The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 M&A Consultants and Leaders of 2025. From early-stage diligence to post-close integration, this year’s awardees are navigating an increasingly high-stakes landscape—one where operational precision, cultural alignment, and regulatory fluency are just as vital as financial modeling. These professionals represent the sharp edge of this transformation. They do more than help clients close deals, they’re helping them realize their full value across complex, global, and fast-moving environments.
These consultants and leaders head multidisciplinary teams, advise top private equity firms, guide strategy in sectors from healthcare to TMT, and shape the next generation of M&A thinking. Whether it’s executing a cross-border carve-out, deploying AI to anticipate integration risk, or coaching leadership through a high-stakes merger, this year’s honorees bring the kind of judgment, adaptability, and depth that M&A demands now more than ever.
Among this year’s awardees, we have Jake Henry, Senior Partner and Global Co-Leader of McKinsey & Company’s M&A Practice, who brings more than two decades of experience advising life sciences and medical technology companies on corporate and growth strategy, and guiding private equity clients through healthcare-related transactions. Laura Miles, Chief Client Officer and Global Head of Industries at Bain & Company, has led some of the world’s largest transactions and played a key role in shaping the firm’s M&A practice, while also serving on Bain’s board and mentoring future leaders. Paul Edwards, Global Practice Leader at Stax, has overseen more than 1,000 engagements for private equity sponsors and guided investment decisions across five continents, blending data-driven analysis with sector expertise in software and industrials.
Recognized for both their career achievement and transformative deal work, these honorees reflect the evolving face of M&A leadership. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 M&A Consultants and Leaders of 2025.
1. Jake Henry
Firm: McKinsey & Company
Title: Senior Partner
Jake Henry is a Senior Partner and Global Co-Leader of McKinsey's M&A Practice, which includes mergers, acquisitions, integrations, joint ventures, and divestitures. Previously, he was the co-leader of the firm’s Life Sciences practice globally, where for more than 20 years he guided pharmaceutical and medical technology company executives on matters of corporate strategy, growth strategy, and operational excellence.
Henry is also one of the firm’s longest-standing advisors to the medical products industry and has helped leading providers of medical devices navigate the value chain. He also advises private-equity companies seeking healthcare-related mergers and acquisitions.
An expert on changes in U.S. healthcare, Henry speaks frequently at conferences and on professional panels across North America. Most recently, he gave the keynote speech at a meeting of the American Diagnostics Association.
Henry serves on the Board of the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago and recently chaired the Youth of the Year competition. He also serves on the Board of Visitors of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering from Duke University.
2. Philip Isom
Firm: KPMG
Title: Global Head of M&A
Phil Isom leads KPMG’s Global M&A practice as well as Corporate Finance in the U.S. He is also a member of the Global Corporate Finance executive committee. Isom leads over 2,600 professionals operating in 156 member firm countries, providing wide-ranging M&A advisory services, including mergers, acquisitions, and divestments, strategic and financial advice, distressed M&A process or restructuring, leveraged buyouts, and structured financing.
Isom has 20 years of experience in investment banking, investing, and restructuring, including establishing the capital advisory practice at another Big Four firm and co-founding boutique capital management firms. During his tenure, Isom has led the transformation and growth of the firm’s Corporate Finance practice by building industry-focused teams and acquiring a middle-market investment bank.
The practice has since added capital advisory, real estate, an international desk, a private wealth desk, and fairness opinions to its product suite. Additionally, Isom has overseen the acquisition of BBK, a boutique restructuring practice that has further developed KPMG’s global industrial sector advisory capabilities.
Isom earned an MBA in finance from Loyola University Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Dayton.
3. Alberto Fumo
Firm: Kearney
Title: Global Lead, Private Equity and Mergers and Acquisitions
Alberto Fumo is a Senior Partner at Kearney and leads the firm’s Global Private Equity and Principal Investors practice. With more than 20 years of experience, he supports corporations and private equity firms across the full deal lifecycle, from commercial diligence to post-acquisition value creation.
Fumo specializes in evaluating acquisitions and divestitures through strategic and operational perspectives, working closely with management teams to unlock synergies and deliver measurable value on both the P&L and balance sheet.
Prior to Kearney, Fumo was a partner at L.E.K. Consulting and a senior manager at Bain & Company. He began his career as a product manager at L'Oréal. He holds an MBA from London Business School and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and international strategy from Università Bocconi.
