Richardt Deleuran
Turnaround CEO with four completed turnaround assignments under his belt
Ability to focus in a crisis
MBA. X-profile, industry-agnostic
Meet Richardt
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My Skills
Turnaround & Crisis Leadership
I am typically brought in when organisations face acute financial or operational pressure and need decisive leadership.
My role is to stabilise the situation fast, re-establish financial and commercial control, and create the conditions for sustainable recovery — often under time pressure and with limited room for error.
At Nodi A/S, the company was months from bankruptcy despite a monopolistic market position. Within days, I executed a radical pricing reset (πx), stabilised customer relationships through direct communication, and restored commercial momentum.
Within eight months, the company delivered the highest profit in its 50-year history, with revenue tripled, profitability increased fivefold, and a 24-month order backlogsecured.
Once stability was restored, I transitioned focus to long-term organisational and operational modernisation before handing leadership back to the owner-managers.
Similar mandates have followed me throughout my career — entering unclear situations, creating structure, and delivering measurable results under pressure.
Selected outcomes
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Revenue 3×, profitability 5×at Nodi
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Multiple distressed organisations stabilised and returned to control
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Full leadership accountability, incl. owner-manager environments
Execution Under Pressure
I am known for execution in environments where time, cash, and credibility are limited. When pressure escalates, I move close to operations, simplify priorities, and convert strategy into actions that can be executed immediately. My leadership is hands-on and pragmatic: I clarify decision rights, remove bottlenecks, and ensure follow-through across the organisation.
During COVID at Premium Syscon, the company was losing significant amounts daily across multiple high-rise construction projects. I entered live construction sites, rebuilt schedules and staffing plans, renegotiated with contractors, and enforced strict project-economy discipline. By combining on-site execution with financial transparency, we stabilised delivery and halted losses across the majority of critical projects.
At Nodi, execution under pressure took a different form: survival depended on restoring topline momentum within weeks. I led an immediate pricing reset, aligned sales execution, and managed customer communication personally to prevent churn. The result was rapid commercial recovery and restored confidence internally and externally.
I do not optimise for perfection. I optimise for progress, momentum, and results — especially when delay is the biggest risk.
Selected examples
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Premium Syscon: Loss-making high-rise projects stabilised; 5 of 6 critical projects brought under control
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Nodi: Immediate commercial execution under near-bankruptcy conditions; market position resecured within weeks
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Repeated ability to execute across sites, functions, and cultures under acute pressure
Business Development
I build growth engines that convert to margin, cash, and resilience — not volume for its own sake. My approach to business development is tightly linked to execution capability, pricing discipline, and operational reality. Growth only matters if the organisation can deliver it profitably.
At Nodi, business development meant correcting decades-old pricing logic while retaining customer trust in a monopolistic but relationship-driven market.
I redesigned the pricing architecture, led direct customer communication, and rebuilt the commercial structure. In parallel, I re-established an international agent network to support scalable global sales. The result was rapid topline recovery, a 24-month order backlog, and restored confidence in the company’s market position.
At ScanAvia, business development focused on complex international public-sector projects. I redirected the company toward global markets, built partnerships with local contractors and airports, and secured long-term service and maintenance agreements.
This resulted in international contracts exceeding €10 million, including mission-critical installations in Antarctica, Germany, Iran, Chile, and Greenland.
Across roles, I consistently combine market entry, pricing, and sales execution with operational readiness. I do not separate commercial ambition from delivery capacity — the two must move together.
Selected outcomes
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Nodi: Pricing reset, rebuilt agent network, 24-month order backlog
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ScanAvia: International contracts > €10macross multiple continents
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Teamwork Family: SaaS platform scaled; strategic partnership with Danske Bank
Financial Control
I establish financial control as a foundation for leadership — not as a reporting exercise. In many of the situations I enter, numbers have lost credibility, decision-making is disconnected from reality, and management is reacting too late. My first priority is therefore to restore transparency in cash flow, margins, pricing, and project economics so leadership can act with confidence.
