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Summary
As dealmakers look beyond domestic markets for growth, cross-border M&A remains a compelling pathway to scale, expand market access, and diversify risk. However, the regulatory reality is increasingly complex. Buyers are navigating tariffs, geopolitical volatility, shifting foreign direct investment policies, and heightened scrutiny that can reshape deal economics and execution timelines.
Join M&A practitioners and our analysts as they examine:
- How corporate and financial buyers are recalibrating cross-border strategies across the US, Europe, and APAC
- How dealmakers are diversifying risk, revenue streams, and market exposure
- The regulatory realities shaping deal strategy, including tariffs, geopolitical fragmentation, FDI scrutiny, and policy volatility
- Considerations for evaluating country risk, economic impact, legal risk, and diligence requirements
- Pipeline opportunities, megadeal activity, and transaction themes
Moderator
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Ely Fal
Associate Director of Market Development, Data & Research Solutions
Ely Fal is a market development associate in the desktop business development team based in London where his key focus areas are corporates and professional services in Europe. Throughout his time at S&P Global, Ely has worked with emerging start-ups and mature companies in private and public markets with scopes spanning Corporate Development, M&A, Strategy, Credit Risk, ESG and Business Development.
Speakers
Compass Lexicon
Dr. Mary Coleman
Senior Managing Director and Head of US Antitrust Practice
Dr. Mary Coleman is a Senior Managing Director and Head of the US Antitrust Practice at Compass Lexecon and is based in Boston. Dr. Coleman’s consulting practice specializes in the competitive analysis of mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, and antitrust litigation, including liability and class action certification issues.
Dr. Coleman has made presentations before US and foreign antitrust authorities and testified in federal court. She has experience with a wide range of industries, including consumer products, retailing, distribution, food packaging, petroleum and natural gas, chemicals, coatings, industrial gases, concrete and cement, defense industries, telecommunication, publishing, newspapers, agricultural products, paper products, payment systems, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, physicians, medical devices, health care, online platforms, computer hardware and software.
She has been recognized as a Thought Leader in competition by Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) since 2016. She has published numerous articles on topics such as antitrust analysis in high technology industries, the use of Merger Guidelines in various international jurisdictions, natural experiments, and the use of econometrics and other empirical methods in antitrust analysis. Dr. Coleman is part of the ABA Antitrust section leadership, currently as Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee and previously as Chair of the Women.Connected and Economics Committees.
From November 2001 until March 2004, Dr. Coleman was the Deputy Director for Antitrust in the Bureau of Economics of the Federal Trade Commission. In this role, she was involved in all antitrust investigations at the FTC and in several non-enforcement projects. Dr. Coleman also managed the economic input into all antitrust cases and advised the Bureau of Competition staff lawyers and management, as well as the Commission. While at the FTC, Dr. Coleman supervised cases that involved a broad spectrum of industries and antitrust issues, including mergers, horizontal restraints, monopolization, and vertical issues. Dr. Coleman was instrumental in the efforts of the Bureau of Economics to increase the empirical content of antitrust investigations at the FTC and the cooperation between economic and legal staffs. She also worked extensively in the cooperative efforts between the FTC, the EU, and other foreign jurisdictions.
From May 2004 to August 2009, Dr. Coleman was a Managing Director at LECG, LLC. Dr. Coleman also worked at LECG from 1993 to 2001 and was a Principal from 1999 to 2001. From 1990 to 1993, Dr. Coleman served as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission, including as lead economist on the Commission’s investigation of Microsoft. Dr. Coleman received her Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Nick Lazzaro
Economics & Financial Markets Reporter
Nick examines trends in capital markets, economics, monetary policy, and financial data. Previously, Nick extensively reported on the steel, aluminum, lithium, and battery industries for S&P Global. His reporting delved into the main drivers of these industries, exploring the connections among federal policy, international trade, ESG, private investment, market pricing, and supply/demand balances.
Slaughter and May
Kerry O’Connell
Partner
Kerry studied at the University of Manchester. She has spent time in both our London and Brussels offices and is currently based in Brussels. She is a member of the Brussels Bar (A list), as well as being qualified as a solicitor (England and Wales).
Kerry has experience of both EU and UK competition law and has acted on a number of merger, antitrust, state aid and regulatory matters.
Highlights include advising:
- Vodafone on its acquisition of parts of Liberty Global.
- Elanco on its acquisition of Bayer’s Animal Health Business and on the related sale of Elanco’s Osurnia product business to Dechra Pharmaceuticals.
- S&P Global on its proposed merger with IHS Markit.
- Allergan on its acquisition by Abbvie and Alexion on its acquisition by AstraZeneca, two of the largest recent mergers in the pharmaceutical sector.
- Royal Dutch Shell in relation to its acquisition of BG Group.
- Platts on the European Commission’s investigation into the manipulation of published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products
- GSK on the formation of Galvani Bioelectronics with Verily Life Sciences
- INEOS on its joint venture with Solvay and its joint venture with PetroChina
Kerry has been recognised by W@Competition in their list of “30 in their 30s” notable women competition practitioners and as a Thought Leader in Lexology Index: Competition 2025.
Questions?
Please contact us if you need more information or have trouble accessing the webinar.