Mike Oakley joins Alvarez & Marsal's PE performance improvement practice

Mike Oakley has joined Alvarez & Marsal (A&M)’s private equity performance improvement practice (PEPI) as a managing director.

Based in Miami, Oakley will focus on supporting clients in the aerospace, defense, aviation, and space (ADAS) sector.

He brings more than 30 years of consulting and corporate leadership experience in mergers and acquisitions, with expertise across strategic assessments and rationale, transaction structuring, valuation, due diligence, sale/purchase agreements, negotiations and large-scale integration and separation programs.

Oakley joins A&M from defense contractor L3Harris, where he spent a decade as senior director of corporate strategy and development, executing over $20 billion of buy, sell-side, and venture capital transactions.Before that, he spent five years as VP of strategy and planning at RailAmerica, a holding company of 45 short-line railroad operations in North America. As part of the firm’s PE-backed leadership team, Oakley helped drive a turnaround, IPO, and sale of RailAmerica.

Earlier in his career, Oakley spent nine years at KPMG US, where he was a managing director in the transactions and restructuring practice.

He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Loyola University Chicago.

“Mike knows how to conceptualize and implement real world applications of mission-critical technology,” said James Marceau, a managing director in PEPI and a leader of A&M’s ADAS group. “He understands the challenges and opportunities that operations, carve-outs and post-merger integrations present to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and Primes. His insights will advance our ability to help clients maximize value and drive change.”

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in New York, A&M provides advisory, business performance improvement, and turnaround management services. The firm has 7,500+ people across six continents.

“Technology and innovation is moving at an unprecedented pace in the ADAS industry. Acquiring strategic capabilities through M&A and equity investments can significantly contribute to achieving strategic objectives and accelerating growth,” Oakley said. “Our deep experience and integrated M&A delivery platform enables us to seamlessly plug-in to a M&A process and deal team where we can deliver the most value to clients.”