4. Jeff Black
Firm: Mercer
Title: Partner, Global M&A Business Leader
Jeff Black is a Partner and leads Mercer’s Global and U.S. & Canada Mergers & Acquisition Advisory Services business. With a focus on human capital’s role in driving revenue synergies and realizing deal value, Black leads an M&A team that supports clients across the full spectrum of Mercer’s people advisory capabilities.
Through his more than 25 years of experience as a trusted advisor and his involvement in over 300 transactions, Black provides both strategic and financial advice to buyers and sellers on a wide range of global people risks. His areas of expertise include commercial due diligence, organization design and transformation, leadership development, change management, culture risk mitigation, benefits pooling and financing, and salesforce effectiveness. He provides end-to-end guidance throughout all phases of the deal lifecycle, from sourcing and diligence to pre-close and post-merger integration.
Previously, Black worked as an associate at Hewitt Associates and at Willis Towers Watson. He began his career as a benefit analyst at W. F. Morneau & Associates. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
5. Bernd Oehring
Firm: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner
As a Partner with management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, Bernd Oehring serves as Co-Lead of Corporate M&A across industries in Europe and beyond. In the last twelve months, his transaction support focused on portfolio strategy, carve-outs, post-merger integrations, and value creation in industrials, consumer, healthcare, technology, energy, and financial services. In addition, Oehring is a member of the firm’s Private Equity & Principal Investors practice (which he co-established in 2014) and Turnaround & Restructuring practice.
Beyond his current role, Oehring’s professional experience of more than 20 years and with an overall transaction volume of circa €170 billion, also includes investment banking at J.P. Morgan, private equity investing as a Partner at an operational investor, and integration and value creation management in some of that operational investor’s portfolio companies.
In his early career, Oehring completed numerous internships, especially in professional services firms such as Morgan Stanley, A.T. Kearney, and J.P. Morgan, while earning degrees and publishing research at renowned business schools including HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, ESADE Barcelona, and WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management.
6. Brian Pinto
Firm: Deloitte
Title: Partner, International Tax & Global M&A Tax Practice Leader
Brian Pinto is the Global Leader for M&A Tax and Legal at Deloitte, where he sets strategic direction for the global practice and serves on the Global Business Tax Executive and Global Service Line Council. In these roles, Pinto advises Deloitte’s executive leadership on governance, operations, and the evolving global tax landscape.
7. Seth Van Winkle
Firm: Accenture
Title: Managing Director
Seth Van Winkle is a Managing Director at Accenture, where he leads the North America Mergers & Acquisitions Strategy practice and is a key member of both the North America Strategy Leadership Team and the Global M&A Leadership Team. In this role, Van Winkle oversees a team of more than 80 professionals, delivering strategy and implementation services to global clients across a wide range of industries.
8. Greg Stinson
Firm: KPMG UK
Title: Partner
Greg Stinson is the lead for KPMG in the UK’s Accounting Advisory Services (AAS) practice, and co-lead of KPMG’s Global AAS. He supports his clients with deals across the world and has advised on M&A requirements in a number of jurisdictions. Working buy and sell-side, Stinson specializes in the technology, media and telecom, and life sciences sectors.
With over 20 years of experience, his advice is often sought throughout the deal lifecycle. He has led and provided critical advice across many projects. His expertise supports clients in the areas of deal structuring, deal model review, identification of deal value impacting accounting, financial health analysis, separation and carve out, financial track record preparation, ESG reporting maturity, and post deal completion, such as the Purchase Price Allocation and GAAP conversion.
Stinson is the host of a successful webinar series on topical finance and reporting issues and also features regularly on KPMG’s Building Confidence podcast series. He provides deep insight on a range of topics including financial and non-financial reporting, governance, and what is happening in the marketplace.
He is a Chartered Accountant with the ICAEW, graduated with a first-class degree in accounting and financial analysis from Newcastle University, and spent four years earlier in his career working in Australia. In 2024, he completed a year-long KPMG executive leadership program.
9. Mukul Agrawal
Firm: PwC
Title: Managing Director
Mukul Agrawal is a Managing Director in M&A Advisory at PwC, where he helps clients navigate complex transactions and deliver strategic value through mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. He joined PwC in 2019 as a director in the M&A Advisory practice.
