Nicola Morris, WEX chief corporate development officer, talks mergers and more
Photo / Jim Neuger
Nicola Morris, chief corporate development officer and president of emerging markets at WEX Inc., in the company’s new headquarters on Portland’s eastern waterfront.
Nicola Morris is chief corporate development officer and president of emerging markets at WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX), a Portland-based provider of corporate payments solutions across sectors including fleet, travel and health care. Morris, whose responsibilities include leading a mergers and acquisitions team she describes as “small but mighty,” joined the company in early 2014 from Verizon. She sat down with Mainebiz for an interview that’s excerpted below.
Mainebiz: What led you to this career path?
Nicola Morris: I always pursued the things that interested me and loved working for fantastic people and learning along the way. One of the natural consequences was that I found myself in positions and roles where there was a lot of strategic thinking. I also have a heavy math and analytic bent, which migrated to a lot of the time being on the M&A side as well.
Mainebiz: Will WEX continue its acquisition pacing of one every few months?
NM: We are always looking at assets, and the market is very active, so we are always looking at whether or not there is a strategic fit. We’re very disciplined about the focus and the goals that we have. We’re also very disciplined about financial capacity and integration capacity, and making sure that we’re not biting off more than we can chew.
MB: In potential deals, is business area or geography more appealing?
NM: It depends. If you look at what we did earlier this year with the Euro Garages acquisition [EG Group’s Go Fuel Card business], that was a really nice, complementary asset for us. It gives us a good business in Europe, in one of our key sectors, which is the fleet sector.
MB: Are more international acquisitions likely?
NM: Yes. We’re certainly evaluating all the time, and we don’t preclude something because it’s outside the United States.
MB: Does the current stock market climate affect the outlook for M&A?
NM: For sure. Particularly in health and corporate payments, assets are very expensive — it’s a very hot market right now. We are a disciplined buyer, so we look at the trade-offs and we look at the value. We’re not afraid to say, ‘This is an acquisition we’ll do, but only at this price or up to this price.’ The market being hot doesn’t frighten us — we know where our limits are.
MB: Are there any obvious holes to fill outside your main business areas?
NM: The great thing about the three businesses we’re in is that they have tremendous upside still, so there isn’t a need at this point in time. I’m not saying we would never do it, and opportunistically something might come along. We’re happy and lucky with the business segments that we’re in, because they’ve got good growth and good growth opportunity.
MB: How large is the deal team at WEX?
NM: It’s a small-but-mighty team of about six people who do M&A and integration. They work with all of the functional organizations across the company, so it’s never them alone. We look a little bit like a small army when we’re actually doing deals, but it’s because we want to make sure we’ve got the subject matter experts and the people who ultimately will be accountable, post the acquisition and post the integration.
MB: What are your responsibilities overseeing WEX’s businesses in Brazil and Australia?
NM: I tend to be very hands on in a supporting way and let the managing directors do the day-to-day management because they’re in-country and on the ground.
MB: Any thoughts of expansion to other parts of Latin America?
NM: We have some level of expansion plans and commitments to other parts of Latin America, but Brazil is a big country, so there’s quite a lot of opportunity left in that business.
MB: As a mentor to younger employees, do you also learn from the process?
NM: I absolutely do. It allows you to be a little bit introspective about things that were challenging earlier in your career. It also allows me to think differently about how I do things today. The learning never stops.
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