M&A Career Tips from Eli Kemmerer, Partner at RSM
M&A is an exciting area. Small and big global companies try their best to add value to their businesses with M&A, and we read almost every day about billion-dollar deals. In my M&A Playbook, we discuss the M&A process and best practices, but how do you start a career in M&A? And how do you advance from more focused M&A jobs to the overall responsibility for M&A transactions? Is there only one way or many different approaches? I spoke with Eli Kemmerer, Partner Transaction Advisory Services at RSM, who has a long, successful career in M&A, about those topics and what tips he can give.
How Do I Start a Career in M&A?
That's an important question for any job and especially difficult for M&A because they are many different ways. Do I have to get a job at an accounting firm in the audit department? Should I approach venture or private equity firms? Or is it in a company's M&A function? "A path to M&A can be a winding road or a straight shot to the fast-paced world of M&A," confirms Eli.
The direct but also most competitive path is to start after university at a top bank, work a few years as an analyst in the M&A department, and decide afterward whether to get an MBA, stay in investment banking, or move to private equity. All three will help in your M&A career. At the bank, you will mainly focus on sell-side M&A transactions, but you will have been through many transactions for various companies, which is an excellent starting point.
But there are also other pathways. "I started my career as an auditor with a Big Four accounting firm, ultimately getting my CPA license and moving up to Senior Manager," says Eli. After ten years in audit and a short stint as a controller, he returned to an accounting firm in Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) and focused on due diligence. "Think valuation. My role in Financial Due Diligence (FDD) was to focus on adjusted EBITDA, which is crucial for analyzing the enterprise value of the target company. Understanding valuation is essential in an M&A process," adds Eli. It helped him to dig into the details of accounting, valuation, and financial modeling, which he considers vital skills in M&A. At his firm, RSM, he looks at hiring people in TAS after a few years of audit experience because technical accounting knowledge is vital in M&A.
There is also another emerging trend following a very active M&A year in 2021. Venture and private equity, as well as family offices, have become more important in the M&A world, which resulted in a competitive situation for M&A talent between those groups with investment banks and accounting firms. "Just five years ago, these types of opportunities were not something we typically saw for people with accounting backgrounds," says Eli.
As mentioned in the beginning, we mainly read about the big M&A deals, but another exciting area are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and M&A transactions below $100m. "A significant deal volume exists at the lower ends of the market and could be a great place to start. Try a regional investment bank or accounting firm," says Eli. "You can also play the long game, starting at a large inquisitive corporate that does frequent deals and working your way up either through the Corporate Development team or FP&A/accounting team."
Thank you, Eli, for the insight!
Stay tuned for our next article, where Eli gives helpful tips for advancing your career in M&A after some years and how to change from a specialized M&A focus to deal responsibility.
