EQT has spent thirty years building a model where external expertise — through a global network of industrial advisers — sits alongside financial investment as a core value creation tool. Bettina Siempelkamp, EQT's Global Head of Network and Talent, offers a rare inside view of how that model has evolved: from advising deal teams on management assessments and CEO transitions, to building AI-literate boards, to quietly incubating the next generation of CFO talent from within.

In conversation with Cosmo Lush of True, the discussion covers the troika governance model that underpins EQT's portfolio relationships, the persistent challenge of recruiting senior talent in Europe versus the US, and why stability in management teams — not turnover — is the metric that matters most when markets get uncertain.