From Harvard Business School to Enterprise Strategy: How Anubhav Mittal Built a Career Across Finance and Corporate Development

Building a long-term career in enterprise finance and corporate development often requires experience across multiple disciplines rather than expertise in a single function alone. Anubhav Mittal, VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), has spent more than two decades developing leadership experience across consulting, operating finance, restructuring, corporate development, and enterprise investment strategy within global public companies.

The progression from engineering education to CFO leadership and enterprise capital allocation reflects a career built through layered operating exposure. Experience spanning Booz & Company, Kellogg Company, and ADM has positioned Anubhav Mittal at the intersection of financial discipline, operational execution, and long-term strategic growth.

Academic Foundations and Analytical Training

Before entering corporate finance and M&A leadership, Anubhav Mittal earned a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, graduating in the top 5% of the class. The engineering background established a structured analytical framework that later became valuable in operating environments involving large-scale systems, supply chains, and capital-intensive business decisions.

Graduate study at Harvard Business School expanded that technical foundation into broader strategic and financial disciplines. The MBA program, completed with concentrations in Finance and Strategy, introduced frameworks tied to valuation, capital allocation, competitive positioning, and organizational decision-making.

Professional designations including CFA and CMA further reinforced expertise across investment analysis, management accounting, and financial planning. Together, the academic and professional credentials supported an approach grounded in analytical rigor while remaining closely connected to operating realities inside large organizations.

Anubhav Mittal’s background in finance and strategy reflects a combination of technical training, operational exposure, and enterprise-level decision-making experience developed across multiple industries.

Consulting Experience and Exposure to Enterprise Transformation

Following Harvard Business School, Anubhav Mittal joined Booz & Company, where the work focused on post-merger integration and operational improvement initiatives across industries. The consulting environment provided exposure to organizations managing restructuring efforts, operational transformation projects, and integration challenges following significant transactions.

Post-merger integration work often reveals whether projected transaction value can realistically be converted into operational performance. Financial assumptions must eventually align with organizational structures, reporting systems, execution timelines, and management coordination. Those realities can determine whether anticipated synergies ultimately materialize.

The consulting experience also introduced exposure to multiple operating models before transitioning into senior in-house leadership roles. Working across industries created familiarity with different business structures, performance drivers, and organizational challenges that later became relevant in investment evaluation and corporate development environments.

The professional development path associated with Anubhav Mittal reflects the value of combining advisory experience with operating leadership responsibilities over the course of a career.

Expanding Finance and Corporate Development Leadership at Kellogg

The transition to Kellogg Company marked an important expansion in both finance leadership and corporate development responsibilities. Roles at Kellogg included work in investment strategy, restructuring initiatives, corporate development, and VP Finance leadership within a large consumer packaged goods organization.

Participation in a major global restructuring initiative required cross-functional coordination, execution tracking, and financial accountability across multiple business areas. Restructuring environments often place pressure on organizations to balance cost discipline, operational continuity, and long-term growth priorities simultaneously.

Later responsibilities within Kellogg North America added direct P&L management and operating finance exposure. Experience inside a consumer packaged goods business also provided practical insight into how pricing decisions, commercial investments, cost structures, and supply-chain management affect long-term business performance.

The combination of corporate development and operating finance leadership created broader perspective than remaining exclusively within either discipline. Finance executives with transaction experience often evaluate investment opportunities differently because operational execution, integration planning, and organizational capacity become part of the assessment process.

Building Enterprise Finance Leadership at ADM

The move to Archer Daniels Midland expanded both operating scale and strategic responsibility. Early leadership responsibilities included serving as VP Finance and CFO for ADM Global Pet Solutions, where the business underwent a turnaround and scaled at approximately 20% compound annual growth rate.

Turnaround environments typically require rapid prioritization across operational performance, resource allocation, and financial accountability. Leadership teams must identify where value erosion is occurring while maintaining enough organizational stability to support long-term improvement initiatives.

Following that role, Anubhav Mittal became CFO of ADM’s Nutrition business unit, an approximately $8 billion global business with more than 14,000 employees operating across international markets. Responsibilities included oversight of commercial finance, FP&A, controlling, operations finance, and working capital management within a highly complex operating environment.

Anubhav Mittal worked across both B2B and B2C business structures while helping support improvements tied to return on invested capital, margin expansion, and working capital efficiency. At that scale, finance leadership becomes closely integrated with operations, supply-chain management, procurement, and enterprise planning rather than functioning solely as a reporting discipline.

The role also involved supporting broader strategic priorities across a multinational organization operating in changing market and commodity environments. Decisions involving capital deployment, productivity initiatives, and resource allocation required coordination across multiple leadership functions.

Enterprise Strategy and Capital Allocation at ADM

In the current role as VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at ADM, leadership responsibilities extend directly into enterprise investment strategy and long-term portfolio management. The position includes oversight involving acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and investment governance across a global organization operating in more than 190 countries.

Large-scale corporate development work requires evaluating opportunities through both financial and operational lenses. Transaction modeling alone rarely determines whether an investment ultimately succeeds. Integration readiness, organizational capacity, governance structures, and execution complexity can materially influence long-term outcomes.

The enterprise investment approach developed by Anubhav Mittal reflects the connection between operating finance experience and corporate development execution. Carrying direct P&L accountability can influence how synergy assumptions, integration timelines, and investment risks are evaluated during transaction processes.

Across approximately $10 billion in transactions and strategic investments, the work has included acquisitions, divestitures, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and carve-outs involving multiple industries and international markets. That breadth of experience contributes to a broader perspective on enterprise growth, portfolio strategy, and long-term capital allocation.

The role also reflects how strategic influence inside large organizations is often built through operational credibility and disciplined execution over time. Enterprise investment decisions affect not only financial performance, but also organizational structure, operating priorities, and long-term competitive positioning.

A Career Built Through Layered Operating Experience

Rather than following a narrowly specialized path, the progression across consulting, operating finance, restructuring, and corporate development created exposure to multiple dimensions of enterprise performance. Each stage added operating context that later informed broader leadership responsibilities.

The engineering foundation at IIT Kanpur contributed systems-oriented analytical thinking. Harvard Business School added strategic and financial frameworks tied to enterprise decision-making. Consulting work at Booz & Company introduced exposure to transformation initiatives and post-merger integration. Kellogg expanded operating finance and corporate development responsibilities, while ADM broadened leadership scope into global CFO oversight and enterprise investment strategy.

Anubhav Mittal’s experience across corporate development and finance leadership reflects how enterprise influence is often built through varied operational exposure, disciplined execution, and the ability to connect financial analysis with long-term strategic objectives.

About Anubhav Mittal

Anubhav Mittal is a senior finance and corporate development executive with more than two decades of experience across global public companies. He currently serves as VP and Global Head of Business Development and M&A at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Chicago, Illinois. Previous leadership roles include CFO of ADM’s Nutrition business unit, VP Finance and CFO of ADM Global Pet Solutions, and senior corporate development and finance positions at Kellogg Company. Areas of expertise include enterprise capital allocation, operating finance leadership, restructuring, corporate development, and large-scale M&A execution. Additional background can be found through the professional profile of Anubhav Mittal.