email: don@doncollat.com

Donald S. Collat, formerly a professor of finance at Harvard Business School, worked as an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney (where he was a managing director), Bankers Trust, and Lehman Brothers, and was a partner/principal of Ernst & Young, where he provided strategic advice about mergers and acquisitions to large global companies. He is currently a consultant on M&A and corporate governance.

Having served on a number of boards, Don has extensive boardroom experience.

A Rhodes Scholar, he received a D.Phil. (doctorate) in economics from Oxford University, a J.D. from Yale Law School (where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal), and an A.B., summa cum laude in economics, from Princeton University.

Donald S. Collat​​

​Most Recent Publication

Forging the Strongest Steel: How Boards Can Make Better Decisions About Deals

The European Financial Review

 December 2015 - January 2016

Cover Story

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Abstract

Among the most difficult – and important – questions facing companies today is the decision whether to proceed with a proposed large acquisition. The record of these deals has been mixed, marked by some noteworthy debacles. In many cases, the process of deal approvals seems to have lacked adequate scrutiny. Donald Collat argues in this article that what is needed at the Board level is a deeper inquiry into the merits and demerits of the deal – an inquiry that entails an active debate.

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