Zane N. Markowitz is Senior Managing Director & Partner of McLean, Markowitz & McNaughton (M|M|M), the market intelligence and buy-side search division of The McLean Group. As a pioneer in the market intelligence and buy-side search arenas, Mr. Markowitz has nearly four decades of buy-side acquisition search and competitive analysis experience.

Mr. Markowitz started his career in 1969 with HJ Brown International as an acquisition search analyst while attending American University Graduate School. He eventually became President of the firm. The firm’s original business was buy-side acquisition search, which was just getting started when Mr. Markowitz joined the firm. The firm soon gained a reputation for providing heretofore not seen very detailed information on not-for-sale privately-held companies. It was this capability that had clients asking for even more information not only on the acquisition targets themselves, but where the targets and their competitors see their business arena going in terms of technology, growth and margins, and why. Who better to ask then all the competitors, their customers and other stakeholders in a defined business area? The clients viewed this intelligence as very valuable in making their acquisition decisions. It was real-time information to aid making a real-time difficult decision. It gave them an edge in making a better decision making better acquisitions.

The firm found itself not only creating proprietary acquisition deal flow for its clients, but also helping the clients make difficult corporate investment decisions. Some early clients such as McGraw-Hill and Celanese asked the firm for more and more detailed information and analysis. Mr. Markowitz noticed a consistent pattern as to their questions and issues. It transcended client type. As a result, Mr. Markowitz created a unique, cutting-edge competitive analysis framework to satisfy the requests of its growing list of Fortune 500 clients. He also developed a breakthrough method to price the projects.

The competitive analysis framework consisted of Competitor Profiles (facts), Market Intelligence and Trends (opinions), and Customer Opinions (facts and opinions). The clients saw application for this competitive analysis framework to help them understand countervailing forces not only for making better acquisition decisions, but also for business entities they already owned. This three-part framework and analysis process became the basis for the business and its growth.

In 1982 Mr. Markowitz and Steve McNaughton formed Markowitz & McNaughton, Inc. It grew to more than 90 people serving firms such as General Electric, 3M, Phillip Morris, AT&T, Cincinnati Bell, Master Card, Grumman, Eli Lilly Bombardier, Honeywell, Thiokol, Air Products, Caterpillar, The Jordan Company and numerous others. The firm’s acquisition search programs resulted in several hundreds of acquisitions. It also produced thousands of competitive analysis studies on acquisition targets, as well as clients’ own subsidiaries and divisions.

Mr. Markowitz has been a regular speaker at Kellogg’s Merger Week, Association for Corporate Growth, The Planning Forum and others. He has a BS degree in Economics from the University of Delaware. Mr. Markowitz is a past Virginia State Skeet Shooting Champion and member of the All American Skeet Shooting Team.

In 2002 MMI was acquired by a London Stock Exchange listed financial public relations firm. Mr. Markowitz and Mr. McNaughton retired in 2004. In partnership with The McLean Group LLC, McLean, Markowitz & McNaughton (M|M|M) was created in January 2008.