2026 M&A Outlook: Confidence builds as uncertainty becomes opportunity

David Dunstan is a Managing Director and Head of Industrials M&A, Citizens Capital Markets. David has more than 30 years of investment banking and advisory experience, providing merger, acquisition and capital raising services to industrial and consumer companies with a specific interest in the engineered equipment/materials, PPE/safety, and industrial distribution sectors. Prior to co-founding Western Reserve Partners in 2004 and its subsequent sale to Citizens Bank in 2017, David was a Managing Director at KeyBanc Capital Markets and Manager of Consumer Investment Banking at McDonald Investments. David started his career at Ernst & Young in 1992, where he provided M&A, valuation, litigation support and audit services to middle market companies. Education: Miami University and received his MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Devin Ryan is a Managing Director and equity research analyst covering investment banks, brokers, asset managers, commercial finance, and FinTech companies. As Director of Financial Technology research, Devin stewards the firm’s research efforts at the intersection of traditional finance and technological innovation. Additionally, Devin also previously served as Head of Business Development for JMP Securities, leveraging his industry expertise and longstanding relationships within the capital markets and financial technology sectors to help chart the future of the firm. Devin appears frequently in both television and print media including CNBC, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times speaking about the evolution of the legacy Financial Services & FinTech landscape. 

Prior to joining JMP Securities in 2013, Devin spent more than eight years in equity research at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, concluding his tenure there as a Managing Director and senior analyst while covering a range of companies in the capital markets industry with business lines spanning investment banking and securities trading, asset and wealth management, and retail and commercial banking. 

During his time at Sandler O’Neill, Devin was a three-time winner of the top spot in his sector in an annual ranking of all U.S. equity research analysts conducted by StarMine and published in The Financial Times. He began his Wall Street career in the institutional investor group at Citigroup Smith Barney.

Devin holds a BBA in management information systems from University of Notre Dame.

©2025 Citizens Financial Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Banking products and services are offered by Citizens Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Securities products and services are offered to institutional clients through Citizens JMP Securities, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. Please click here for CJMPS disclosures.