NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Mercer, a global consulting leader in advancing health, wealth and careers, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), will once again host its M&A Ready™ Executive Development Program in San Francisco (April 26-27), Toronto (May 10-11), New York (June 7-8) and Chicago (October 25-26) this year. Senior HR executives, business unit leaders, and corporate development, strategy and finance executives are invited to attend.

Now in its 14th year, Mercer’s globally acclaimed M&A Ready Program addresses the latest developments, trends and best practices around critical people and HR issues that drive and determine M&A success, such as key talent assessment and retention, workforce engagement, compensation and benefit benchmark data, and cultural integration.

The intensive, highly interactive two-day workshop covers every deal phase, from planning through to post-deal implementation. Upon completion of the program, M&A Ready graduates will be better prepared to:

• Manage real-world people-related challenges
• Identify risks and opportunities for various deal types
• Capture greater synergies from transactions

“The M&A boom is set to continue in 2017, with a surplus of cash scouring the global market for quality assets,” said Jeff Cox, Senior Partner and Global M&A Transaction Services Leader, Mercer. “With over $6 trillion in cash and short-term securities on corporate balance sheets around the world (including $2.5 trillion in cash held by US companies outside the US - poised to be repatriated pending new reduced tax legislation) and over $130 billion of cash held by activists and hedge funds forcing many publicly held companies to evaluate and divest non-core assets, there is an enormous opportunity – and challenge – for companies to protect the value of their deals, which requires them to consider the magnitude of people issues at the outset.”

Mercer is the pre-eminent global advisor on people issues in M&A transactions. The firm’s dedicated team of 150 M&A transaction consultants work on more than 1,200 deals a year across all industries with both corporate and financial buyers/sellers. Over the past 14 years, more than 5,000 professionals from a diverse mix of companies around the world have endorsed the M&A Ready program, consistently rating it 4.8 out of 5.0.

To learn more about the M&A Ready Executive Development Program, please visit http://www.mercersignatureevents.com/maready/index.shtml.

In addition to these North America workshops, Mercer will also host sessions in 18 other cities worldwide. For the complete list, please visit http://www.mercersignatureevents.com/maready/registration.shtml.

About Mercer

Mercer is a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments. Mercer helps clients around the world advance the health, wealth and careers of their most vital asset – their people. Mercer’s more than 20,000 employees are based in 43 countries and the firm operates in over 140 countries. Mercer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), a global professional services firm offering clients advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy and people. With annual revenue of more than $13 billion and approximately 60,000 colleagues worldwide, Marsh & McLennan Companies is also the parent company of Marsh, a leader in insurance broking and risk management; Guy Carpenter, a leader in providing risk and reinsurance intermediary services; and Oliver Wyman, a leader in management consulting. For more information, visit www.mercer.com. Follow Mercer on Twitter @Mercer.

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