Executive Leadership Team

dss⁺helps the world’s biggest organisations protect, transform and sustain what they care about. Based on our expertise, our commitment to purpose and values — and our diverse leadership. Read on to learn about the leaders who help us save lives and create a sustainable future.

Davide Vassallo

Chief Executive Officer, dss⁺

Davide leads a global operations management consulting business that transforms workplaces and work cultures to deliver sustained improvements in safety, productivity and capability. Since joining dss⁺ in 2010, Davide has focused on helping corporations manage operational risk, achieve operational excellence and improve performance while reducing their environmental footprints. He brings experience across industries from oil and gas to transportation, telecommunications, and manufacturing.

Claudio Bertora

Chief Financial Officer, dss⁺

Claudio Bertora is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for dss⁺. Claudio brings nearly 30 years of experience and leads the Finance function with a focus on driving financial performance and positioning dss⁺ for growth through commercial reporting, business partnering, and process efficiencies. He is highly experienced at delivering shareholder value, a key aspect of his role with dss⁺ as CFO. Claudio is based in London, United Kingdom.

Melissa Barrett

Managing Director, Corporate Impact & Practices

Dr Melissa Barrett has over 20 years' professional experience in Sustainability Strategy with a consulting background at Accenture and Arthur D. Little. Melissa has a focus on strategic sustainability — bridging growth, strategy, trust and implementation through partnerships, product innovation, value chains, and systems change projects. She has worked with agriculture and F&B clients across complex markets, and with food and consumer industry associations driving both value and sustainable impact.

Thorsten Querfurt

Chief Operations Officer

Thorsten has more than 20 years of experience as a management consultant, a partner in a global firm, and more recently as a leader of international professional services businesses. In his current role, with dss⁺, he will focus on ensuring that we deliver client solutions efficiently and effectively. He holds an MBA from London Business School and a Textile Science degree and is bilingual in English and German.

Marco Pagnini

Managing Director, EMEA

Marco joined dss⁺ 10 years ago and has been instrumental in delivering transformational projects to clients across the Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Mining & Metals, and Manufacturing industries in the EMEA region. In his current role, he will continue to drive the regional strategy and expand our focus on industry growth and practice diversification. Previously, Marco led the global Mining and Metals industry. He has led large-scale programmes to reduce risk, improve business performance and organisational effectiveness.

Srinivasan Ramabhadran

Managing Director, dss⁺

Srini has over 35 years of experience in managing operations and management consulting. In his current role, he will focus on global growth initiatives aligned to our strategy and will continue to lead our key accounts in the Asia Pacific region. In previous roles, he was Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Business Director for India and ASEAN teams, and Asia Pacific Fulfillment Director. Previously he worked as the Global Director for Operations Risk Management (ORM) and led a regional team of solution architects and consultants. He also led the development of a risk-based approach to safety globally.

Cedric Parentelli

Managing Director, Asia Pacific

Over his career which spans 20+ years, Cedric has focused on operational improvement to deliver measurable and sustainable operational and financial results. In his current role, he will focus on the growth of our consulting capabilities to deliver transformational impact across the Asia Pacific region. In previous roles, he led multiple global business transformation programmes across various industries focusing on identifying and delivering rapid and sustainable business results in terms of cash, cost, and service level. Cedric has a Master’s degree in management and a Bachelor's degree in engineering.

Julio Albernaz

Managing Director, Americas

Julio is the Managing Director for North America and Latin America at dss⁺ with over 24 years of experience in consulting, management of key accounts and client engagements across the region. He has extensive experience in management of E&P multi-million capital projects, practice projects and groups, and business process excellence and standardisation, such as mergers and acquisitions. His expertise lies in digital transformation, CAPEX project management, and he is an industrial specialist in international projects.

Emma Cuttler

Chief Human Resources Officer

Emma has been with dss⁺ for more than nine years and brings over 20 years of international HR experience to the team. She is responsible for engaging global teams to execute business initiatives that enhance the company culture and add value for the business. Emma’s expertise includes strengthening employee engagement, talent acquisition, business acquisitions and integrations, performance management and initiating capability development programs.

Chris Afors

Global Director: Private Equity & Principal Investors Strategy

Chris has 20+ years of experience in professional services. He started his career in investment banking, advising multinational clients on M&A and capital structure optimisation, then moving to the buy-side where he spent 15 years in private equity investing. He works alongside the leadership team to help drive the long term strategic value of dss⁺, while also leading the Private Equity & Principal Investors (“PEPI”) team, collaborating closely with colleagues across all Industries and Practices to deliver the best of our services to clients.

Alistair Cox

Chair of the Board, dss⁺

Alistair brings a long track record of maximising growth opportunities for companies under his leadership with more than 40 years of diverse corporate and consulting experience. His experience as a board leader within corporate and nonprofit environments, and as a former CEO, will help the dss⁺ board set a productive and ambitious agenda for the future. Alistair serves as the current chair of testing and assessment business Thomas International, as well as a director at Relx, a data analytics organisation. He has held the CEO position at Hays, one of the largest global executive recruitment firms and at Xansa, an IT services company.

