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Forged in complexity, committed to legacy

From high-stakes, complex transactions across the stakeholder spectrum, created to redefine enterprise value advisory with a long-term stakeholder-centric method

Lagarde & Guardsmen's story

A commitment to the Builder Economy:

Drawing on first-hand experience steering more than EUR50 bn of transactions of which more than EUR 7bn of restructurings and special-situations deals - see founder track record below - we saw that piecemeal transactions cannot heal a system built on extraction; Lagarde & Guardsmen therefore dedicates itself to architecting the long-horizon, stakeholder-aligned Builder Economy.

A wish to defend interests of a better, performance driven, values focused society:

Builders cannot be advised by a system of agents that have participated in building the Extraction Economy.
Because the prevailing advisory model is fragmented, fee-driven and short-term-ist, we operate as activists integrating strategy, capital and execution to protect principled performance and secure enduring enterprise value for all stakeholders.
Activist means we act for your long-term stake - not transaction fees - rebuilding value where others extract. Activist means we embed as special-ops partners, steering capital, strategy and operational, organisational execution across every stakeholder until stability and growth return.
Activist means we wield radical, unfiltered advises staying until hard truths translate into enduring results.

We are not for everyone - but for the Builder who share our values:

1. Integrity
2. Ruthless Resolve
3. Empathy
4. Excellence
5. Trust

6. Transparency
7. Transformation
8. Legacy
9. Truth
10. All-in

About the founder

Thomas Lagarde is the CEO and Founder of Lagarde & Guardsmen.

 

He is also the writer of the founding paper that has led to the company's creation.

Deep in Thomas' value lie one belief: that the baseline for humanity should be greatness. Not as one standalone feature for a craft, but as a sign of a coherent person, group, society or civilisation: one should be great at every level and accepting no excuse not to be. That performance, is only great when paired with values and symmetrically values are only worthy when paired with performance.

Humanity is about greatness and deserves greatness. Thomas learned this from a very young age - from training to become a national level kayaking athlete, winning four national titles, to moving to elite french prep-schools. Moving across diverse environments has enabled Thomas to see that once greatness is achieved somewhere, it is only mandatory to continue pushing everywhere, to the benefit of those who cannot.

Thomas started his career in London, after studying or working in Paris, Brussels, Shanghai. He then moved to Frankfurt, Paris, Lausanne and Geneva to pursue his career. After acting on close to 100 transactions as investor, borrower, lender, or advisor, Thomas saw that the future of  finance deserved something better.

Witnessing mainstream advisors retreat when complexity peaked, he authored “The Death of the Extractive Economy and the Need for the Builder Economy,” arguing that humanity deserves systems designed for long-horizon builders, not short-term extractors . Lagarde & Guardsmen is the vehicle for that thesis.

thomas - linkedin profile.jpg

Forged in complexity, committed to legacy

From high-stakes, complex transactions across the stakeholder spectrum, created to redefine enterprise value advisory with a long-term stakeholder-centric method

Lagarde & Guardsmen's story

Drawing on first-hand experience steering more than EUR50 bn of transactions of which more than EUR 7bn of restructurings and special-situations deals - see founder track record below - we saw that piecemeal transactions cannot heal a system built on extraction; Lagarde & Guardsmen therefore dedicates itself to architecting the long-horizon, stakeholder-aligned Builder Economy.

A wish to defend interests of a better, performance driven, values focused society:

Builders cannot be advised by a system of agents that have participated in building the Extraction Economy. Because the prevailing advisory model is fragmented, fee-driven and short-term-ist, we operate as activists integrating strategy, capital and execution to protect principled performance and secure enduring enterprise value for all stakeholders. Activist means we act for your long-term stake - not transaction fees - rebuilding value where others extract. Activist means we embed as special-ops partners, steering capital, strategy and operational, organisational execution across every stakeholder until stability and growth return.

Activist means we wield radical, unfiltered advises staying until hard truths translate into enduring results.

