Speaker Bios:  (back to Event Summary)

James Harris is Principal Integration Manager at Google. He joined Google in September 2011, and has worked on a wide range of deals including Motorola (acquisition and divestiture), Niantic spinout, Quickoffice, Titan Aerospace, and Makani Power. Prior to Google, he worked in corporate development at Amazon where he managed the acquisition of Quidsi (Diapers.com). Prior to Amazon, Mr. Harris managed integration for F5 Networks for eight years. Additionally, he has held roles in program management, business development, and engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Washington.

Mona Qaddoum is the Head of HR M&A at Grundfos, where she leads the people side of global acquisitions—from early due diligence to full cultural integration and long‑term organizational alignment. Known for bridging strategy with human reality, she works closely with leaders and newly acquired organizations to ensure that integration succeeds not just on paper, but in the lived experience of employees. 

Before joining Grundfos, Mona worked at Volaris, supporting HR and M&A activities across the Nordic region. There, she specialized in HR due diligence, workforce planning, and guiding newly acquired companies through the earliest and most sensitive phases of integration—developing a deep understanding of how people respond to uncertainty, culture shifts, and new leadership landscapes. This background strengthened her ability to see both the business logic behind a deal and the emotional journey employees must navigate afterward.

In her work today, Mona focuses on what she calls the human side of M&A: the leadership alignment, psychological safety, clarity, and eventual sense of belonging that determine whether strategic intentions ever become operational reality. She brings extensive experience assessing leadership teams, identifying cultural risks early, and creating the conditions where people can move from anxiety to clarity—and ultimately feel part of a “new us,” rather than guests in someone else’s company.

At the 18th Merger Integration Management Forum, Mona will share practical insights from real integrations, illustrating why so many deals fail for human reasons, how silence and misaligned leaders can derail even the strongest strategy, and why belonging—not systems or timelines—is the true indicator of integration success.

Her perspective is simple:
Strategy explains the deal, but people deliver it.
And when organizations design integrations around the human journey—not just governance and workstreams—they protect value, culture, and their most critical talent.

Bjoern Leschny is the Global Head for Mergers and Acquisitions Integration at Novo Nordisk. In this role, he plays a pivotal part in supporting the company’s ambitious expansion journey, driven by strategic external acquisitions and comprehensive internal scaling efforts that require seamless global integration. Novo Nordisk has emerged as a rising star among Europe’s leading corporations and became in 2023 the most valuable company in Europe, rapidly advancing along one of the most remarkable growth trajectories in the pharmaceutical industry.  

Prior to this, Bjoern served as Deputy Head of Region APAC and LATAM and Lead for Post Merger Integration activities at Bayer AG Headquarters, drawing from 23 years of practical and academic experience across business, IT, audit, risk-management, and organizational psychology. Bjoern played a pivotal role in the post-merger integration of Monsanto into Bayer, a process he led over five years, reflecting his expertise in M&A Integrations and Transformations on a global scale.  With professional engagements in over 60 countries and extended assignments in the US, China, and Spain, Bjoern's career highlights include high-profile transformation projects, as well as integrations and divestments such as Aventis Crop Science, Schering Pharma, Merck, Covestro, and Lanxess.. 

Jana leads WTW’s HR M&A Consulting Practice across Europe, bringing over two decades of experience helping organisations navigate the people complexities of cross-border transactions. As a senior leader in WTW’s Health, Wealth & Career business, she partners with clients throughout every stage of the deal lifecycle including HR readiness, Due Diligence and Integration to ensure that the HR strategy is aligned with deal objectives.

Peter Wallace is a strategic planning and implementation specialist with extensive experience in M&A integration, separation, and transformation across multi-billion-pound projects. Peter has held key roles at notable organizations such as KPMG, Liberty Global, and GlaxoSmithKline, where they led teams to drive value creation and efficiency in complex multinational deal programmes. Currently serving as a Senior Manager for Merger Integration Programmes at Ricoh Europe, Peter continues to leverage their expertise in business integration and strategic transformation initiatives. Peter is a Chartered Accountant, having attained their qualification from ICAS, and holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of York.

Staci has been in M&A and Post-Merger Integration and Disentanglement for over 15-years, currently Staci is establishing a global PMI framework and team at ZEISS AG. Previously she established a PMI framework at NOVOMATIC AG and was Global Head of M&A Integration & Disentanglement at Philips, executing on multiple deals and business transformation activities. In addition, Staci is a seasoned IT executive holding senior roles including Chief Information Officer, Business Transformation and Product Development in the publishing industry at Elsevier and WPG. Her multi-industry experience has given Staci a broad and unique view of PMI, its application and ensuring a clear focus on value creation and execution excellence.

Gordon Thompson is currently VP of Corporate Development and Partnerships at E.ON ONE. Gordon comes from a private equity back ground focused on Venture Capital and early stage technology companies. He joined innogy Innovation in 2017, where he worked as a Portfolio Manager before joining E.ON after E.On acquired innogy. He was part of the deal excitation teams which acquired gridX and envelio last year, which both are key strategic assets for enabling the energy transition. In his current role at E.ON ONE, he helps structures both Strategic Partnerships and M&A transactions with forward-thinking companies and technology developers. His team’s mission is to secure access to technologies and capabilities needed for E.ON ONE to lead the energy industry toward a greener, more connected, and sustainable future; while continuing to provide their customers and partners with reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy solutions. Gordon has spent most of his career in the Berlin technology space, but as also made Private Equity investments into technology companies in North America, the UK and Eastern Europe. Gordon will be discussing, Tactics for securing key technologies needed for the energy transition, via the structuring of well-balanced Strategic Partnerships, that work economically for all parties involved.

Nico De Pauw has 24 years of professional experience in both an industrial / B2B environment and strategy consulting, working for large corporates across industries (including software services, telecommunications, life sciences, banking, chemicals, industrial manufacturing, insurance, BPO).

Sven is an M&A Integration Director at Roche, where he leads the end-to-end integration process for acquisitions within the Pharmaceuticals division. Having spent much of his career navigating the unique complexities of the life sciences sector, Sven previously played a key role in building the M&A integration function at Novo Nordisk, overseeing the seamless transition of biotech and manufacturing site acquisitions. He began his career in consulting with Deloitte and PwC, where he developed a foundational focus on post-merger integration within the pharmaceutical industry.

Louis Pachebat serves on Sanofi's M&A team, bringing extensive pharmaceutical industry experience across Finance, Internal Audit, and Legal functions at country, regional, and corporate levels. As M&A is central to Sanofi's Pay To Win strategy—transforming the company into an Immunology leader through divesting mature assets and acquiring innovative companies—Louis has developed expertise in integrating bolt-on acquisitions.

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