Lara Cumberland is a senior technology executive with deep experience in M&A, strategy, and complex risk and project management. Lara is currently Facebook’s VP of M&A Integration, leading the M&A team responsible for the integration of all global acquisitions. She also works closely with other members of Facebook’s executive team leading strategic non-M&A initiatives to address some of the company’s most complex challenges in serving its 2 billion+ users.

Lara’s M&A expertise is built from nearly 20 years of leadership roles at premier technology companies. Her experience includes leading M&A Integration at IBM, eBay, PayPal and Facebook where she has overseen the due diligence, integration, and value creation for 100+ acquisitions worth billions of dollars, including personally leading the integration for rapidly growing companies such as Braintree/Venmo. She previously filed two patents on M&A process and led the creation of an analytical model/system that accurately predicts deal revenue synergy risk and root cause. Lara is a widely recognized M&A expert and is frequently asked to speak and to advise industry peers.

Years of working closely with and advising acquired CEOs and managing end-to-end company integration – scaling young companies and transforming more mature ones through M&A or shift in strategy – has given Lara a unique general management skillset. Prior years as an organizational change consultant at PwC also supports her ability to build diverse high performing teams, and she has been recognized by many leaders as a valuable coach and advisor regarding their organization’s cultural, structural, and performance issues.

For the last several years at Facebook, Lara has leveraged her expertise to lead a series of complex cross-functional projects focused largely on managing compliance, scale-related risk, and launching or winding down business areas. These include projects focused on privacy, blockchain, regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR), and anti-discrimination, among others. She is building Facebook’s first team focused exclusively on the execution of these types of cross-company initiatives.

Lara is Canadian and was recently selected as a Charter Member of the C100, a community of influential Canadians in technology who are committed to accelerating Canada’s innovation economy. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her son, live music, traveling, heli-skiing, running, and occasionally polo.