10. Dhruv Sarda
Firm: Alvarez & Marsal
Title: Managing Director
Dhruv Sarda is a Managing Director within Alvarez and Marsal’s Corporate Transformation Services in London. He leads the Deals & Transformation practice, with a focus on helping create value from M&A transactions and delivering sustainable EBITDA improvement from transformations. With more than 24 years of experience, Sarda works with financial investors, corporate boards, and management teams. He also co-chairs the firm’s Inclusive Diversity Office in Europe and is a Trustee of Our Moon Education.
Prior to joining A&M, Sarda was a managing director at Accenture Strategy, where he led the M&A practice in the UK and Ireland. Previously, he worked in M&A advisory at a European investment bank and started his career in privatization advisory in Africa. Sarda earned a bachelor's degree in management from King's College London and an MBA from Cambridge University.
11. Alex Ackermann
Firm: Marsh
Title: Managing Director
Alex Ackermann is the North American Practice Leader of Marsh’s Private Equity and M&A Services Group, where he leads a dynamic group of professionals supporting financial sponsors, strategic investors, and M&A Advisors (venture capital, private equity, infrastructure funds) across North America and globally. His expertise spans performing insurance and risk management due diligence, designing and implementing property and casualty and employee benefits insurance strategies for portfolio companies, and developing insurance solutions for M&A, private equity, and infrastructure transactions.
12. Melanie Finn
Firm: FTI Consulting
Title: Senior Managing Director
Melanie Finn is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting. Finn is an expert with nearly 20 years of experience in transaction and merger integration, specializing in end-to-end deal and diligence management across sectors such as financial services, manufacturing, business services, telecom, media, and technology.
13. Laura Miles
Firm: Bain & Company
Title: Senior Partner, Chief Client Officer, and Global Head of Industries
Laura Miles is the Chief Client Officer and Global Head of Industries at Bain & Company, where she helps oversee the firm’s nine industry practices and works closely with client leaders to align strategy and execution. A longtime leader in the firm’s Consumer Products practice, she has also led Bain’s global Mergers & Acquisitions practice and advised on some of the largest transactions in the world.
14. David Haufler
Firm: Protiviti
Title: Managing Director
David Haufler leads Protiviti’s Transaction Services Practice as Managing Director, overseeing the firm’s M&A thought leadership, methodology, tools, core alliances, strategic partnerships, and global market strategy. With over 30 years of experience in the M&A space across multiple industries and geographies, Haufler specializes in business integrations, corporate development, and strategic business process improvement.
15. Jared Langus
Firm: ECG Management Consultants
Title: Partner, M&A Practice Leader
Jared Langus is based in Los Angeles and currently serves as a Partner and Practice Leader of the Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships Group at ECG Management Consultants. In this role, Mr. Langus advises executive leadership teams and boards of directors of healthcare organizations across the country. He has built a reputation as a thought leader in the industry and speaks frequently on strategy and M&A related topics.
With a career in finance spanning over 25 years, his advice and experience are often sought after throughout all phases of the deal lifecycle. Providing critical advice across many projects, his particular area of focus has been working with not-for-profit health systems to address the issue of scale, market relevancy, and planning for an organization’s desired future state. Mr. Langus has been recognized for his creative deal structuring and early recognition of potentially contentious deal points. He is known for his ability to deploy risk mitigation strategies and tactics, his focus on diligence, and his insistence that all strategy be supported through the integration of strategic and financial planning.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Langus spent five years at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, California. It was there, working as an executive at a mission-driven organization, that Mr. Langus gained the perspective that has shaped the next chapter of his career. Working side-by-side with front-line clinical staff and living through the integration phases of M&A transactions is a unique aspect of Mr. Langus’s experience.
Mr. Langus graduated from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business with an MBA in finance and from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
16. Andy Morgan
Firm: Grant Thornton
Title: Partner, Head of International M&A, Head of TMT Deals Advisory
Andy Morgan leads the UK Technology, Media, and Telecoms (TMT) M&A team at Grant Thornton. Morgan provides strategic advice to clients, helping them achieve their goals through acquisitions, business sales, IPOs, or raising debt and equity capital. He has successfully closed over £3 billion in transactions over the past decade.
17. Christina Coronios
Firm: Teneo
Title: Managing Director
Christina Coronios is a Managing Director at Teneo, based in New York. Coronios brings deep experience in investor relations, financial communications, and special situations, having advised clients across a range of industries on mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism, management transitions, and executive positioning initiatives.
