Having just recently assumed the role of Head of Legal M&A within Bayer AG's (Bayer) legal department, Deny-Jean Silny is no stranger to complex deal-making at the German pharmaceutical and life sciences giant. He first joined Bayer's legal department in July 2016 and has helped Bayer navigate its deal-making both large and small. Over the past year or so, we had the privilege of working with him and his predecessor, Christian Bank, on Bayer's up to $4 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio) and its up to $2 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. (Vividion). After a whirlwind year, we asked Silny to reflect on his career and transition to a new role, key takeaways from the company's recent deals and on larger trends he is seeing in pharma M&A.