Deal making in troubled waters: The ABN AMRO takeover

CFOs must drive a financially disciplined way to manage environmental and climate risk amid growing push back against sustainability efforts.

How a private equity-backed corporate carve-out created a successful, sustainable consulting powerhouse by Benoit Leleux

Women’s realities are often overlooked, but lifepreneurs—entrepreneurs innovating from experience—are turning struggles into profit and systemic change.

Launched in February 2025, the Cali Fund of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is set to mobilize new streams of private-sector funding for biodiversity. It is expected to raise roughly $1bn per year. Adrian Dellecker sets out its ...

AI is revolutionizing finance, boosting productivity and insights, but CFOs must invest in infrastructure, navigate regulations, and upskill teams for a successful future.

Switzerland should assess the Credit Suisse collapse before adding more banking regulations, says UBS Group CEO in a talk on Europe's financial future.

CFOs can rethink underperforming AI adoption by focusing on business value, data readiness, and employee buy-in.

US President Donald Trump’s full embrace of digital assets has sent shock waves through the cryptocurrency market, driving a price surge while creating both new opportunities and heightened risks for investors and corporations. Last week, Mr Trump...

The case examines the entrepreneur-led carve out and buyout of dss+, DuPont’s safety and sustainability consulting division, by Gyrus Capital and dss+ management team. dss+ (formerly “DuPont Sustainable Solutions”) played a pivotal role in high-risk industries such as oil, gas, and chemicals, providing critical consulting services at a time when global regulatory pressure on operational safety and sustainability was intensifying. Gyrus Capital, a mid-market private equity specialist, came together with the management team to engineer the buyout, based on the firm’s strong and predictable revenue streams, long-term client relationships and specialized expertise in safety and sustainability consulting. What emerged out of the 2019 transaction was an independent sustainability consulting powerhouse with over 1,500 consultants around the world. By 2024, dss+ was still expanding rapidly in terms of staff and domains of expertise, not to mention geography, and had to respond to quickly evolving external and internal demands, with clients increasingly expected to be served globally on a full range of sustainability-related services. With a strong sense of purpose (saving lives and creating a sustainable future), a potent pitch line (Protect. Transform. Sustain), over 750 clients on 1,800 projects across 41 countries, a global team of 1,500 people and plenty of organic growth across 7 core industries, the company was clearly heading for the stars. Yet, new questions loomed: Was it time to start managing that wild growth, deepening competitive advantages and building functional moats? How would dss+ remain competitive? Was it time to put a few new initiatives on high octane fuel: Leadership? Digital transformation? Global growth? Some totally new ideas?

Ten years from now, we’ll know which companies best navigated geopolitics. And the hunt will be on for enduring lessons. Which firms made the smartest adjustments to their global commercial footprint by exiting certain markets, doubling down on ot...