, Oaklin and The Access Group will draw on experience and recent research to explore what it takes to implement autonomous agentic AI, and how organisations can move from experimental 'islands of AI' to trusted, comprehensive adoption that will improve decision-making, reduce risk, and lower costs across M&A and integration.
Mark Walker, Partner, Oaklin
Mike Driscoll, Director, M&A Integration, Access
10.30 - Roche's Journey to Build a Centralized M&A Integration Capability
· The Evolution of Integration: Transitioning from Roche’s historical "standalone" acquisition model and decentralized integration management toward a more unified strategic framework
· Driving Synergy and Value: Shifting toward active integration management to ensure acquired assets are fully leveraged and seamlessly embedded into the Roche ecosystem
· The Centralized IMO: Establishing a dedicated Integration Management Office (IMO) to standardize governance, streamline planning, and accelerate execution across the portfolio
Sven Mengering, Director M&A Integration, Roche
11.10 – Morning Coffee and Networking
11.40 - How our Company went from No PMI Team to a Central PMI Function
RHI Magnesita’s accelerated M&A activity since 2023 required a structured approach to post-merger integration (PMI), prompting the establishment of a central PMI function. Built from the ground up, this team ensures consistent integration standards across regions while remaining closely connected to local operations. Strong senior leadership commitment has been critical in driving alignment and prioritization. The function emphasizes clear processes, rigorous tracking, and transparency to manage complexity effectively. At the same time, success relies on active collaboration with diverse stakeholders worldwide. By combining central governance with a hands-on, “on-the-ground” approach, RHI Magnesita enables efficient and sustainable integration outcomes.
Matthias Wiltschek, Head of Post-Merger Integration, RHI Magnesita
12.20 – Closing the Reality Gap: How AI-Powered Alignment Replaces the Integration War Room
· Why most integration delays aren't process failures — they're alignment failures between acquirer and target teams operating on different versions of reality
· How AI agents can continuously surface misalignment across workstreams before it becomes a crisis — replacing the weekly status meeting with real-time shared context
· From war rooms to living playbooks: what changes when your integration office has an AI layer that reads across every workstream simultaneously
· Practical lessons from building alignment technology for cross-functional teams — and what it reveals about why 60-70% of M&A integrations still destroy value
Kristian Luoma, Cofounder, In Parallel
13.00 – Lunch Break
14.00 – Tailoring Integration and Target Models of very Diverse Deals: the Role of a Centralised IMO in a Divisionalised Corporation
One in four Amadeus employees arrived through M&A. A five-person central IMO has been building an operating model and technology that leverages a core network of internal functional experts. Together, they tailor each integration the very diverse deals, which contribute to this growth. Nico De Pauw will share how this model allows for flexibility and what the learnings are.
Nico De Pauw, Associate Dir. M&A Integration, Amadeus
14.40 – Sponsor Session (Capgemini Invent)
15.20 - Learning How to Deliver Integration & Business Results Faster
· Implications of faster due diligence for integration
· Importance of smarter basics
· Supporting a faster change journey for leaders & employees
· Benefits & risks
Caroline Bilbrough, Director of Post-Acquisition, IBM Consulting Ventures, Ecosystems & Acquisitions, IBM
16.00 – Afternoon Coffee and Networking
16.30 – Increasing the Speed of the M&A Integration Lifecycle
· Accelerating key business decisions between agreement of the T/S and Announce
o aligning internal stakeholders while going through DD
· Navigating a fast moving (complex and uncertain) business environment during the integration
Massimo Malizia, Director Corporate Development Integration, Cisco Systems
17.10 – The Impact of AI on Managing your Deal Team and Creating Value
· How AI-Powered Operating Models Improve M&A Integration Execution
· Human factor of managing the PMI function and process
· Managing people across your function, the M&A deal team and the business, despite increase of use of AI
Mark Jacob, Manager, M&A, KARL STORZ
17.40 – The Role of HR in Corporate Development: The Impact of Diversification at Aramco
Adam Tarpey, Sr. Organization & Mgmt Advisor, Aramco
Raad Sharief, HR Policy Specialist, Aramco
18.10 - Closing Remarks from the Chair and End of Day 1
19.10 - 3-Course Dinner