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The corporate dealmaker 100

by Suzanne Miller | Published November 11, 2011 at 4:54 PM

Corporate dealmakers could be on the far side of the M&A moon. They exist in larger and larger numbers, and they exert considerable influence on corporate strategy and M&A, but to a world enamored of investment bankers, corporate lawyers and swashbuckling CEOs, they often do their work in the shadows. It certainly doesn't help that these in-house dealmakers often carry a wide range of disparate, and confusing, titles: corporate or business development officers, chief financial officers, general counsels, vice presidents of acquisitions and divestitures. And it doesn't help that their jobs vary so much depending on the company.

Larger corporations that regularly engage in dealmaking -- acquisitions, spinoffs, divestitures, joint ventures -- tend to build internal deal teams with permanent staffs that play a major role in vetting, executing and managing M&A deals, and, most importantly, in integrating the units after the close. Other corporations, which engage less regularly in M&A, tend to have smaller deal teams, often handing the job to a CFO or GC, or pulling together ad hoc teams when the occasion demands. Then there are those special cases, notably in companies dominated by powerful CEOs who control M&A, such as Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Buffett famously vets and negotiates many of Berkshire's deals personally -- though even there, someone (not Buffett) has to run the integration process.

For all of that complexity, corporate dealmaking over the last decade or so has emerged as a legitimate corporate discipline and career path, not to say something of a counterbalance to Wall Street. Despite the mix of titles and tasks, there has been a steady growth in the self-consciousness of corporate dealmaking as a necessary and professional managerial competency, as important as finance or strategic planning, both of which it's deeply intertwined with.

But who are these often powerful, if obscure gatekeepers? A number of years ago, we began to track corporate dealmakers who could be identified with specific M&A transactions. This wasn't always easy, but we have been slowly generating names, particularly at major dealmaking companies, such as IBM Corp., General Electric Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. Our annual Most Admired Corporate Dealmaker awards have focused on in-house dealmaking talent from companies the transactional community deemed best of breed. Now we believe we have enough critical mass to move to the next step: the first-ever Corporate Dealmaker 100, a listing of heads of corporate dealmaking at the top 100 companies by market capitalization (see page 30).

Now some caveats. We have 100 companies -- getting those names was easy, thanks to help from Capital IQ, which provided the market cap ranking -- but in some cases we're still missing individual corporate dealmaker names; you'll see the NAs. Why? Some of the companies simply lack anyone that resembles a true corporate dealmaker. In others, such a function exists and the company either wants to keep it under wraps -- some chief executives demand the glory, which is why in our list we give their names as well -- or spokespersons simply don't know who they are or what they do.

We also stripped out the banks from this list. Some of the banks use their own internal investment banking resources if they need to do a deal, then pull teams together to execute the integration, from wrestling with IT problems to transitioning new employees to new benefits packages.

This listing is thus a work in progress, despite a sizable investment in reporting resources. Over the next few years, we hope to build out this list and expand the available information on this group; we'd appreciate all the help we can get from readers. Meanwhile, we think this list will begin to raise the curtain on a vitally important and rapidly evolving constituency for dealmaking services, whatever title you slap on them and whichever side of the moon they hail from.

