Thierry Chetrit

Thierry Chetrit is a co-founder and current Vice Chairman (worldwide) of Clairfield International, the independent mid-market corporate finance and M&A advisory partnership, where he also serves as Founder and CEO of the firm's French operation. He built the French business from a boutique he founded in 1998 called intuitucapital, which focused on mergers & acquisitions, private placements, and investment activity in technology companies and later became the precursor to Clairfield France. He was formally appointed Vice Chairman of Clairfield International in September 2017, alongside Alexander Klemm's appointment as Executive Chairman.

Before investment banking, Chetrit spent time as an operator and dealmaker on the corporate side. He was Managing Director of BBDO France (Omnicom Group, NYSE), where he executed acquisitions while carrying financial and operational responsibilities. He has also held board seats at industrial and consumer companies, including a supervisory-board role at the French food group Madrange (~€300M revenue) and a directorship at Schneider Consumer Group (~€200M revenue). He began his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Across more than 25 years as an entrepreneur, Chetrit has founded and acquired companies in the digital, marketing, education, and energy sectors and grown them. At Clairfield he has advised dozens of sell-side and buy-side transactions, with particular strength in cross-border deals involving both strategic acquirers and private equity funds. He is a vocal advocate of social-impact investing and ESG, both personally and professionally, and is associated with the impact-investing firm Impact Partenaires (PE Impact).

• Dual profile: primarily a mid-market M&A advisor and serial entrepreneur, who also participates as an angel/early-stage and impact investor — so a "seed round" engagement with him is typically as an individual backer or advisor rather than through an institutional fund.
• Sector conviction in areas where he has operated: digital/tech, marketing/advertising, education (EdTech), and energy.
• Cross-border orientation: his professional edge is international deals bridging strategic buyers and private equity — he thinks in terms of who the eventual acquirer or growth partner will be.
• Impact/ESG lens: a stated, long-standing supporter of social-impact investment (linked to Impact Partenaires), which colors what he chooses to back personally.
• Operator's test: with a background running P&Ls at BBDO and sitting on industrial boards, he favors founders who can articulate operational and financial fundamentals, not just vision.