Michal Katz, Head of Investment & Corporate Banking, Mizuho Americas, joined the panel discussion “The Boardroom Psyche: Corporate America’s Response to the Economic Landscape” at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit in New York on June 5, 2025. The theme of this year’s marquee event was “Seizing Opportunities in a Dynamic Market,” which focused heavily on investor optimism, a strong U.S. economy and dealmaking appetite despite market volatility, geopolitical tensions and overall macro uncertainty.
Michal joined the stage with Baroness Dambisa Moyo, Member of the UK’s House of Lords and Co-Principal of Versaca and Alex Spiro, Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan with moderator Sherry Phillips, CEO of Forbes. Their discussion included topics such as navigating uncertainty, balancing operational resilience in the short-term and long-term strategic investments, mitigating risk and finding opportunities for growth, and the importance of transparency, communication and preparedness from leaders in this everchanging landscape.
Michal shared insight on the catalysts for dealmaking this year. Noting “for one the strategic imperatives, the industrial logic, for M&A dealmaking, that is which areas you want to go to such as artificial intelligence or geographic diversification, as well as structural imperatives that will help catalyze this activity.” The structural imperatives include private equity returning to the market, the need for venture capital-backed companies that haven’t grown into their valuations to transact and a more pragmatic U.S. regulatory body willing to negotiate than litigate a transaction. “That’s why I’m incredibly optimistic about the opportunity ahead of us to try to get some deals done. I don’t think 2025 is going to be making any records, but I do believe that it will be the beginning of a cycle where we’ll see more transactions getting done.”
Watch below for the full panel discussion: