# Alex Kruzel. Strategic Advisor, Board Director, Author

> Alex Kruzel advises boards, CEOs, and investors navigating geopolitical disruption, energy transition, and volatile growth markets. CEO & Founder of Telesto Strategy. Author of The Courage to Continue.

## About Alex Kruzel

Alex Kruzel is a strategic advisor, board director, author, and the CEO and founder of Telesto Strategy, an AI-enabled growth intelligence firm serving the private equity ecosystem. She advises boards, C-suite executives, and institutional investors on geopolitical risk, energy transition, corporate governance, and capital allocation across volatile growth markets. She has more than 20 years of experience across four continents and 30+ countries.

- Roles: CEO & Founder, Board Director, Board Chair, Strategic Advisor, Author
- Company: Telesto Strategy (telestostrategy.com)
- Location: Chicago, Illinois
- Education: M.A., University of Chicago; B.A., Vanderbilt University
- Certification: Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Email: alex.kruzel@telestostrategy.com
- Website: https://www.alex-kruzel.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-kruzel-142bb215/

## Areas of Expertise

- Geopolitical Risk & Global Supply Chain Resilience
- Corporate Governance & Board Advisory
- Private Equity Strategy & Portfolio Company Governance
- Energy Security & Energy Transition
- Sustainability & Climate Risk (TCFD, ISSB/IFRS S2)
- Cybersecurity Governance & OT Risk
- AI Governance & Emerging Technology Risk
- Capital Allocation & Growth Strategy
- Enterprise Risk Management & Fiduciary Responsibility
- D&O Liability & Director Risk
- Stranded Assets & Balance Sheet Risk
- Quantum Computing (Board-Level Implications)
- Water Scarcity & AI Infrastructure
- National Security Investment

## Affiliations & Memberships

- Chicago Council on Global Affairs
- National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)
- National Peace Corps Association
- PivotalImpact
- Extraordinary Women on Boards

## Book

Title: The Courage to Continue: Stay the Course on Sustainability to Secure Our Future
Author: Alex Kruzel
Published: 2025
Description: A book exploring leadership, resilience, and long-term thinking in volatile markets. It argues that sustainability strategy is not a compliance obligation but a competitive imperative for boards and executives navigating the next decade.

## Published Insights

### The self-driving supply chain needs a map, not just an engine (April 2026)
Topics: AI & Supply Chain, Reshoring, Board Governance, Agentic AI
Summary: Companies are racing to declare AI-enabled supply chains and commit to domestic manufacturing. The gap between those declarations and operational reality is where competitive advantage is actually won, or quietly lost.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/supply-chain-ai.html

### The kitchen sink committee (February 2026)
Topics: Board Governance, Audit Committee, Corporate Risk
Summary: When one committee oversees everything, does it oversee anything? AI, cyber, climate risk, and now tariffs. The audit committee's mandate has never been broader, or the competency gap wider.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/audit-committee.html

### Between the headlines and the hold period: Six supply chain questions reshaping the PE industrial thesis in 2026 (January 2026)
Topics: Private Equity, Supply Chain, Industrials, Tariffs, Critical Minerals, AI in Manufacturing, Climate Risk
Summary: A deep dive for the private equity ecosystem on what's actually shaping industrial and manufacturing portfolios in 2026, tariff engineering as a real competency, the Gulf/energy repricing of LBO models, logistics as strategic choice, critical-mineral concentration, AI adoption bifurcation, and climate risk as balance-sheet risk. Six open problems written as questions, not forecasts.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/pe-industrials.html

### Hormuz, Malacca, Suez, and the governance gap between them (April 2026)
Topics: Geopolitics, Supply Chain, C-Suite & Board
Summary: Supply chains are full of signals right now. The question is not whether your company has a contingency plan, it's whether your organization is built to continuously find the next chokepoint before it finds you.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/chokepoint.html

### Water and AI: Separating fact from fiction for Midwest PE-backed industrials (April 2026)
Topics: Water Scarcity, AI, Private Equity
Summary: The same assumptions that made energy a surprise cost driver are being repeated today with water. Here is what the private equity ecosystem needs to understand, and act on. Now.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/water-ai.html

### Quantum computing: What I'm telling my PE clients now (March 2026)
Topics: Quantum Computing, Private Equity, Midwest
Summary: The window between positioning and exposure is narrowing faster than most mid-market sponsors realize. Here's how I'm framing the quantum conversation, and why Chicago has become ground zero.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/quantum-pe.html

### When the lights go out (February 2026)
Topics: Cybersecurity, Energy Infrastructure, Board Governance
Summary: Cyber threats to energy infrastructure and the companies that depend on it. A business risk most boards are still underpricing. This isn't just a utility sector problem.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/cyber-energy.html

### The stranded asset problem: When accounting standards meet a world that no longer is (January 2026)
Topics: Stranded Assets, Balance Sheet Risk, Board Governance
Summary: Four concurrent shocks are invalidating the assumptions underneath corporate balance sheets. The 2026 impairment reckoning will be different, and most boards are not ready.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/stranded-asset.html

### A geography you didn't price: Physical climate risk and the US onshoring decision (December 2025)
Topics: Physical Climate Risk, Onshoring, Board Governance, TCFD
Summary: $2 trillion in reshoring commitments. Most boards approved without a climate risk line item. The gap between capital deployment speed and climate due diligence is where the next generation of impaired assets will emerge.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/climate-onshoring.html

### The unhedgeable board: Personal liability in an age of uninsurable risk (December 2025)
Topics: Corporate Governance, D&O Liability, Risk Strategy
Summary: The traditional instruments of risk transfer, insurance, hedging vehicles, contractual indemnification, are facing structural limits precisely when the underlying risks are becoming structurally larger. What this means for directors.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/director-liability.html

### Not just a defense story: What America's national security investment surge means for every board (November 2025)
Topics: National Security, Board Governance, Innovation
Summary: The decisions that will define corporate winners and losers in the defense-industrial realignment are not being made in 2028. They are being made right now, in boardrooms that don't yet know they're deciding.
URL: https://www.alex-kruzel.com/insights/golden-dome.html

## Speaking Topics

Alex Kruzel speaks on geopolitical risk, corporate governance, energy transition, supply chain resilience, AI governance, and sustainability strategy. She addresses corporate boards, private equity conferences, and industry leadership forums.

## Contact

- Email: alex.kruzel@telestostrategy.com (CC: bella.baguio@telestostrategy.com)
- Website: https://www.alex-kruzel.com
- Company: https://www.telestostrategy.com