Douglas Barnard is the former Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, and Legal Advisor at CF Industries. With over 40 years of deal-making experience, he was previously a partner at Kirkland and Ellis and held three general counsel roles. At CF Industries, he played a key role in taking the company public and executing significant M&A transactions, including a $5B hostile takeover and a $1.4B divestiture. Douglas holds a BS in Physics from MIT and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Chicago Booth, and he is now interested in board opportunities.
Problems don’t usually surface at the early stages because it's the honeymoon phase. Both the buyer and the seller would like to see the deal happen, so they work together to build momentum. And often that means postponing dealing with some of the more difficult and contentious issues. However, these M&A challenges are inevitable and will arise as the deal progresses. In this episode of the M&A Science Podcast, Douglas Barnard, former Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Legal Advisor at CF Industries, discusses effective strategies to overcome M&A challenges.