Our team

After a 25-year career within leading financial institutions – Paribas, JP Morgan and Edmond de Rothschild as President of the Corporate Finance division – François created Transactions & Compagnie in 2016. Its mission: to support the executives of family and independent companies in their professional and personal projects by creating links between mergers and acquisitions advisory services and wealth planning practices.
With over eighty transactions executed on behalf of independent companies, including some of France’s most important family transactions, François enjoys most of all creating long-term trust relationships with entrepreneurs to help them anticipate and make the right choices in their pivotal decisions.
Intuitive and experienced, this man of letters defines his know-how as an “ability to capture the subtle and complex equation for an entrepreneur, at the cross-roads of the professional, the personal and the protector of the family.”

Frédéric is a Managing Partner at Transactions & Cie. He began his career in 1999, at Donaldson, Lukfin & Jenrette (DLJ), within the M&A team in Paris where he carried out M&A sell-side transactions in the Transportation, Internet, and Telecom sectors. In 2000, he joined the TMT team of Credit Suisse First Boston in London before joining the Corporate Development team at Virgin Media in 2003. In 2005, Frédéric founded Acetis Finance to serve shareholders and managers of small and mid-cap companies in their M&A assignments and initiated capital raising for these clients in sectors such as e-commerce, telecom, consulting, or in the early childhood education segment. Since 2005, he has completed more than forty transactions on behalf of his clients.

In his 30-year career, Christophe de Backer built a wealth of experience as a banker and as as CEO of renowned financial institutions.
Former head of HSBC France and former CEO of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Christophe was most recently a member of the executive committee and a director of HSBC Global Asset Management in London. Charismatic and knowledgeable, during his career he has acquired the skills to develop and maintain the trust of his clients and his teams. In 2021, he decided to use his expertise in an entrepreneurial venture on behalf of his clients, joining Transactions & Compagnie as Non-Executive Chairman to enable this structure to take a new key step in its development, strengthening its corporate finance advisory offer and the value it provides to its clients.

Cedric Meeschaert assumed the position of Partner and Chairman for North America at Transactions & Cie in April 2024, where he oversees operations across the firm’s New York and Miami offices. With a distinguished academic background, Cedric holds a degree in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and boasts over twenty years of leadership experience.

Prior to joining Transactions & Cie, Cedric held prominent roles at Financière Meeschaert, including President of Meeschaert Capital Markets. He was also co-founder and former board member of Park Sutton Advisors, LLC a New York-based investment bank specialized in financial services. His career began at Merrill Lynch New York in 1997 as a Private Banker.

Deeply entrenched in both French and American business spheres, Cedric actively participates in distinguished organizations such as the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and Tiger 21, the Wharton Family Office Group in New York, and the Sciences Po American Foundation. He has also served as Conseiller du Commerce Extérieur de la France.

In addition to his professional ventures, Cedric is dedicated to philanthropic endeavors, having served as President of the Fondation pour la Petite Enfance for ten years.

In his current capacity, Cedric is committed to enhancing Transactions & Cie’s footprint in North America, with a focus on delivering unparalleled expertise and global connectivity in cross-border M&A operations tailored to the needs of discerning French and American entrepreneurs and families.

Christian Menard has over twenty years of experience as an investment banker and has originated and executed numerous transactions on behalf of family-controlled businesses and investment funds. A specialist in private equity transactions, Christian spent more than fifteen years at Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance, where he was a member of the Executive Board, before taking over as Managing Director of Canaccord Genuity in Paris in 2017. In 2021, he decided to join Transactions & Compagnie as a Managing Partner to renew his ties with entrepreneurial finance issues. His objective: to make this M&A boutique the leader in private company transactions in France.

Julien is Managing Partner at Transactions & Cie. He started his career in M&A in 1998 at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) which was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston in 2001. During his time at DLJ, he carried out mergers and acquisitions operations for several large cap clients such as France Telecom, LVMH, Alcatel-Lucent, Gecina, Areva and the IPO of Snecma (Safran). In 2007, Julien joined Citigroup as a Vice President within the Investment Banking team and then as a Director within the Global Banking team in 2009 where he worked on M&A and financing transactions on behalf of clients such as Areva, GDF-Suez, L’Oréal and Casino. In 2010, he was appointed “Coverage Officer” for Citigroup clients in France within the retail and consumer goods sectors. He joined Acetis Finance in 2012 as a Partner with nearly 15 years of experience in investment banking.

Geoffrey Kidd is a Managing Partner and Financial Director at Transactions & Compagnie since its inception.
Prior to joining Transactions et Compagnie, Geoffrey had a twenty-five-year career in Corporate Finance in London and in Paris. He worked for Credit Lyonnais Securities, Clinvest, BNP Paribas and Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance, where he advised on a variety of transactions for international groups and state-owned companies as well as family-owned and entrepreneurial companies.

