For much of her 27-year career, Anu Aiyengar has operated more as a strategic counselor than a traditional dealmaker. So when J.P. Morgan elevated Aiyengar to global chair of investment banking and M&A in May, it didn't change how she works, it simply made her style of dealmaking official.
"My job is to be the person who is in the boardroom, be the person who is the confidant of the CEO, and help them navigate this complex world and achieve their strategy," she said. "It's a little bit reversed from 'I am selling the M&A product' to 'I am your consigliere.'"
The results of that philosophy were visible across 2025, which ranked as the second-best year on record for global M&A at $5.1 trillion. J.P. Morgan advised on 27 of the year's 68 deals valued at $10 billion or more, also a record number of megadeals. Two of the year's most closely watched transactions bore Aiyengar's fingerprints: the $9.7 billion take-private of Skechers by 3G Capital and Kimberly-Clark's pending $49 billion acquisition of Kenvue. Both deals illustrate what she calls "focused scale," the thesis that investors reward companies that sharpen around a core while still growing it.
"You can't shrink your way to greatness," she said, only half-joking. Clients, she explained, are simultaneously shedding noncore businesses while making transformational acquisitions to achieve the scale the market now rewards. FedEx, another client, spun off its freight business, sold its supply chain unit in the company's largest divestiture in history, and then added European package locker assets, a ferocious dealmaking stretch this spring to reposition the company around its core parcel business.
While dealmaking is robust, it's rarely simple. When Trump tariff announcements hit in 2025, Vietnam was among the most exposed markets, throwing the Skechers deal into uncertainty. Aiyengar and her team worked through the implications for the footwear company, which has significant manufacturing there. The math ultimately held: The net cost increase amounted to roughly a dollar per shoe in the U.S., and the deal closed.
"She has this ability to explain in extraordinarily straightforward and simple terms the most complex corporate finance situation," said Jaques Aigrain, chair of LyondellBasell and Tradeweb. "In many instances, what you should say is not what the CEO wishes [to hear] at the moment. She knows how to stand her ground firmly but with style and respect."
Her advisor role has taken on new dimensions as AI reshapes every industry her clients operate in. Aiyengar now spends part of her time helping boards think through questions on whether to acquire AI capabilities, how to measure the return on AI investment and how to manage talent in a world where certain roles are contracting. Her own view is that companies focused purely on productivity gains are missing the larger opportunity. "What is it that you can do to solve your clients' problems faster? That's where companies' mindsets need to go, and that's in the very early stages of evolution."
