M&A Science Live: How M&A Turns a Chemical Company Into a Tech Business
Bolt-on acquisitions are straightforward in theory: find a target, negotiate terms, integrate the business. But what happens when the acquisition isn't just adding capability — it's changing your identity? When the goal isn't growth, it's transformation?
That's the challenge Chandradev Mehta is navigating at Hexion. As SVP of Strategy and Business Development at one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies, he's using M&A to answer a question more industrial incumbents are wrestling with: how do you become a technology-driven business when your foundation is built on chemistry?
In this live session, Chandradev will share how he thinks about acquisition strategy when the goal is business model evolution — not just revenue expansion. He'll break down how to identify the right targets, what diligence looks like when you're buying capabilities you don't fully understand yet, and how to integrate technology businesses into a legacy industrial organization without killing what made the acquisition valuable in the first place.
Live Q&A at the end — bring your deal questions.
What You'll Learn
How to build an M&A thesis around transformation, not just growth — what it means to use acquisitions to change what kind of company you are
How to identify and evaluate technology targets as an industrial acquirer — what to look for when the asset is capabilities, not chemistry
How to structure diligence when you're the buyer who doesn't know the space — what discovery looks like when you're intentionally acquiring into unfamiliar territory
How integration changes when the goal is transformation — why the standard 100-day playbook breaks when you're absorbing a fundamentally different business model
How to protect acquired technology culture inside a legacy organization — what actually kills tech acquisitions at industrial companies, and how to prevent it
How to sequence a transformation strategy across multiple deals — building an acquisition program, not just executing individual transactions
Who Should Attend
Corp dev leaders, strategy/operators supporting M&A, integration leads, and executives building a repeatable acquisition engine.
Speaker Blurb
Chandradev Mehta is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Hexion Inc., a global specialty chemicals company, where he leads the M&A function as a core driver of business model transformation. He spent years leading corporate development and strategy at Honeywell, one of the most active industrial acquirers in the world, before bringing that operating experience to Hexion's transformation agenda. What makes Chandradev's perspective distinct is that he's not just executing deals — he's using M&A to answer a harder question: how does a company built on chemistry become a company driven by technology? That question is sitting on the desk of every industrial CEO right now, and Chandradev has real experience navigating it.
FAQs
Will this be recorded? Yes. Members can access the full recording in the Intelligence Hub.
Will the podcast episode be public? Yes, an edited version will be released publicly—often a month or more after recording.
How do I get early access? Membership includes early access to recordings in the Intelligence Hub.