Davide Vassallo

Chief Executive Officer, dss⁺

Claudio Bertora

Chief Financial Officer, dss⁺

Guy Semmens

Founder, Gyrus Capital

Guy co-founded Gyrus Capital in October 2018 and has over 25 years of experience in private equity.  Previously, Guy was managing partner of Argos Soditic, where he had overall responsibility for the management, fund raising, investor relations and back office of the firm as well as heading the Swiss operation. Before joining Argos Soditic, Guy was a solicitor with Clifford Chance, the international law firm, where he was part of the firm's management buy-out group.

Isabelle Pagnotta

Partner and Head of Business Services Sector, Inflexion

Isabelle has over 20 years of Private Equity experience and is a Partner and head of the Business Services sector at Inflexion. She is responsible for leading the origination and execution of majority and minority investment opportunities in this sector across Europe. Before joining Inflexion, she was a Managing Director at OMERS Private Equity in London for nine years where she led Services and Software transactions across the UK and continental Europe. Prior to joining OMERS, Isabelle worked at Bridgepoint for four years, and Arcapita for six years. She began her career at Bear Stearns in London. Isabelle has a Master of Science in Business Administration from ESCP Business School. She sits on the boards of dss⁺ and K2 Partnering Solutions.

Henrik Nordman

Investment Partner, Inflexion

Henrik is an Investment Partner at Inflexion and is focused on majority and minority investments in the Business Services sector and in the Nordic region. Prior to joining Inflexion in 2022, Henrik spent more than a decade at Bridgepoint where he was based both in Stockholm and London. He started his career in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley in London. Henrik has an MSc in Finance from the Swedish School of Economics and has completed the Program for Leadership Development (PLD23) at Harvard Business School.

Srinivasan Ramabhadran

Managing Director, dss⁺

Betül Susamis Unaran

IAB Board Chair & Chief Commercial Officer and an Executive Board Member of Unilabs

Betül Susamis Unaran is a business transformationalist with decades of experience and a proven track record of driving successful commercial and digital transformations in the Healthcare industry for companies such as Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Novartis and DocMorris. She is the Chief Commercial Officer and an Executive Board Member of Unilabs, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Ypsomed AG headqueartered in Switzerland and Brain+ in Denmark, and Advisory Board Member of Lumanity, an Arsenal Capital Partners company in the US, and formerly of Native Design in the UK. Betül was listed in the 2022 Global Top CDO 100 by HotTopics.ht in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and named as one of the “Top 10 Future Shapers” by Handelszeitung in Switzerland.

Xavier Bontemps

Board Chair of Noven Group Infra SAS

Xavier Bontemps is an international manufacturing, business and HSE leader with over 35 years of experience in the Oil, Gas, Petrochemicals and new energies industries. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Noven Group Infra SAS, as an Executive HSE Consultant for dss⁺ and Safer.Ways. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of HSE for Total Energies, Refining Manufacturing Manager at Ineos and Works General Manager Refining & Chemicals for BP.

Alex Kuilman

Co-Founder and Retired Partner, Mobius Executive Leadership

Alex Kuilman is Co-Founder and retired partner of the global professional services firm Mobius Executive Leadership. He built the global top team practice serving CEO clients and their respective top teams. He remains active by continuing to support many CEO’s and their teams as they navigate the complexities of culture change initiatives. He is an executive coach, facilitator of transformation, mediator and culture change consultant across a broad range of industries.

Alexa Dembek

Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer, DuPont

Alexa Dembek is an experienced strategic leader who specialises in driving science-based innovations and embedding sustainability into corporate strategy, thereby generating significant growth and value. She is currently the Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer at DuPont. She serves on the Board of Directors of CoorsTek, and is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Penn State’s Eberly College of Science and the Board of Directors of the Delaware Innovation Space.

Rafael Chaves Santos

Professor of Economics at FGV Brazil

Rafael Chaves Santos is a leader, engineer and finance specialist with extensive experience leading organisations in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Petroleum and Gas Institute and as Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer at Petrobras. Previously, he has also held leading positions at the Central Bank of Brazil, at Vale, and at the investment fund board of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). Currently, he is working as a Professor of Economics at FGV (since 2014) and will shortly begin a new executive position.

Seema Arora

Deputy Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry

Seema Arora is a leading expert on environmental management and sustainable development in India. She currently serves as the Deputy Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry. She works with industry, government and community-based organisations to develop policy instruments and curate collaborative initiatives across sector and stakeholders. She also acts as an Advisor to the government of India on low carbon growth strategies, measurement frameworks for sustainability performance and sustainable development action plans.

Juan Gabriel Aguiriano Nalda

Group Head of Sustainability and Technology Ventures, Kerry Group

Juan Gabriel Aguiriano Nalda is an executive with over 25 years of experience leading businesses and driving strategic and sustainability transformations at some of the world’s largest food, chemicals and fiber companies. He specialises in business turnaround, organisational leadership and development, change management and new business model development. He is currently the Group Head of Sustainability and Technology Ventures at Kerry Group, as well as a Board Advisor for Rice in Action.