Jerry Caruso

For the past year, designed and taught new condensed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) classes to DBAs, MBAs, Undergraduates, and Executive Education professionals. These courses were taught at the University of Minnesota and in Tokyo and New York City. For previous 6 years, managed the Carlson Funds Enterprise (CFE) – a $35 million midcap equity and fixed income investment portfolio, funded by institutional investors and managed by 40 students.

My teaching focus is experiential pedagogy with emphasis on applying core concepts and critical thinking to solve realworld and often realtime M&A problems. Based upon my investment banking experience and research, my M&A courses take a defined approach to building a comprehensive 3tiered framework: combining strategy; valuation; and integration/culture when evaluating a deal.

Students rate my teaching in the top quartile and their reviews specify they have enjoyed learning how to: communicate and make cogent presentations regarding deals; problem solve through team work; and convince decision makers at their firms to take action. Most of my students are 25 – 40 years old.

Industry experience includes over 20 years as an investment banker, primarily in mergers and acquisitions, completing approximately 60 middle market transactions.