Mitch Marks is an internationally recognized expert on managing corporate transitions (including mergers, acquisitions, alliances, downsizings, and restructurings), organization design, corporate culture and executive teambuilding.  He is Professor of Leadership at San Francisco State University’s College of Business and president of the consultancy JoiningForces.org. He is a frequent speaker to corporate audiences and professional groups including the Harvard Business School, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Psychology Association. 

Mitch consults with a wide variety of firms in the United States and abroad, advising on issues of organizational change, team building, strategic direction, organizational design and structure, corporate culture, human resources management, employee motivation, and the planning and implementation of mergers, acquisitions, alliances, reorganizations, and other transitions.  His clients range from small start-ups to large multinational corporations, as well as government and not-for-profit organizations.  Mitch has advised in over 100 cases of major organizational transitions.  Current or past clients include Pfizer, Intel, Motorola, Citicorp, AT&T, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Unisys, Hewlett Packard, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, BP, Molson Breweries, Bank of America, American Airlines, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, DigitalGlobe, Blue Shield of California, U. S. Department of Energy, Los Angeles County, the March of Dimes, and others in the financial services, manufacturing, health care, entertainment, transportation, high technology, publishing, consumer products, and communications industries.

Reports of Mitch’s work have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, The Economist, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated, as well as on the PBS News Hour, NBC Nightly News, CNBC, CNN and other television programs. 

Mitch is the author of eight books—including Charging Back Up the Hill:  Workforce Recovery after Mergers, Acquisitions and Downsizings (providing practical advice and examples of how to rebound from the unintended negative consequences of difficult transitions), and Joining Forces:  Making One Plus One Equal Three in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances—and scores of articles in practitioner and scholarly journals including the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. 

Mitch Marks received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981, where he conducted the first studies on human and cultural aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and other major organizational transitions.  His research has been recognized in ways including the Outstanding Contribution to Organizational Behavior award from the Academy of Management.  He is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.