MARK L. SIROWER

Mark Sirower is a Corporate Development Advisor with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the global leader of BCG's M&A practice. Prior to joining BCG in 1999, he taught Mergers and Acquisitions at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and consulted extensively on strategy and valuations issues in M&A transactions.

Dr. Sirower actively advises BCG teams and clients in M&A strategy and post-merger integration engagements. He has been most active in helping industrial goods and pharmaceutical companies rethink and grow their businesses profitably through M&A. He focuses on transforming clients from merely reacting to growth opportunities to having the capability to proactively find the best opportunities and grow shareholder value.

His research and articles on best practice in acquisition performance have been featured in major business periodicals including Forbes, Business Week, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, Global Finance, Financial Times, Nikkei, Directors & Boards, CFO, and Barron's.

Dr. Sirower speaks worldwide on creating value through mergers and acquisitions and is a recognized thought leader on M&A issues. He has been a featured speaker on important business programs such as the Fortune 500 Forum for CEOs and CFOs, Forbes CFO Forum and the Conference Board Programs. He has made numerous appearances on national television and radio including CBS News, CNNfn, CNBC, Bloomberg Television, The Wall Street Journal Business Report, BBC World, ABC (Australia) and NPR's All Things Considered program and is regularly quoted in the business press.

Already in its tenth printing and translated into six languages, his book The Synergy Trap presents a detailed standard for what constitutes informed M&A decisions and has received endorsements from many high-profile executives, academics, corporations and professional associations.

Dr. Sirower holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management (Finance specialization) from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and an M.B.A. in Finance and Statistics from Indiana University. He was a professor at Columbia University and also held positions with KPMG Peat Marwick, Burroughs Corporation, and Price Waterhouse. Before that, he was president of a private asset-management firm specializing in quantitative management techniques. He currently retains a Visiting Professor appointment at New York University's Stern School of Business where he teaches M&A in the Executive MBA Program. 

Creating Valuable Growth Through M&A:

After two decades of intense M&A activity representing over $10 trillion dollars of investments, important lessons have been learned about creating shareholder value through M&A. Although for many companies M&A success remains elusive, the most successful companies use M&A as an invaluable component of their corporate growth agendas. One thing is clear: a successful corporate development process must allow a company to avoid poor opportunities and, at the same time, find the best opportunities and transform those into value. The proper use of M&A thinking can supercharge a strategic planning process and bring value-creating opportunities to the forefront.