Why IT? My eye-opening role
The big question hit me early: Why was I there? I lacked legal or accounting expertise. The answer came when I was tasked with evaluating the target’s technical architecture — and translating risks into financial and business liabilities.
As Principal Architect, this was familiar ground. I reported back to the M&A leadership, and my insights proved not just valuable but essential to negotiations. In some cases, they helped avoid multimillion-dollar pitfalls. Over several deals, my feedback shaped outcomes, from price adjustments to deal structures.
This led me to develop a blueprint for technical due diligence, rooted in the Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). Focused on risk and cost, it emphasized technical architecture and data architecture — spotting technical debt and data quality issues. Back then, “technical debt” was obscure outside IT, and data as a core asset was even less recognized.
