The POWER List 2023: John Welge

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, St. Louis

John Welge leads BCLP’s global and U.S. M&A and corporate finance practice group.

With a practice that focuses on leading middle-market mergers and acquisitions, Welge has led deal teams on significant transactions for a number of well-known firms, including Energizer’s $300 million acquisition of American Safety Razor out of bankruptcy court to Emerson Electric’s $99 million acquisition by merger of Israel-based Spectronix Ltd.

Other clients include Bayer, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Anheuser-Busch InBev, among others in industrial manufacturing, food manufacturing, auto recycling, telecommunications, high fashion retail, community banking and healthcare.

He has extensive experience in cross-border transactions throughout Europe, Asia and North and South America. He also advises his clients on business law matters ranging from corporate structure and formation to venture capital and private equity investments.

Welge earned his law degree from the University of Houston in 1991 and practiced in Texas before joining Bryan Cave in 1994. He also has experience as a CPA.