About Me

Paul J. Siegenthaler > About Me

A Swiss national whose family background extends to the UK and Greece, I have lived in five European countries and in the USA, acquiring an acute cross-cultural awareness and a truly international perspective.

Following a Master’s degree in Economics from H.E.C. Lausanne and an MBA at London Business School, I spent the first 17 years of my career as Managing Director reshaping companies acquired by an international group, before focusing solely on the business integration of broad-scale international mergers and acquisitions, in a number of different industries, over two decades.

Author of “Perfect M&As – The Art of Business Integration”, I have lectured to Executive MBA classes as well as Management Development programmes at HEC Paris, London School of Economics, Manchester Business School, and since 2016 at University of Oxford (Saïd Business School).

Extensive experience and successful value creation across a number of industries

M&A Planning and Post-Merger Integration

Pharma

Planning, preparation and implementation lead for the integration of an international American-based pharmaceutical business acquired by a French pharmaceutical group covering five continents. Transformation of the resulting group’s operating model with the transfer of back-office activities to three shared service centres based in the USA, Central Europe and South East Asia respectively, and deployment of a common SAP platform to all of the in-country subsidiaries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Alcoholic Beverages

Design, planning, preparation and implementation lead for the merger integration of two global premium consumer goods company’s in-market subsidiaries across 12 European countries, creating the category’s worldwide leader.

Packaging

Design, planning, preparation and leadership of the integration team in charge of integrating a Paris-based international manufacturing company active primarily in southern Europe, acquired by a British global packaging group. Scope included planning and preparation during the regulatory approval phase and first ten months after the close of the deal. The resulting company had teams based in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and a joint venture in Sweden, with manufacturing plants in the UK, France, Spain and Germany.

Food Manufacturing

Integration of five businesses into two divisions, to streamline, simplify and improve the company’s effectiveness in preparation for a merger involving a major UK food manufacturer.

Food Service

Process and business re-alignment, and organisational redesign, across seven regional businesses previously acquired by a French food service company to achieve national coverage.

Beverage Industry

Process and business re-alignment to integrate 9 businesses to operate as one across North America, impacting staff located across 41 locations in the United States and Canada. This large-scale integration and transformation programme required a team of up to 172 individuals, covering a period of 33 months during which the businesses were integrated in three successive phases.

Business Transformation & Culture Change

Beverages

Integration of a family-owned beverage business into a global FTSE-100 global company.

Vending Retail

Process and business re-alignment across six national companies in France, UK, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland belonging to vending retail group following its acquisition by a private equity fund.

Packaging

Refocusing of business priorities and management practice following the acquisition of a French manufacturing company by a private equity funded UK business.

Alcoholic Beverages

Business transformation involving quantum change in working practices and performance culture in a family-owned German producer of consumer goods acquired by a global FMCG group.

Restructuring / Turnaround / Divestment

Production Outsourcing

Outsourcing of manufacturing and supply chain following the take-over of a family-owned business by a global consumer goods group.

Divestment and Carve-Out

Divestment of non-core business, process re-design and organisation re-structure to reverse the performance decline of a German manufacturing business following its acquisition by a UK-based group.

Manufacturing Relocation

Strategic re-orientation, organisation re-structure, outsourcing of manufacturing and divestment of non-core activities whilst integrating an Austrian company into a global consumer goods group.