Business Background

I formed Great Lakes M&A Consulting in 2023 after a successful tenure at a large middle market company in leading their in-house M&A efforts. I developed and led the company’s M&A strategies, refinement of “best-fit” targets, target identification and communications, relationship building, value proposition messaging, financial underwriting, quality of earnings analysis, synergy modeling, value range determination, deal negotiation, due diligence, legal and closing, and acquisition integration.

After retooling and redefining the company’s acquisition strategies and completing several successful acquisitions, my mandate had been completed. At that time, I scoured the regional M&A landscape and found the following:

• Many large to mid-sized middle market businesses have their own “in-house” M&A teams and expertise.
• Large to mid-sized middle market business that do not invest in “in-house” M&A personnel have access to experienced investment banks to aid in their M&A strategies and deal-making.
• Investment banks are paid when making deals – they seek transactions and tend to focus on making deals rather than focus on the quality of the deal and the “fit” between Buyer and Seller wants and needs.

Smaller middle market companies who want to be in the M&A marketplace and consider making acquisitions face a continued challenge of finding the right expertise as:

• They are not at the size where having an internal M&A focused employee is feasible.
• Investment banks that have good experience and expertise focus on larger deals and thus focus on larger companies as clients.
• Smaller M&A and brokerage shops rarely have the experience and expertise needed by companies that are new to the M&A space and are exploring how best to develop an acquisition strategy and framework that fits their unique situation.