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How Susanne May built May & Company into a global transformation firm — and why nearly two decades of market disruption only made it stronger.
Susanne May founded May & Company in 2007, the year the global financial system began to unravel. In the nearly two decades since, the Berlin-based CEO has steered her firm through the financial crisis, a global pandemic, prolonged recession, and now an AI-driven transformation of business models. Each disruption, she’ll tell you, made the company sharper.
Her clients (among them The Walt Disney Company, Cargill, MSD, and Unilever) come to May & Company for one thing: transformation that translates strategy into execution. Today, Susanne is scaling that capability through CultureUp, a proprietary AI-powered platform built to take her firm’s methodology global.
You founded May & Company right at the start of the global financial crisis. What were you seeing that made you go ahead?
After my career as a political economist and senior corporate transformation leader, I could see a clear gap: organizations needed practical, data-driven approaches to culture and leadership that translate strategy into execution. A crisis sharpens that problem. When pressure is high, the gap between strategy and execution becomes impossible to ignore.
What does May & Company do, and what problem does it solve?
Global organizations and private equity portfolio companies struggle to turn strategy and AI transformation into fast, reliable execution. The reason is almost always the same: leadership behavior and culture are not being managed as measurable, scalable performance systems.
Our approach helps private equity-backed companies and large corporates translate strategy into execution by aligning leadership capability, organizational behavior, and operating models. This is supported by a proprietary AI-powered platform CultureUp and methodologies designed to drive measurable improvements in performance, talent outcomes, and value creation.
What is the most significant trend shaping your industry right now?
Two things, which are closely connected. First, AI-enabled leadership and AI readiness at scale: companies are investing heavily in AI, but value is being blocked by leadership, skills, and execution gaps. The technology is ready. The organizations often aren’t. This creates strong demand for AI readiness and leadership transformation programs tied directly to performance and ROI.
Second, value creation in private equity through execution and culture. Private equity has shifted from financial engineering to operational value creation. Leadership quality, decision speed, and post-merger execution have become core levers for EBITDA growth, integration success, and exit multiples, driving large, multi-year transformation mandates.
May & Company has navigated the financial crisis, COVID-19, recession, and now an AI disruption. What is the throughline?
We treat disruption as a driver for improvement, not a threat. Each of these phases challenged client priorities, budgets, and decision cycles, and each time, we used the disruption to sharpen our focus, strengthen our offerings, and deepen our relevance. The company not only weathered these shifts but emerged from each one stronger, more focused, and better positioned for the next phase of growth.
This resilience is not accidental. Crises are used to refine the business model, upgrade capabilities, and build more scalable, future-ready solutions.
Why did WBE certification matter to you — and what does the WEConnect International network offer at this stage?
It was a strategic decision to accelerate learning, growth, and international reach. The exchange with other experienced entrepreneurs provides valuable perspective on scaling, positioning, and operating in different markets. At the same time, the network creates direct access to global organizations and decision-makers who are actively looking for partners with exactly the kind of transformation, leadership, and execution capabilities we offer.
This combination of peer learning and enterprise-level market access makes the network highly relevant for our next phase of growth.
What advice would you give to other women building businesses?
I would strongly recommend shifting quickly to an entrepreneurial, platform-driven scaling model to achieve global reach and avoid being perceived as a small or purely local player. This creates the operating leverage, visibility, and credibility needed to compete in international markets and win enterprise-level clients.
About May & Company
May & Company is a Berlin-based global transformation firm founded by Susanne May in 2007. The firm helps private equity-backed companies and large corporates translate strategy into execution by aligning leadership capability, organizational behavior, and operating models. May & Company’s proprietary AI-powered platform, CultureUp, scales proven transformation methodologies across clients, teams, and geographies. May & Company is a WEConnect International certified Women’s Business Enterprise.
www.mayxcompany.com