The wildly different, and ever changing, role of corporate development executives was the highlight of the discussion at the Mergers & Acquisitions Institute in Dallas Thursday morning, when three corporate dealmakers — David Hernandez at Electronic Data Systems Inc., Brian Sipes at Flowserve Corp. and Michael Cheeseman at Halliburton Co. — offered some insight into what they do and how they do it.

Hernandez, a former tax attorney, said EDS has been most successful when strategy executives hand the deals off to development to execute, rather than doing it by committee when deals can be overthought and opportunities can be missed. Sipes sees himself as being more in the middle of strategic planning and corporate development, working closely with the company's chief marketing officer on Flowserve's vision so he can better plan and execute deals for his company. Cheeseman, who only has a few people working with him in his department, sees his role as facilitating, being involved in and guiding conversations on deals — "So when a banker calls, you know what's inside the fence." Hernandez said he's found opportunities coming out of realignments of businesses; Sipes said his company takes a proactive approach to find puzzle pieces that easily fit in; and Cheeseman said he sources most ideas from within, traveling around the world meeting with employees to cull ideas ("We're in parts of the world where others don't play," he said).

All three emphasized the importance of studying tax implications of any deal, in the U.S. and especially overseas, and not losing the forest for the trees in due diligence. And all were enthused that high-paying private equity bidders have been taken out of the equation, if only temporarily. Said Cheeseman: "It's not that easy to make money on deals." — Claire Poole