5 Themes for Executing an Integration
Submitted by Tony Da Camara, Head of the Technology & Operations M&A Office for BMO Financial Group and candidate in the Certified M&A Specialist Program

In December 2010, my company bought an organization that was essentially the same size as our own – our largest acquisition to date. I was given the opportunity to run the full technology workstream, which was my first large integration and at least thirty times more complex than any other integration I had worked on. For the next two years, this integration became my life. I learned many things, experienced many surprises, made many mistakes and developed a tough skin.