Phoenix, Arizona, United States
If you are a CEO, entrepreneur or business owner pursuing mergers or acquisitions as part of your growth strategy, let’s talk. There’s a reason CEO's call me an "M&A Whisperer". The title comes from my work advising leaders and organizations on the "unexpected people challenges" of Mergers & Acquisitions. The challenges that can doom a deal but which rarely get covered in M&A preparedness training. I've been on all sides of the deal equation and show leaders what it takes to lead people through change and uncertainty. My leadership lessons came as an international C-Suite executive leading teams through three separate multibillion-dollar deals. I learned firsthand that M&A growth strategies suffer when leaders haven’t been prepared to guide their teams through the emotional roller-coaster that can occur post-deal. No wonder people struggle to pivot and adapt as quickly as management expects. These insights and lessons were captured in my best-selling M&A business book, "NOW WHAT? A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions" which serves as a playbook for executives and handbook for frontline leaders balancing their day job with post-deal integration work. My M&A consultancy, Day1 Ready was founded on the premise that M is for Mindset and A is for Agile. Through one-day workshops and keynotes, I’ve prepared hundreds of CEOs, executives and middle managers to recognize that success in M&A is not solely achieved by following static playbooks; success comes from having an adaptive mindset and an agile approach. Speaking on human capital strategies that drive M&A success, I’ve guest lectured at the University of Chicago/Booth School of Business, Northwestern, and Thunderbird School of Global Management. I write a business leadership column for Forbes and contribute to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Inc. Honored as Entrepreneur of the Year by Northshore Women in Business in 2019, I was recently ranked the #1 M&A Leadership Consultant by Leadership Research Institute and nominated to Thinkers50 2024 Radar list of future management thinkers to watch. Expertise: transition strategist; integration planning and execution; culture assimilation; change management; change communications; M&A on-boarding/off-boarding; brand identity and strategy; B2B marketing and communications Pursuing an M&A deal? Reach out to see how I might support you: [email protected]
Whether working with entrepreneurs, small/mid-market businesses or Fortune 500 companies, I have seen countless growth strategies fall short because a workforce could not adapt to the changes as quickly as leadership anticipated. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why people strategies broke down, but by then it’s too late to intervene. When your workforce is not delivering it can be tough to stop the downward spiral. I guide companies and their employees through unfamiliar waters so that companies never reach that point. As Founder of Day 1 Ready Consultancy, I serve as the transition advisor to senior leadership, ensuring the people component of a company’s plan, such as leadership alignment, culture assimilation, employee engagement, productivity and retention are an early focus of the deal to ensure success. From senior executives to frontline leaders/ middle managers, I coach them through the transition to be a successful contributor to the company’s future and to keep the business growth strategies on track. If you want to get your workforce bought in and onboard, retain your top talent, and maintain productivity post-deal, PLEASE reach out: ✉ jennifer@jenniferjfondrevaycom ☏ 312-608-9939 ► www.jenniferjfondrevay.com
From a leadership change to a company restructure to digital transformation, business transitions have key challenges in common -- they bring waves of change and uncertainty upon the workforce. Mergers and acquisitions tend to have the greatest challenges due to the drive to integrate people, processes and systems as quickly as possible to achieve the valuation. In her keynotes and workshops, Jennifer shows how understanding the people piece to M&A integration and change management can be a companies competitive advantage post-deal. Sample topics Jennifer speaks on, including sample clients (see website for full list) - Creating Success, Moving Forward - Avoid "Us vs Them" Thinking Post-Deal - Bring Certainty to M&A Uncertainty - The 5 Superpowers Women Bring to M&A Dealmaking - Leverage Your M&A Experience to Gain a Board Seat - Embrace Uncertainty to Create Opportunity (based on her TEDx talk) **Keynote (Sample Clients): UniCredit (Italy); Alcon; Precision Machined Products Association; Fairstone Financial (Canada); BlueSky Advisors Entrepreneurs & Business Owners Conference; Syniti; NPD/IRI Virtual: Oxiteno (Brazil); Conscious Capitalism/CEO B'fast; Modern Distribution Management; Trusted Health; Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC); Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AMAA) **Workshops (Sample Clients): Acumen; Gold Eagle; Silk Road; Biomedica (Mexico); Intren; Women Presidents Organization (three-part series); K1 Operations (PE ) Finance Summit; Onboarding2025/ M&A Summit; Northwestern/MSLOC (two-part series); Corporate Boards USA **Panels on Human Capital Strategies: Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Intergrowth DealMax Conference; Capital Connection events for: ACG So Cal; ACG Florida; ACG Chicago; ACG Toronto; Insperity/HR Open Mic; Private Director’s Assoc (Effective PE Boards); HR M&A Roundtable M&A Community/Acquisition and Integration Of Digital Assets; Chicago Finance Exchange; American Marketing Association
In my best-selling business book, "Now What? A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving Through Mergers and Acquisitions", I created a playbook for business owners, executives and leaders alike to prepare for, navigate and lead their people through the challenges that can emerge during mergers and acquisitions. NOW WHAT? helps the individual in the middle of it all, from C-suite executives to team leaders and players, to embrace the uncertainty of M&A and capitalize on the opportunities that change can bring. To schedule a speaking event, workshop, webinar or podcast, please email: [email protected].
Jennifer J. Fondrevay leads the Human Capital advisory services within Virtas Partners’ M&A Services. Services include capabilities around corporate culture, change management, onboarding, offboarding, and communication. Virtas Partners is a boutique transaction services and restructuring firm helping clients successfully navigate key transitions, including acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, IPOs, accounting investigations and restatements, restructurings, and capital placements. Virtas Partners is expanding its Merger and Acquisition Services practice with new capabilities to help clients better address the people and culture issues so critical to unlocking the full potential of a transaction.
Jennifer has had the privilege of contributing her M&A expertise to Harvard Business Review, joining an illustrious list of top management thinkers like Clayton Christensen, Ron Ashkenas and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who have written extensively on M&A leadership.
I write about the challenges leaders face within themselves, their teams and organizations when pursuing and navigating mergers and acquisitions.
100 Coaches was established by world-renowned business educator and coach Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall has always had a passion for sharing his wealth of knowledge and expertise, not only with the leaders he advises, but also with fellow coaches and colleagues. In the spirit of this pursuit, Marshall sought to establish a formal community where the world’s premier leadership thinkers could come together to learn from his practiced and proven methods, and share ideas and inspiration with one another. 100 Coaches Agency is a talent agency specializing in connecting companies and leaders with the experts that best fit their needs. The curation team works hand-in-hand with leaders throughout the entire process to understand their goals and ensure that every recommendation is custom-tailored to help executives achieve their objectives. With an extensive portfolio of offerings ranging from coaching to workshops and speaking engagements, all across a wide-array of categories and topics, 100 Coaches Agency puts the solutions executives seek at their fingertips.