THE M&A GATEKEEPERS
Corporate dealmakers and their CEOs from the 100 largest American companies
Company	Industry	Corporate dealmaker	CEO	Market cap ($M)
Exxon Mobil Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Rob Franklin (VP)	Rex Tillerson (chair)	$382,696.9
Apple Inc.	Computers & peripherals	Adrian Perica (director)	Tim Cook	367,352.5
Microsoft Corp.	Software	Marc Brown (managing director)	Steve Ballmer	227,406.4
IBM Corp.	IT services	Kevin Reardon (global head)	Virginia Rometty (as of January 2012)	209,155.0
Chevron Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Jay Pryor (VP)	John S. Watson (chair)	207,088.4
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.	Food & staples retailing	Leigh Hopkins (VP, M&A)	Michael Duke (president)	195,152.9
Google Inc.	Internet software & services	David Drummond (sr VP, CLO)	Larry Page	188,331.6
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.	Insurance	NA	Warren E. Buffett	187,923.1
Procter & Gamble Co.	Household products	James Prevost (VP, acquisitions & divestitures)	Robert McDonald (president, chair)	180,019.4
General Electric Co.	Industrial conglomerate	Pamela Daley (sr VP)	Jeffrey R. Immelt (chair)	176,283.6
AT&T Inc.	Diversified telecom services	Peter Knag (director)	Randall Stephenson (chair, president)	171,794.7
Johnson & Johnson	Pharmaceuticals	Roy Davis (VP)	William Weldon (chair)	171,368.5
Oracle Corp.	Software	Douglas Kehring (sr VP)	Lawrence Ellison	159,258.0
Coca-Cola Co.	Beverages	Marie Quintero-Johnson (director, M&A)	Muhtar Kent	152,429.5
Pfizer Inc.	Pharmaceuticals	Kristin Peck (exec VP)	Ian Read (president)	146,133.8
Intel Corp.	Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment	Steven Burke (director, M&A)	Paul Otellini (president)	124,778.9
Philip Morris International Inc.	Tobacco	NA	Louis Camilleri	120,109.7
Amazon.com Inc.	Internet & catalog retail	Peter Krawiec (VP, director )	Jeffrey Bezos	106,058.9
Verizon Communications Inc.	Diversified telecom services	John Diercksen (exec VP)	Lowell C. McAdam (president)	105,014.6
Merck & Co.	Pharmaceuticals	Cuong Viet Do (CSO)	KennethFrazier (president)	101,122.8
PepsiCo Inc.	Beverages	Vivek Sankaran (sr VP)	Indra Nooyi (chair)	97,404.2
ConocoPhillips Co.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Larry Archibald (sr VP)	James Mulva	96,482.5
Cisco Systems Inc.	Communications equipment	Derek Idemoto (director)	John T. Chambers (chair)	93,427.7
McDonald's Corp.	Hotels, restaurants & leisure	NA	Jim Skinner (vice chair )	91,831.6
Qualcomm Inc.	Communications equipment	Jack Lazar (sr VP, general manager)	Paul Jacobs (chair)	87,220.8
Abbott Laboratories	Pharmaceuticals	William Chase (VP, licensing & acquisitions)	Miles White	84,133.0
Occidental Petroleum Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Ivan Gaydarov (sr manager, M&A)	Stephen Chazen (president)	68,752.3
United Parcel Service Inc.	Air freight & logistics	Steve Monaghan (director)	D. Scott Davis (chair)	67,885.2
United Technologies Corp.	Aerospace & defense	William Brown (sr VP)	Louis Chênevert (chair)	67,471.9
Comcast Corp.	Media	Justin Markle (director)	Brian L. Roberts (chair)	64,796.6
Visa Inc.	IT services	Carleigh Jaques	Joseph Saunders (chair)	63,084.9
Kraft Foods Inc.	Food products	Dexter Congbalay (sr director)	Irene Rosenfeld (chair)	61,919.7
Walt Disney Co.	Media	Kevin Mayer (exec VP)	Robert Iger	61,595.6
Altria Group Inc.	Tobacco	Neil Simmons (VP)	Michael E. Szymanczyk	56,441.5
Home Depot Inc.	Specialty retail	NA	Frank Blake (chair)	56,060.4
3M Co.	Industrial conglomerate	Mark Copman (VP, M&A)	George Buckley (chair, president)	55,826.3
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.	Pharmaceuticals	Jeremy Levin (sr VP, Strategic Transactions Group)	Lamberto Andreotti	55,310.2
Caterpillar Inc.	Machinery	NA	Doug Oberhelman	54,437.6
American Express Co.	Consumer finance	Gil Ahye (exec VP)	Kenneth Chenault (chair)	53,996.1
Amgen Inc.	Biotechnology	Jeremy Grunstein (director)	Kevin Sharer (president)	52,917.5
UnitedHealth Group Inc.	Healthcare providers & services	Ed Lagerstrom (director)	Stephen Hemsley (president)	50,114.7
Hewlett-Packard Co.	Computers & peripherals	Andy Johnson (VP)	Meg Whitman	49,529.5
EMC Corp.	Computers & peripherals	Scott Menzel (sr director)	Joseph Tucci (chair)	48,571.4
CVS Caremark Corp.	Food & staples retailing	Jeffrey Smith (VP)	Larry Merlo	46,813.9
Boeing Co.	Aerospace & defense	Joseph Lower (VP)	Jim McNerney (chair, president)	46,278.3
Union Pacific Corp.	Road & rail	Charles Eisele (sr VP)	James Young (chair, presiden )	46,153.9
Colgate-Palmolive Co.	Household products	LeeAnn Easterlin (director)	Ian Cook (chair)	44,572.8
Ford Motor Co.	Automobiles	Lewis Booth (exec VP, CFO)	Alan Mulally (president)	44,458.0
News Corp.	Media	John Nallen (exec VP, Deputy CFO)	Rupert Murdoch (chair)	44,262.2
American International Group Inc.	Insurance	Brian T. Schreiber (exec VP)	Robert Benmosche (president)	43,482.3
Nike Inc.	Textiles, apparel & luxury goods	NA	Mark Parker (president, director)	42,606.5
