Head of Corporate Development

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Company Description

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets.

Fastmarkets’ data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond.

Job Description

The Head of Corporate Development will lead Fastmarkets’ inorganic growth strategy through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and competitive intelligence. This individual will identify, assess, and execute strategic M&A opportunities that align with the company’s goals for growth, scalability, and profitability. The role requires managing the entire M&A process, including deal sourcing, due diligence, transaction execution, and post-merger integration.

The Head of Corporate Development will also play a key role in driving competitive intelligence activities to ensure Fastmarkets remains informed about industry trends and competitors’ strategic moves. This position will report to the Operations Director and manage one direct report (Corporate Development Analyst), while leveraging internal and external resources to supplement the team as needed for larger, more complex transactions.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

M&A Strategy & Execution

1. Lead the identification and evaluation of inorganic growth opportunities, aligned with Fastmarkets’ strategic goals and product vision.
2. Continue to develop and maintain a structured M&A funnel, continuously scanning the market for emerging trends, potential acquisition targets, and shifts in competitor strategy.
3. Conduct due diligence, including financial, operational, and market assessments, to evaluate potential acquisitions and/or partnerships.
4. Manage the full lifecycle of M&A transactions from deal sourcing through to completion, including coordination with external advisors for larger or complex transactions.
5. Comprehensively drive small- to mid-size M&A deals and support the integration process post-transaction, partnering with the PMO for seamless integration.
6. Fully accountable for tracking financial performance of all M&A activities ensuring that acquisitions and partnerships meet the defined business case objectives.
7. Regularly update senior management on progress and outcomes related to M&A initiatives.
8. Track and measure post-acquisition success, develop integration KPIs with functional teams, assess financial and operational impacts, and implement lessons learned to improve future M&A activities.

Risk Management

1. Responsible for identifying and mitigating risk associated with M&A transactions, including working across legal, financial, and operational risk teams to ensure all deals are sound from a compliance and risk standpoint.
2. Ensuring that M&A activities align with the Company’s technology plans and infrastructure.

Communications and Change Management

1. Develop clear strategies for internal and external stakeholders (including shareholders) to manage expectations during M&A activities; working with HR to have a plan in place to manage the organisational change that comes with M&A transactions, such as cultural integration and change leadership to ensure smooth transition post-acquisition.

Competitive Intelligence

1. Oversee the development of a robust competitive intelligence function to monitor industry trends, competitor actions, and emerging market opportunities.
2. Provide insights and strategic recommendations to senior leadership based on competitive analysis, ensuring that Fastmarkets is well-positioned to respond to market shifts.
3. Monitor competitor M&A, fundraising, and strategic investments to understand their growth strategies and potential threats.

Sustainability and ESG

1. In collaboration with our ESG functions, ensure consideration of the sustainability impact of potential acquisitions and how they align with Fastmarkets’ ESG goals.
2. Project management accountability to ensure ESG plans are aligned, in place and agreed.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

1. Work closely with the Finance, Product, and Operations teams to ensure alignment on revenue forecasting, financial modelling, and strategic priorities.
2. Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including HR, Finance, and the PMO, to assess integration challenges and opportunities for value creation post-acquisition.
3. Serve as a liaison between the executive team and external advisors, ensuring clear communication and strategic alignment on transaction-related matters.

Qualifications

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world’s leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.

If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and has a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

Experience:

1. 7+ years in corporate development, investment banking, or M&A-related roles, ideally with experience in the technology or information services sectors.
2. Proven track record of leading M&A transactions from start to finish, including due diligence, financial modelling, and post-merger integration.
3. Strong understanding of competitive intelligence practices and their application in strategic decision-making.

Skills:

1. Excellent financial and strategic acumen, with the ability to evaluate complex financial data and translate it into actionable insights.
2. Strong project management skills, including the ability to manage multiple workstreams and coordinate cross-functional teams.
3. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate with senior leadership and external advisors.
4. High attention to detail and ability to work in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities.

Qualifications:

1. Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or a related field.
2. Advanced degree (MBA or equivalent) preferred.
3. Professional certification (e.g., CFA) is a plus but not required.

If you’re excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don’t perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Additional Information

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they’re embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

1. METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance.
2. ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done.
3. GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency.
4. INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
5. CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do.
6. COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you!

If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day.

It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great.

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