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: Google's 3 largest acquistions Wiz, Mandaint and Motorola (acquisition and divestiture)

Mona Qaddoum is the Head of HR M&A at Grundfos, leading the people side of global acquisitions from due diligence through cultural integration. She translates strategy into real employee experience by working closely with leaders and newly acquired teams, drawing on deep insight into how people navigate uncertainty, culture shifts, and new leadership. This gives her a balanced understanding of both the business logic behind a deal and the human journey that determines whether it succeeds.

Today, Mona focuses on what she calls the human side of M&A—leadership alignment, psychological safety, clarity, and belonging, all of which determine whether strategy becomes reality. She brings deep experience assessing leadership teams, spotting cultural risks early, and creating conditions that help people move from anxiety to clarity and ultimately feel part of a “new us” rather than outsiders.

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

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.. 

Simon Kjær is leading the post-merger integration of a Novo Nordisk’s acquisition of three Catalent sites. Simon is responsible for the integration strategy and execution across all functional disciplines. Simon has been part of the deal since due diligence and played a pivotal role in ensuring business continuity after deal-closure. Simon utilizes experience from procurement, finance, R&D and operations within the pharmaceutical industry.

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.

Hollie Jones is an accomplished professional with extensive experience in governance and operational management, currently serving as the Head of Process and Governance Communication Services at Ricoh Europe since January 2020. In this role, Hollie leads the development and implementation of strategies, policies, and processes to enhance organizational effectiveness and align office services across EMEA. Prior to this position, Hollie held significant roles at Vodafone, including Senior Service and Operations Governance Manager and IT Change Manager, where responsibilities included managing teams and improving IT change governance frameworks. Earlier career experiences encompass service operations management at TechPulse Group and various roles in property management and lettings, beginning as a Property Manager at Jones Robinson Estate Agents. Hollie holds a 2:1 degree in Creative Advertising with Event Management from the University of West London.

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.

Caroline leads Consulting acquisition integration support globally for IBM Consulting, with 14 years M&A integration experience in IBM. She leads a team supporting the IBM Consulting business on M&A specific integration expertise with skills in change management and enablement through to marketing, alliances, sales and delivery.  Caroline also shares her experience with clients.  She has 40 years broad experience across M&A, business development, alliances and account management and supply chain management, with the 30 years in management consultancy for IBM Consulting, PwC and Coopers & Lybrand.

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.

Kinda is Director of Corporate Development Integration at Vinted and Vinted Ventures, where she leads both post-merger integration (PMI) and venture investment initiatives at Vinted's venture arm investing in recommerce innovation. She works closely with executive leadership to drive strategic investments, lead cross-functional initiatives, and deliver scalable growth and impact through effective integration and strategic partnerships.

At Vinted, Kinda has built the integration function and worked on multiple transactions and integrtaions, including Rebelle, Homerr, Trendsales, Bloom Consulting and United Wardrobe, contributing to inorganic growth and strengthening capabilities. Previously, she led commercial and business development roles at Synthesis Consulting Group, UNO Parks and MTN Telecom. She holds Master’s degrees from Tilburg University and Vilnius University, and has completed executive education at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and INSEAD. Kinda will be discussing what makes digital-first integrations different, how to evolve PMI into a repeatable engine, and ways to create integration buy-in across the deal lifecycle, sharing best practices alongside key challenges and lessons learned.

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.

Gerard is Corporate Development and Integration Manager at Vinted, where he collaborates with stakeholders across the business to drive successful post-merger integration initiatives. Previously, he served as Head of Transformation at TIER Mobility, leading integration efforts for five transactions across three countries, and as an Associate at Gallup, partnering with Fortune Global 500 companies on large-scale transformation programs. Gerard has managed multi-million euro transactions and post-merger integration projects across Europe, consistently delivering operational efficiencies and realizing synergies. He holds an MSc in Management from EADA Business School and has completed executive education programs at London Business School.  

Raad has over five years of dedicated experience in HR Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). As a key member of the Saudi Aramco HR M&A Center of Excellence, Raad plays an integral role in managing and executing HR strategies for over 40 transactions annually. His expertise lies in leading HR workstream activities across M&A transactions, ensuring seamless employee transitions during carve-outs, conducting comprehensive total rewards analyses, and designing impactful communication plans. Raad’s strategic approach and deep understanding of HR dynamics in M&A environments contribute significantly to the success and smooth integration of organizational transformations.

Adam has been supporting organizations with operating model and organization design change for nearly 15 years, initially as an external management consultant with Deloitte and Gate One in the U.K., and more recently as part of Saudi Aramco’s internal HR M&A Centre of Excellence. His experience spans everything from complex large-scale operating model change to detailed team-level organization, role, governance and process design. In his current role, Adam focuses on identifying operating model risks and opportunities during HR due diligence, organization design during post-transaction set-up, and aligning affiliate ways of working with Aramco’s

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