Some overlap helps, but it’s not essential. I would not bother switching groups just to make yourself more competitive for a corporate development role.

Yes. Look under the M&A case studies, there’s an example for Starbucks acquiring another company there. And there are other valuation/DCF examples earlier.

Is this example case study found in the ‘Case Study Exercises’ Module in the ‘Investment Banking Interview Guide’ course? Trying to find it at the moment

Yes, it’s possible to move into corporate strategy. https://mergersandinquisitions.com/strategic-planning-defense-contractor/

Yes, it is possible, but difficult. Corporate development is far more relevant than corporate finance.

Thx

Your best bet is to look up people at a specific company (Fortune 500 companies are best since smaller ones may not have dedicated teams) on LinkedIn and go through the profiles until you find something relevant. You’re right that sometimes the titles are confusing, but if you search by a specific company and look for keywords like “M&A” or “joint ventures” or “corporate finance,” sometimes you can find key contacts like that. This is one case where a premium LinkedIn account would actually be helpful because it’s often better to find people via LinkedIn and bypass recruiters in this industry.