We are not for everyone - but for the Builder who share our values:

1. Integrity
2. Ruthless Resolve
3. Empathy
4. Excellence
5. Trust

6. Transparency
7. Transformation
8. Legacy
9. Truth
10. All-in

Lagarde & Guardsmen's story

A commitment to the Builder Economy:

6. Transparency
7. Transformation
8. Legacy
9. Truth
10. All-in

About the founder

Thomas Lagarde is the CEO and Founder of Lagarde & Guardsmen.

 

He is also the writer of the founding paper that has led to the company's creation.

Deep in Thomas' value lie one belief: that the baseline for humanity should be greatness. Not as one standalone feature for a craft, but as a sign of a coherent person, group, society or civilisation: one should be great at every level and accepting no excuse not to be. That performance, is only great when paired with values and symmetrically values are only worthy when paired with performance.

Humanity is about greatness and deserves greatness. Thomas learned this from a very young age - from training to become a national level kayaking athlete, winning four national titles, to moving to elite french prep-schools. Moving across diverse environments has enabled Thomas to see that once greatness is achieved somewhere, it is only mandatory to continue pushing everywhere, to the benefit of those who cannot.

Thomas started his career in London, after studying or working in Paris, Brussels, Shanghai. He then moved to Frankfurt, Paris, Lausanne and Geneva to pursue his career. After acting on close to 100 transactions as investor, borrower, lender, or advisor, Thomas saw that the future of  finance deserved something better.

Witnessing mainstream advisors retreat when complexity peaked, he authored “The Death of the Extractive Economy and the Need for the Builder Economy,” arguing that humanity deserves systems designed for long-horizon builders, not short-term extractors . Lagarde & Guardsmen is the vehicle for that thesis.

thomas - linkedin profile.jpg

Founder's track record

Total transactional track record

€60bn

c.100

c.30

40+

c.30

Sectors covered, with experience in:

Consumer Discretionary

Consumer Staples

Energy

Notes

1. Transactions acted upon across professional experience, including transactions closed and / or initiated up to execution stage, based upon GICS sector classification.
2. Transaction value stated as nominal value of capital, nominal restructured, M&A Enterprise Value.
3. 
Distressed: involve financially strained companies facing liquidity crises, unsustainable debt burdens, operational inefficiencies whereby transaction is key to the company’s long term stability and/or going concern. Special situations: Special situations refer to non-standard corporate events that require financial structuring beyond traditional financing, M&A, or capital markets transactions.

 1

Transactions value

Acted upon

as Corporate Issuer, Borrower

as Advisor, Investment Banker

as Investor

2

Industrials

Financials

Utilities

3
 

c.€ 7bn

c.50

50+

c.25

40+

Distressed, restructuring and related transactions

Distressed and special situations related transactions

Financing related transactions (Debt/Equity)

Restructuring related transactions

M&A, M&A financing and assets restructurings

Special situations and distressed focused

Communication Services

Healthcare

Real Estate

Sectors covered, with experience in

Notes

1. Transactions acted upon across professional experience, including transactions closed and / or initiated up to execution stage, based upon GICS sector classification.
2. Transaction value stated as nominal value of capital, nominal restructured, M&A Enterprise Value.
3. Distressed: involve financially strained companies facing liquidity crises, unsustainable debt burdens, operational inefficiencies whereby transaction is key to the company’s long term stability and/or going concern. Special situations: Special situations refer to non-standard corporate events that require financial structuring beyond traditional financing, M&A, or capital markets transactions.

Founder's track record

 1

Total transactional track record

Special situations and distressed focused

Transactions value

Acted upon

as Corporate Issuer, Borrower

as Advisor, Investment Banker

as Investor

€60bn

c.100

c.30

40+

c.30

c.€7bn

c.50

50+

c.25

40+

Distressed, restructuring and related transactions

Distressed and special situations related transactions

Financing related transactions (Debt/Equity)

Restructuring related transactions

M&A, M&A financing and assets restructurings

Consumer Discretionary

Consumer Staples

Energy

Industrials

Financials

Utilities

Communication Services

Healthcare

Real Estate

2
 

3
 

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