Eli Lilly and Co.	Pharmaceuticals	Brian E. Edelman (VP, investment banking)	John Lechleiter (chair, president)	42,559.4
eBay Inc.	Internet software & services	Lorraine McDonough (VP)	John Donahoe (president)	41,422.5
MasterCard Inc.	IT services	Peter Kopp (group exec)	Ajay Banga (president)	41,403.4
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.	Chemicals	Robert M. Reardon (director, M&A)	Ellen J. Kullman (chair)	41,088.2
VMware Inc.	Software	Brian Byun (VP, general manager, cloud appls & services)	Paul Maritz	40,177.4
Monsanto Co.	Chemicals	Cheryl Morley (sr VP)	Hugh Grant (chair, president)	39,396.6
Anadarko Petroleum Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Robert Abendschein (VP)	James Hackett (chair)	38,305.7
Honeywell International Inc.	Aerospace & defense	Anne Madden (VP, global head M&A)	David Cote	37,916.3
Enterprise Products Partners LP	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Stephanie Hildebrandt (sr VP, general counsel, secretary)	Michael A. Creel (president)	37,381.6
Costco WholesaleCorp.	Food & staples retailing	NA	James Sinegal (president)	36,591.3
Target Corp.	Multiline retail	NA	Gregg Steinhafel (chair, president)	36,265.0
Southern Co.	Electric utilities	NA	Thomas Fanning (president)	35,944.6
Medtronic Inc.	Healthcare equipment & supplies	Geoffrey Martha (sr VP)	Omar Ishrak	35,372.2
Time Warner Inc.	Media	Olaf Olafsson (exec VP)	Glenn Britt (chair)	35,326.2
Apache Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	John Christmann (VP)	G. Steven Farris (chair)	35,040.3
Emerson Electric Co.	Electrical equipment	Craig W. Ashmore (exec VP)	David Farr (chair)	34,714.0
Texas Instruments Inc.	Semiconductors & semiconductor equipment	Barbara Papas (VP, manager)	Rich Templeton (chair, president)	34,601.9
General Motors Co.	Automobiles	Steve Girsky (vice chair)	Daniel F. Akerson (chair)	34,459.4
DirecTV	Media	J. William Little (sr VP, treasurer)	Michael White	34,360.9
Simon Property Group Inc.	Real estate investment trusts	Brian Warnock (sr VP, acquisitions & financial analysis)	David Simon (chair)	34,274.2
MetLife Inc.	Insurance	Adam Hodes (sr VP, head of M&A)	Steven Kandarian (president, as of Jan. 1, 2012)	33,942.2
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.	Metals & mining	Bruce Goff (director)	Richard Adkerson	32,980.9
Gilead Sciences Inc.	Biotechnology	Chris Griffith (sr manager)	John Martin	31,840.4
Halliburton Co.	Energy equipment & services	Tim Probert (president, strategy)	David Lesar (chair, president)	31,643.5
Dow Chemical Co.	Chemicals	NA	Andrew N. Liveris	31,219.6
Danaher Corp.	Industrial conglomerate	Daniel Raskas (sr VP)	Lawrence Culp (president)	31,084.7
Praxair Inc.	Chemicals	Richard Steinseifer (VP, M&A)	Stephen Angel (chair, president)	30,684.1
Starbucks Corp.	Hotels, restaurants & leisure	Ethan Rudin (director)	Howard Schultz (chair, president)	30,676.9
Baxter International Inc.	Healthcare equipment & supplies	Robert Weiland (VP)	Bob Parkinson Jr. (chair)	30,518.1
Las Vegas Sands Corp.	Hotels, restaurants & leisure	NA	Sheldon G. Adelson (chair)	30,482.7
Newmont Mining Corp.	Metals & mining	David Faley (VP)	Richard O'Brien (president)	30,461.1
Walgreen Co.	Food & staples retailing	Mark Vainisi (divisional VP, M&A)	Greg Wasson (president)	30,413.0
Celgene Corp.	Biotechnology	George Golumbeski (sr VP)	Bob Hugin	30,337.7
Dominion Resources Inc.	Multi-utilities	NA	Thomas Farrell II (chair, president)	29,052.4
Deere & Co.	Machinery	Wes Robinson (director)	Samuel Allen (chair)	28,664.2
Exelon Corp.	Electric utilities	Shravan Chopra (VP)	John Rowe (chair)	28,310.2
Kimberly-Clark Corp.	Household products	NA	Thomas Falk (chair)	28,120.7
Dell Inc.	Computers & peripherals	Chris Kleiman (VP)	Michael Dell (founder, chair)	27,601.7
National Oilwell Varco Inc.	Energy equipment & services	Thomas McGee (VP)	Pete Miller (chair, president)	27,564.9
BlackRock Inc.	Capital markets	NA	Laurence Fink (chair)	27,215.5
Lowe's Cos.	Specialty retail	Jerry Hwang (manager)	Robert Niblock (chair, president)	27,115.2
Duke Energy Corp.	Electric utilities	Richard Bates (VP, president M&A)	James Rogers (chair)	26,959.7
Allergan Inc.	Pharmaceuticals	David Lawrence (sr VP)	David Pyott	26,433.0
Devon Energy Corp.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	Jeff Ritenour (sr VP, treasurer)	John Richels (president)	26,246.2
General Mills Inc.	Food products	Doug Power (VP, M&A)	Kendall J.Powell (chair)	25,366.1
Prudential Financial Inc.	Insurance	Joan Cleveland (sr VP, individual life insurance)	John Strangfeld (chair)	25,260.2
Kinder Morgan Inc.	Oil, gas & consumable fuels	David Kinder (VP, treasurer & investor relations)	Richard Kinder (chair)	25,235.9
Lockheed Martin Corp.	Aerospace & defense	Jeffrey MacLauchlan (VP, M&A)	Robert Stevens (chair)	25,223.2
Automatic Data Processing Inc.	IT services	David Garfinkel (staff VP)	Gary Butler (president)	25,109.3
NA = Not Available Source: S&P Capital IQ for market cap data

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