Deal or No Deal with Richard Kestenbaum, Partner, Triangle Capital

Joining us for our final interview recorded in the Scratch Event DJs remote podcast studio at the Revtech Rev Summit is Richard Kestenbaum, leading retail influencer, Forbes contributor, and co-Founder and Partner at Triangle Capital.

Richard and his firm specialize in mergers, acquisitions and capital-raising for consumer-related businesses, and were fortunate to get his insightful perspective and uniques takes on a variety of topics, including the accelerating pace of disruption, resistance to change, and the transformative impacts of AI. We also get Richard's hot-takes on an improving deal environment, department store consolidation, and whether taking a company private makes any difference whatsoever.

But first we unpack the most important retail news of the week, starting with the impacts of climate change and the imminent US elections, brought to you by SCAYLE.  Then it's on to talk about the implications of Amazon Prime Days on the holiday season. We conclude with deals, deals, deals as MyTheresa's plans to acquire YNAP from Richemont, Moose Knuckles gets a minority investment from Chinese apparel giant Bosideng, Couche-Tard ups its offer to take-over convenience store giant 7-Eleven. and Selfridge's receives a 40% investment from PIF, the Saudi wealth fund.

For more on the Berns Communication Group's Retail Influencer Network go here.

For our 2022 interview with MyTheresa's CEO Michael Kliger go here.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.