BDO Belgium acquires Chapelle Consulting

BDO has acquired risk management consultancy Chapelle Consulting, founded by the Ariane Chapelle. The advisory practice helps businesses become better prepared for the risks of today and tomorrow.

In addition, BDO will train and upskill (future) risk managers from Belgian and international companies, primarily targeting the financial sector with its comprehensive offering.

Chapelle Consulting has a track record advising the financial industry and international organisations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the European Investment Bank, ING, Degroof-Petercam, and Ethias on how to better manage their risks.

“Identifying business risks and devising strategies to guard against them is becoming increasingly important in a rapidly changing world where crises follow each other in swift succession,” said Koen Claessens, managing partner Risk Advisory at BDO Belgium.

”We are therefore pleased to bring the Chapelle international risk management authority on board. Not only are we gaining additional experts, but we’re also getting all the proven methodologies and training that Ariane Chapelle and her team have developed over the past decades.”

Focus on financial sector

Companies are facing a deluge of additional laws and regulations, making their operating environment increasingly complex. This is certainly true in the financial sector.

Banks and other financial institutions are searching for solutions to the risks posed by new regulations and new risk exposures, how to maintain a global oversight, and how to integrate new regulations with existing ones.

“BDO already has a lot of know-how concerning how companies should address individual risks such as compliance and cybercrime,” said Steven Cauwenberghs, partner, Risk Advisory at BDO Belgium. ”With the Chapelle acquisition, we are adding a strategic layer of risk management to these individual risks.

”The methodologies provide an overarching risk framework for companies, which is how we’ll link all the existing puzzle pieces of risk management and individual business risks together.” 

BDO now has a team of 40 risk specialists following the acquisition of Chapelle Consulting. After the acquisition, Chapelle’s experts will move to BDO’s new, recently opened building on Rue Stassart in Brussels, and will operate under the name BDO Chapelle.

“Joining forces with BDO Belgium is a key step forward for Chapelle Consulting. It gives us the opportunity to further disseminate our experience in risk management within a large international network; creating a compelling value proposition to our clients and to the consultancy services BDO offers,” said Ariane Chapelle, founder of Chapelle Consulting and associate professor at University College London.