Jeff Black is a partner and leads Mercer’s Global and US & Canada Mergers & Acquisition Advisory Services business. Under Jeff’s leadership, Mercer was named a Pacesetter by ALM for innovation and excellence in M&A advisory support. With a focus on human capital’s crucial role in driving revenue synergies and realizing deal value, Jeff leads an award-winning M&A team to support clients across the full spectrum of Mercer’s people advisory capabilities.
Through his 25+ years of experience as a trusted advisor and his work on over 300 transactions, Jeff provides both strategic and financial advice to buyers and sellers on a wide variety of global people risks, including commercial due diligence, organization design and transformation, leadership development, change management, culture risk mitigation, benefits pooling and financing, and salesforce effectiveness. Whether he’s advising on start-ups, IPOs, acquisitions, mergers, partnerships or divestitures, Jeff provides guidance and support to clients across all deal phases — from sourcing and diligence to pre-close and post-merger integrations.
Recognized by the Consulting Report as a top M&A consultant and leader, Jeff frequently speaks on M&A people risks, regularly partnering with leading organizations such as the Transaction Advisors Institute and the Conference Board. He has published widely in industry journals and is frequently quoted in media outlets. His thought leadership addresses critical people risks in M&A, including retaining key talent during transactions, mitigating culture risk and executing business transformation through transactions.