Diane’s career path is made up with a wide range of experiences built around Corporate Finance and Business Development.
For ten years, Diane supported the growth ambitions of the LVMH Group with L Capital, its investment fund, executing mergers and acquisitions deals, and then as a consultant in strategy and financial performance.
Her years spent as Director of innovation in a century-old family group, along with the start-ups she created or supported, have also served to refine her rare, comprehensive skillset focused on strategy and value creation.
In 2016, convinced that the link between strategy and finance represents the key to value creation, she joined the founding team of Transactions & Compagnie to support her clients in their external growth ambitions and in the preparation of their capital transactions.
Since 2020, Diane is also Managing Director of  Transactions & Compagnie’s parent company, with the mission of growing the Group and developing its offering,  notably with its Private Equity arm, Retriever.

Sébastien Chabre had led a varied career. Starting as a lawyer in Real Estate litigation and in M&A, he then decided to devote himself to financial advisory, particularly in Private Equity transactions.
Driven by a strong taste for entrepreneurship and advisory services, he co-founded Opticroissance in Lyon in 2000, a company dedicated to fundraising and M&A operations. Upon the Edmond de Rothschild Group’s acquisition of the firm in 2006, he became an M&A Director and then Executive Director at the Lyon office.
In 2018, he decided to join the founding team of Transactions & Compagnie as a Partner, returning to an environment of entrepreneurship and close client relationships.

Bertrand Sasson joined Transactions & Compagnie in January 2019 as Managing Partner of its Real Estate practice with overall responsibility for Real Estate advisory activities.
Blessed with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for businesses built around human relationships, Bertrand founded and ran his own real estate consultancy, BST, for over twenty years before joining Transactions & Compagnie. He conducted more than fifty transactions with institutional and private investors, covering a wide range of asset types and risk profiles. Bertrand’s career prior to this was at the Xerox Group, an early experience that was pivotal in the development of his commercial acumen and his ability to bring transactions to a successful conclusion.

After starting his career in leading advisory firms, first as an auditor at Arthur Andersen and then as a Restructuring professional at Deloitte, Thierry-Yves Philippe built a broad experience during thirty years as a Private Equity investment professional taking majority control positions in small and mid-cap companies in the financial and industrial sectors. CEO for nearly three years of the car manufacturer PGO Automobiles, Thierry-Yves made the choice at the end of 2021 to join Transactions et Compagnie as a Partner to bring his experiences as a well-rounded entrepreneur. Thierry-Yves oversees the opening of the New York office and the development of the operational interface with the French team based in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon. Its objective: to support the development and growth of the leader in M&A transactions for family-owned businesses.

Paul O’Mahony built his career around openness and versatility. For more than 25 years, he has conducted M&A and debt advisory mandates for corporates and investment funds on both sides of the English Channel.
He started his career as an auditor at KPMG, before joining the M&A team at Close Brothers in London as a Director. In 2003, he decided to specialise in the debt market with CIC, GE Capital and then KPMG, helping to establish their Leveraged Finance department. Paul was a Senior Advisor at the Edmond de Rothschild Group from 2015 until 2017, before joining the founding team of Transactions & Compagnie as a Partner.
His rich, diverse, and internationally-oriented background is a key asset in the development of Transactions & Compagnie’s activities.

Olivier Vizerie has been an entrepreneur, financier and specialist in the sales and acquisitions of wine estates and vineyards for nearly thirty years. His passion for cultural heritage and oenology led him to launch his own company, Millésime Transaction, in 1995 to offer owners or future buyers of vineyards the support that these very special properties require. He has over 70 transactions under his belt, mainly in the Bordeaux vineyards, covering a wide range of clients.
Building long-term relationships of trust with his clients is a principle dear to Olivier’s heart. It is a principle he continues to put into practice within the M&A practice of Transactions & Compagnie.

With thirty years’ experience across major banking groups (Paribas, HSBC, The CFI Group) and in industry (Rhodia), Yann joined Transactions & Compagnie in 2021 as a Partner. As an investment banker, he developed a comprehensive understanding of clients’ situations, and an ability to quickly grasp and anticipate their needs.
His career has also led him to develop a great deal of expertise in the field of cross-border industrial transactions – a key asset in the international development of Transactions & Compagnie.
Yann is also an impressive athlete, and specialist in the 400 metres dash. A multiple French champion, he has retained from this experience a strong taste for challenge, boldness, and commitment – values which form the DNA of Transactions & Compagnie.

Matthieu is a Partner at Transactions & Cie. He began his career in 2005 at Crédit Agricole in Corporate Finance before joining Euroland Finance in 2006 where he mostly worked on IPO transactions within the Corporate Finance team. In 2010, Matthieu joined Global Equities Corporate Finance as Director where he originated and executed fundraising and M&A transactions for growth companies. Matthieu participated in forty transactions in sectors such as Technology (Ubeeqo, Anatole, Predictys, Serma Technologies, Ad Valem Technologies), Distribution (Monceau Fleurs, Innelec Multimedia), BtoB Services (Sinteo, Sogemed, TSF Group) or Computer engineering and services companies (Ausy, Micropole-Univers, Prodware). He became a Partner at Acetis Finance in 2015.