At Nodi, financial control was rebuilt from the ground up. I implemented Odoo ERP/CRM across the entire value chain, creating real-time visibility into pricing, service margins, cash flow, and order backlog. This shifted finance from retrospective reporting to an active management tool and enabled faster, better-informed decisions at both executive and board level.
At Premium Syscon, financial discipline was critical to stopping daily losses during COVID. I went deep into project economics, uncovered inconsistencies between reported and actual performance, and enforced tighter cost control, forecasting, and execution governance. This provided the parent company with a reliable view of the Danish operation and restored trust in the numbers.
I work closely with CFOs and finance teams and have deep respect for the finance function. My role is to ensure that financial data supports leadership decisions, not just compliance. Strong financial control creates time, options, and credibility with owners, boards, and stakeholders.
Selected outcomes
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Nodi: Full ERP-driven financial transparency; restored confidence in pricing, margins, and cash flow
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Premium Syscon: Loss drivers identified and controlled; reporting credibility re-established
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Repeated experience turning finance into an active leadership instrument rather than a constraint
Stakeholder Value Creation
I create stakeholder value by restoring credibility, predictability, and decision-quality — especially in situations where trust has eroded due to underperformance or crisis. My focus is not consensus, but alignment: owners, boards, management, employees, and external partners must operate from the same reality.
At Nodi, the company was months from bankruptcy, and confidence among owners and key stakeholders was low. I re-established transparency around cash flow, margins, pricing logic, and order intake, enabling fact-based decision-making at board level.
By stabilising operations and delivering measurable results — 3x revenue, 5x profitability, and the strongest financial result in 50 years— credibility was restored quickly. This created room for strategic discussions about long-term production modernisation rather than short-term survival.
At Premium Syscon, operating under a listed Austrian parent during COVID, stakeholder value depended on stopping financial leakage and re-establishing trust in local reporting. I uncovered inconsistencies in project economics, corrected reporting, and provided the parent company with a clear operational and financial picture of the Danish subsidiary.
This enabled informed decisions on risk exposure, staffing, and project continuation.
In owner-led and partner-driven organisations, I am comfortable taking full leadership responsibility while ensuring owners retain visibility and confidence. I work closely with boards, investors, and key partners — not to impress, but to enable decisive governance.
Value delivered
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Restored trust through transparent financial and operational reporting
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Enabled boards and owners to shift from crisis response to strategic decisions
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Reduced stakeholder risk exposure through early issue identification
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Built credibility fast by delivering results, not narratives
Leadership & AI Adoption
I work with AI as a leadership and execution discipline — not as a technology trend. My focus is on where AI creates real economic and organisational leverage, and where it does not. I do not promote tools; I design decision frameworks.
Since completing my assignment at Nodi, I have used my garden leave to deepen my practical understanding of AI adoption in executive and industrial contexts.
I work closely with specialists implementing AI in production, commercial, and administrative environments, and I engage at the level of LLMs, data structures, use-case economics, and organisational readiness— not surface-level productivity tools.
My role is to translate AI capability into leadership action:
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Where AI meaningfully improves margins, throughput, or decision quality
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When implementation is economically justified — and when it is not
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How organisations must adapt processes, roles, and governance to benefit
I treat AI adoption the same way I treat any transformation: clarify the objective, redesign the operating model, pilot fast, measure impact, and scale only what works. This prevents technology-driven distraction and ensures AI becomes a competitive advantage rather than an overhead.
For boards and owners, I position AI as a strategic leadership topic— tied to risk, investment priorities, and long-term competitiveness — not as an IT initiative.
What changes
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AI initiatives grounded in business value, not experimentation
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Clear decision rights and ownership around AI use
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Faster learning cycles with controlled risk
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Leadership confidence in when to act — and when not to
