Leading in turbulent times webinar series: Surviving the shockwaves

Michel Galeazzi and Felix Ackermann, founding partners of the private equity firm Evoco, sat with the rest of the team pondering the latest strategic issues. Evoco had evolved significantly as a fund manager since its creation in 2012, taking advantage of newly identified opportunities and developing novel competencies. Its first three funds had an excellent track record, which provided a strong platform to continue learning and to evolve the business models of its funds. Evoco's founding premise was to develop business solutions for governance and liquidity issues that emerged in private equity, creating investment opportunities for its investors in the process. The first two funds, Evoco TSE I and II, focused primarily on developing secondary solutions for liquidity and governance issues in private equity, i.e. acquiring portfolios of positions in late-stage or undermanaged buyout funds, and creating value by accelerating exits and engineering a palette of value-creating, hands-on strategic initiatives. The sellers typically required liquidity for some reason, e.g. new investment paradigms, better allocation opportunities or team reorganization. With Evoco TSE III, the strategy was refined, opening the door to single-asset deals and ever more original value creation interventions facilitated by majority ownership positions. When US President Donald Trump announced a tsunami of new tariffs on 'Liberation Day' 2 April 2025, the world of trade and industry was thrown into disarray, and private equity with it. Would it make sense to capitalize on the upheaval by tweaking the firm's strategy again to fine-tune an even more compelling investment proposition? Which direction should that take?

Guillaume Vermersch, CFO of Mercuria, shares how strategic agility, tech, and sustainability shape modern finance in global energy and commodities trading.

Stephan Jansma, CFO at Trafigura, shares how today’s finance leaders must navigate global disruptions, manage liquidity in high-volatility markets

Knowledge scientists may be the key to unlocking AI's full value, offering transparency and structure that data scientists alone can't provide, says IMD’s Tomoko Yokoi.

We examine the predictive power of the net asset value (NAV)/price ratio for the LPX50 index, a key benchmark in the field of listed private equity, using monthly data from 2002 to 2024. A risk factor model reveals the index’s significant exposure...

As the rapid decline in biodiversity exacerbates climate risks and threatens human wellbeing, biodiversity credits are emerging as a promising yet challenging mechanism for mobilizing conservation finance. Some scepticism stems from disappointment...

CFOs are leading the de-conglomeration trend, using strategic breakups to unlock value and boost agility in today’s fast-moving business landscape

Hong Kong might be back on top of the global intial public offering (IPO) tables, but too many of its listings are Chinese. If the city wants to re-establish itself as Asia’s financial hub, it needs to be more than a conduit for mainland capital. ...

Busting the myths of M&A: New research reveals why old merger strategies fail and how fresh thinking can lead to lasting value for both sides of the deal.

Recent developments in dynamic portfolio optimization have focused on the role played by portfolio frictions. Portfolio frictions make the portfolio’s response to financial shocks weaker and more gradual than in a model without frictions. At the s...