Chicago Partners advises boards, owners and senior executives on critical strategy, transformation and selected corporate finance situations. Every mandate is personally led by founder Kurt Blecha, with specialist expertise added where it creates value.
A founder-led advisory boutique that provides bespoke, senior-level advice tailored to each client's situation.
Kurt Blecha personally leads every mandate, drawing on nearly three decades of consulting experience and more than 100 completed assignments for national and international clients.
Selected independent specialists from a trusted international network are added only when a mandate genuinely requires their expertise.
Strong reliance on rigorous analysis and the latest empirical research, including work grounded in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Chicago Partners offers strategic guidance and independent, senior-level advice to entrepreneurs and business leaders on the optimisation of their strategy and corporate structures. Every mandate is personally led by founder Kurt Blecha, supported where relevant by hand-picked specialists from a trusted international network.
Kurt Blecha founded Chicago Partners in 2019 after nearly two decades in senior consulting roles, including as a partner at a global leading advisory firm, to offer clients a different model: direct access to senior experience, independent thinking and advice that remains personally accountable from the first conversation through to the result. Since then, Chicago Partners has advised boards, owners and executive teams on strategy, transformation, governance and selected corporate finance situations — always personally led, and supported by selected specialists only where an assignment genuinely requires it.
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I help owners, boards and senior executives identify the real problem, challenge comfortable assumptions and turn strategy into decisions that can be executed.
Most organisations do not lack initiatives. They lack clarity about the problem.
Before formulating a strategy with a client, I ask questions like:
And because disruption rarely announces itself:
Answering these questions honestly often means challenging established assumptions, testing fashionable concepts against economic and organisational reality — or saying plainly when an initiative has not delivered.
I work personally with owners, boards and senior executives. My role is not to confirm the prevailing narrative, but to bring independent judgement, evidence and constructive candour to the decisions that matter — and to help turn those decisions into action.
Selected engagements across Europe and internationally, working with owners, boards, senior executives, founders and investors.
Defining group and segment strategies for leading financial institutions
Assessing and shaping entry into a new market and business model for a financial services group
Designing governance and risk operating models for multi-entity financial services groups
Advising a family office on selected cross-border and off-market transactions
Developing the strategy and global scale-up plan for a European AI health-tech company
Defining and setting up a challenger retail bank
Advising a RegTech venture from inception through early-stage development
“What I appreciate most about Chicago Partners is the personal and customised advice. Our needs remained at the centre, and the recommendations were honest and independent.”
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“The collaboration was highly professional and focused, with solutions tailored to our situation. The workshops involved our team and demonstrated a genuine commitment to partnership.”
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“Each discussion provided valuable insights and helped shape our value proposition. Chicago Partners also opened doors to highly relevant business and academic contacts.”
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Billrothstraße 63/8, A-1190 Vienna, Austria
Chicago Partners also draws on an extended network of senior specialists in Chicago and Tel Aviv, engaged selectively when a mandate calls for it.
By appointment — extending Chicago Partners' senior advisory reach across the UK.
