M&A integration practitioner · Managing Partner, Integration Success GmbH · Mentor, Cambridge Judge Business School
He has sat on every side of the deal table: as a founder who built and sold a business, as a banker and equity analyst, as a Big Four consultant, and as the integrator who makes a deal work after the signatures. Since then he has led 47 integrations hands-on, across North America, Europe and Asia.
His conviction comes from all of them: integration is a leadership challenge before it is a financial one.
47integrations led hands-on
30+years of international M&A
$60B+cumulative transaction value
1,700+senior executives trained on three continents
Four capabilities that rarely sit in one person
Strategic and financial rigour
Certified European Financial Analyst and former equity researcher. He builds the synergy case, reads the valuation and runs the integration office on cadence and numbers.
People-first transformation
The O.E.P. framework and the three key events turn uncertainty into orientation, ownership and focus. Engagement and buy-in are deliverables, never a soft extra.
AI-supported execution
AI that takes the administrative weight off leaders: faster due diligence, communication at scale and data-driven clarity on the human risks inside an integration, including People Risk Analytics™.
Capability that stays
Every engagement leaves the client able to run the next integration on its own playbook: through the Masterclass, sparring on the live deal and teams who have done it once.
A career on every side of the deal
Pattern recognition comes from having seen a deal from many chairs. Selected stations:
since 2023Mentor, MSt EntrepreneurshipCambridge Judge Business School
since 2022Managing PartnerAtlantic M&A Partners
since 2020Managing Director, start-up investments in advanced manufacturing, life tech and agri techKST Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG
since 2011Managing PartnerIntegration Success GmbH · BlackboardM&A
2012–2013Adjunct ProfessorZurich University of Applied Sciences
2004–2007Senior Manager M&A and Post-Merger IntegrationKPMG
2002–2004Senior Equity Researcher, European hardware and telecom equipmentMainFirst Bank
1999–2002Associate Director, IPOs and semiconductor equipmentWestLB Panmure
1994–1999Manager Post-Merger Integration, New YorkPricewaterhouseCoopers
1990–1994Founder of the German distributor for custom hip implants, built and soldSymbios Orthopédie
1990Junior Investment Manager, MunichMatuschka Group
Landmark transactions
T-Mobile NL / Orange Netherlands · Goodyear / Sumitomo Rubber · Deutsche Post / Global Mail · Avaya Global Connect joint venture with Tata · Wacker / Air Products joint venture · Albany International / Geschmay, a Harvard Business School case
Wiley 2016: chapters on trends and leading practices in global M&A, on the post-merger integration process, methodologies and tools, and on joint ventures.
Orient, engage, prioritise: the three events that carry an integration.
M&A Integration Masterclass
Twenty lessons, filmed at Saïd Business School, Oxford.
1,700+ senior executives trained
In programmes on three continents, from M&A strategy to financial modelling and integration.
Mentor and former adjunct professor
Cambridge Judge Business School (MSt Entrepreneurship) and Zurich University of Applied Sciences.
How he works
Do no harm.
The base business keeps running while the companies come together. Speed without destruction.
People first.
Engagement and buy-in are the goal. People decide whether the synergies become real.
One company.
No turf protection, no “us and them”. Key roles go by merit, never by horse-trading.
Cadence equals control.
A fixed weekly rhythm, one tracking tool, decisions on schedule.
Customers first.
The new company stays the easiest company to do business with.
Come with solutions.
Candour paired with pragmatism, and quick wins that keep the marathon going.
Where every integration starts
In his first meeting at the Albany plant in Appleton, Wisconsin, the plant manager stuck the Mickey Mouse tie he was wearing into Thomas’s face: a confrontational protest against their presence. He had not been told everything the acquisition would mean for him and the business he was managing. Thomas answered: “Before we talk about anything else, I want you to know that I am here to listen. This room is yours.” The tie hangs on his office wall today.
CliftonStrengths, top five. In practice: he sees the integration endgame first, finds the leverage point, reads each person differently, connects the deal to a bigger story and builds relationships that outlast the mandate.
