Field Delivery
Two M&A integrations. One as the acquirer building governance from nothing. One as the acquired managing contractual deliverables while the organization changed ownership beneath me. The supply chain breaks the same way each time. So does the fix.
ART-001 Acquirer Side
Halliburton acquired WellBore Technologies to extend its product and market offering. Post-acquisition, the product line was renamed CleanWell. Integration had to happen while production continued — no formal workshop phase, no governance structure on the acquired side, and significant engineering complexity from dangerous products requiring new destructive test protocols. There was no playbook. Alignment was built through execution, stakeholder by stakeholder, win by win.
Led the full post-acquisition integration program as IMO Lead on the acquirer side across five workstreams simultaneously.
Supply Chain — Designed sourcing strategies across order management, inventory, and global supply. Managed commodity transitions: rare earth metals, elastomers, and remanufacturing programming. Negotiated and executed vendor contract transitions across the supplier base.
IT / ERP — SAP BOM structures and work centers stood up from scratch. Master data objects migrated. Trade routing and compliance configured. Technical document control and migration executed — engineering documentation from tribal knowledge to live SAP record.
Manufacturing — Automation equipment and tooling negotiated, acquired, and commissioned. Team onboarding, equipment certification, and process design across the integrated operating model.
Governance — PMO-led structure introduced during execution, not before it. Steering function formalized after early operational wins demonstrated credibility. Documentation and change control processes layered in incrementally. By the end: a structured, repeatable governance model where none had existed.
The governance structure didn't precede the work — it emerged from it. That's what integration in a chaotic operational environment actually looks like. You earn the governance by delivering the wins first.
ART-002 Acquired Side
Chatleff Controls was a privately-owned manufacturer acquired by Danfoss to extend its product offerings. As an early Chatleff employee, I managed contractual integration deliverables from the acquired side — operating under the acquiring organization's framework, accountable for outcomes I had limited authority to force. The challenge isn't just executing integration from this position. It's doing it while the organization you've built from the inside is legally changing ownership above you.
Managed integration phase deliverables as Operations SME under the contractual terms governing the acquisition.
Supply Chain & Operations — Order management, inventory, and demand management continuity across the ownership transition. Operational systems kept functional while Danfoss overlaid its processes.
IT / ERP & Master Data — Management reporting built to Danfoss requirements. Transactional master data migrated: Material Master, Storage Master, Container Master, and inventory consumption rules aligned to the acquiring system architecture.
MSA Negotiation — Tracked service labor hours against contractual MSA obligations. Identified conflicts between MSA terms and operational realities. Negotiated resolution opportunities that fit both organizations' actual business conditions — not just the original contract language.
Divestment Analysis — Analyzed fleet, equipment, and debt positions. Recommended and executed disposition strategy to reduce exposure and align the balance sheet to the post-acquisition structure.
Compliance — Advanced internal control readiness to SOX audit standard. Built reporting structures for operational visibility and audit traceability. Defined segregation of duties and approval workflows for key financial processes.
Most M&A case studies are written from the acquirer's seat. Operating from the acquired side — managing deliverables under contractual obligation while another organization's governance lands on top of yours — requires a different competency. You have to know what the acquirer actually needs and what your organization can realistically deliver, and hold both without the org chart working in your favor. That's the harder side. I've worked both.
Two acquisitions. Two sides of the transaction. One consistent pattern: the systems that break during integration break the same way every time — master data, governance authority, contractual ambiguity, stakeholder trust built too late. I've seen the failure modes from both directions. That's not a theoretical understanding.