18. Kurt Estes
Firm: Sikich
Title: Principal
Kurt Estes is the Principal responsible for leading M&A activities for Sikich and supporting the execution of acquisitions throughout the year. He is also a senior member of the firm's investment banking practice, where he provides leadership to the teams that facilitate client M&A activity.
Kurt has over 25 years of transaction experience that includes advising on sales and acquisitions and investing in or creating innovative technology businesses. Prior to joining Sikich, he held senior-level positions in corporate strategy, venture capital, technology licensing, and corporate innovation. He has conducted and managed dozens of transactions covering all stages of a company's life, from helping to acquire seed investments to facilitating liquidity events. Kurt has also negotiated a wide variety of deals, including asset buyouts, recapitalizations, spin-outs, strategic partnerships, licensing agreements, and various debt structures.
Kurt has a scientific background and holds two engineering degrees, has published work in international scientific journals, and holds over 25 patents. He is registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as a Series 24 General Securities Principal, a Series 7 General Securities Representative, a Series 79 Investment Banking Representative, and a Series 63 Uniform Securities Agent.
He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, as well as a master’s and bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.
19. Paul Edwards
Firm: Stax
Title: Global Practice Leader
Paul Edwards is the Global Practice Leader at Stax, where he leads firm strategy and execution, delivering high-impact engagements to private equity clients around the world.
Over the past two decades, Paul has become a trusted advisor to many of the world’s top dealmakers. He has built Stax’s private equity practice into a global powerhouse, now supporting more than 300 transactions annually and guiding successful investments across five continents.
Throughout his career, Paul has led over 1,000 engagements for private equity sponsors, spanning buy- and sell-side diligence and growth strategy, and advising on over $100 billion of deal value. Known for blending sharp, data-driven analysis with real-world insight, he brings deep sector expertise in software and industrials.
A respected leader and mentor, Paul continues to shape the future of global M&A through strategic clarity and a deep understanding of evolving market dynamics. He is also deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of consulting leaders, helping them grow into trusted advisors to drive meaningful impact at scale.
20. Mary Ann Travers
Firm: Crowe
Title: Office Managing Principal
Mary Ann Travers is a Principal in Crowe’s consulting services group, where she leads the firm’s valuation services practice. She also serves as the Office Managing Principal for the Chicago and Oak Brook offices. With over 25 years of experience, Travers specializes in valuing businesses, intangible assets, liabilities, and complex securities.
21. Jeffrey McNamara
Firm: Kroll
Title: Managing Director, Deputy City Leader
Jeff McNamara is a Managing Director in the M&A Advisory practice at Kroll and Deputy City Leader of the firm’s Chicago office. McNamara specializes in executing mergers and acquisitions, private placements, and other corporate finance mandates as part of Kroll’s Diversified Industrials M&A practice.
22. Jasper Knol Bruins
Firm: EY-Parthenon
Title: Partner, Transaction Strategy & Execution, EY Strategy & Transaction
Jasper Knol Bruins is a Transaction Strategy and Execution Partner at EY-Parthenon, based in Amsterdam. With multiple decades of experience, Bruins advises boards of directors, project teams, and steering groups on the preparation and execution of mergers, acquisitions, carve-outs, joint ventures, and integrations, particularly within the consumer products, chemicals, transport, and logistics sectors.
23. Claudine Cohen
Firm: CohnReznick
Title: Managing Partner
Claudine Cohen is a Managing Partner at CohnReznick, where she leads a multidisciplinary team delivering services across the deal lifecycle—including transaction advisory, valuation, restructuring, dispute resolution, merger integration, carve-outs, and sustainability advisory. South Africa, and an MBA in finance and marketing from Bond University in Australia.
24. Jennifer Walker
Firm: Wipro
Title: VP & Global Head of M&A Integration
Jennifer Walker is the Vice President and Global Head of M&A Integration at Wipro, where she leads complex integration and separation initiatives across both emerging tech ventures and large global enterprises. With over two decades of experience in M&A execution, she brings a cross-functional perspective shaped by prior roles in sales, marketing, business operations, and legal.
25. Raj Shastri
Telenor
Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions
Raj Shastri is Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions at Telenor, where he leads deal activity in the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector. He brings a deep background in private equity, having led investments in both buyout and growth-stage companies across industries including TMT, B2B SaaS, education, consumer, healthcare, and financial services.