Director Strategy and Corporate Developmentat CDW Careers

The CDW Corporate Strategy Group develops and drives targeted short- and long-term strategic plans and projects to optimize CDW’s market position and maximize value extraction across technologies, partners, segments, and competitors. The Director Strategy & Corporate Development plays an integral role in CDW’s long-term strategic growth agenda to maximize shareholder return. The scope of this role is to assist the VP in the formulation and execution of corporate development initiatives that are accretive to achieving CDW’s outcome goals and position the company for long term competitive advantage. The Director will lead and mentor a team of strategy analysts, developing their corporate development and strategy consulting skills and abilities.

The Director will drive the identification and development of in-organic investment activity such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well as minority investments.  This individual will also lead the development of the framework for the identification, development, and evaluation of M&A opportunities along with the execution of the due diligence and pre-integration workstreams.  This role will also lead tracking and reporting on M&A pipeline activity by working with the Corporate Strategy, Sales and ITS teams.  The Director will be a natural problem solver, able to succinctly synthesize information and assessments, and ultimately, clearly articulate the opportunities with effective storytelling.

The Director of Strategy and Corporate Development will be a data-driven leader, using analytics and insights to assess strategic levers, identify and analyze opportunities, and determine critical supporting initiatives to support the strategies. Importantly, they will be a highly effective communicator, interacting with executives, functional experts and teams throughout CDW to clearly articulate strategy, develop effective workplans and ensure and monitor downstream successful execution.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Corporate Development Initiative Identification

• Lead CDW’s efforts at analyzing and developing insights relative to longer-term and emerging technology, service, product and business model trends in our markets
• Leverage an understanding of CDW’s markets, competitors, market trends, go-to-market strategy, internal operational structure, products/services and interrelationship of these dynamics
• Research, evaluate and propose new product offerings, new lines of business and opportunities to enhance existing lines of business.
• Track, analyze and prioritize a pipeline of multiple corporate development opportunities to determine the highest potential opportunities for CDW in light of these trends and industry dynamics

Corporate Development Initiative Execution

• Evaluate and implement potential mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, alliances, and other relationships and business opportunities that will lead to CDW growth and achievement of financial expectations.
• Build relationships with potential M&A target management teams, their PE and VC owners and their investment banking or legal advisors
• Facilitate the execution of strategic corporate development initiatives by working collaboratively with internal business and commercial leaders and external professional services firms
• Monitor the execution and report on progress toward achieving projected outcomes and results

Team Leadership Development and Management

• Develop, nurture and manage team members by imparting corporate development transaction knowledge and strategic consulting expertise onto the team
• Structure problem statement and ask, translate into an effective project plan and delegate accordingly
• Monitor and track progress against plan

Competitive and Market Intelligence

• Gather data and insights on competitors’ M&A activity, build competitive intelligence and evaluate long terms trends and outlook
• Coherently analyze opportunities and effectively synthesize and communicate assessments
• Package and disseminate curated information for various functions and stakeholders in the organization – designed for digestion and action where necessary 

Education and/or Experience Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree AND 10 years of increasing experience in investment banking, corporate development or strategy consulting leading M&A transactions or client engagements, teams and stakeholder relationships OR
• MBA and 8 years of increasing experience in investment banking, corporate development, strategy consulting leading M&A transactions or client engagements, teams and stakeholder relationships

Required Qualifications

• Strong track record of success driving major enterprise initiatives or business outcomes
• Exceptional problem statement analysis, development and execution of project plans, delegation and management of others work
• Ability to synthesize and tell the strategy story in a way people can understand and buy in to; must be practical and analytical as well as visionary
• Agile, flexible and open-minded leader experienced in leading and managing various and diverse tasks, navigating constant change
• Ability to collaborate and work with and influence people across the entire organization
• Will travel as required

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or other advanced degree from a top tier university with a concentration in management, finance, accounting, innovation, new product development, operations management or marketing
• 5 years of experience in Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Venture Capital, Product Management, Strategy Development, or acquisition roles
• 5 years of experience in Integrated Technology Solutions Provider, Value Added Reseller or Direct Marketing Reseller
• Sound financial background with experience in financial Analysis, financial planning, operations finance, and corporate finance
• 8 years of management experience