The Premise

Build the next decade. Protect what you have built.

Capital stewardship connects allocation, governance, and incentive design into a single system. The boards that see this clearly move faster and with more precision.

Let's talk
Awareness

See what was always there.

Your capital stewardship position, the levers available to your company, and where your strengths come to light.

See It in Practice
Perspectives

Let's shape the next decade.

The Pull or Push series. Selected writing on capital stewardship, governance design, and how boards build earning capacity that lasts.

Read the Series
Envision

Where you want to go, and what it takes to get there.

Where you are, what is important to you, and what you want to achieve. See your starting position and where your room to act is strongest.

See Your Starting Position
Execution

Leapfrog the next chapter.

Where you are, your starting position, and what could be possible. It begins with a first exchange.

Let's talk
CEO Priorities

Every priority list covers AI and geopolitics. Almost none cover where the capital goes.

Over 40% of CEOs acknowledge their current business model will need to change within the decade. The question is where capital goes next and how governance keeps pace with the speed of reallocation.

Every quarter, firms like McKinsey, BCG, PwC, and Deloitte publish what they observe across their client work and leadership conversations. AI, geopolitics, and talent appear on every list. Capital allocation discipline appears on almost none.

The CEO Priorities Tracker synthesizes 18 of these sources into a single view. See where they converge, where they diverge, and where the capital stewardship question sits in the picture.

Open the CEO Priorities Tracker
93%
of revenues remain locked in models under structural pressure. Only 7% stem from new ventures.

PwC 28th Global CEO Survey, January 2025

The Framework

Where capital stewardship meets governance design

Extended Shareholder Return™ connects three levers that are most powerful when they work as a single system.

Capital Allocation

Your capital decisions, seen through the lens of future earning capacity.

Governance Design

Your governance structures, connected to the time frame your strategy lives in.

Incentive Architecture

Your compensation design, measured against the transformation you are investing in.

Three dimensions. One view. Together, they reveal how capital allocation, governance, and incentives interact in a company.

Explore the Extended Shareholder Return™ Framework
What the framework found

Calibrated. Versioned. Verified.

The Extended Shareholder Return™ analysis reads what is already disclosed in audited annual reports and public filings. The framework measured more than 100 companies across 11 sectors, and the observation base continues to grow. Three were classified Asset Depletion Risk. All three entered insolvency within 12 to 24 months.

The structural inputs were constant in every measured year. The market believed the cycle. The framework read the structure.

Spotlight
Meyer Burger
Manufacturing, Switzerland
FY2018 to FY2023
Rev. CAGR-20%
'19
-39%
'20
+85%
'21
+8%
'22
+44%
'23*
-83%
Terminal
-100%
* FY2023 TRS from unadjusted closing prices. November 2022 rights issue (20:7 at CHF 0.267) affects adjusted series.
UNGC
CSO
GRI
TAX
Insolvency May 2025
Top strengths
None qualifying
Impact explorer
Material dependency
Asset utilization
Circular value capture
Revenue direction
Supply chain resilience
External risk
UNGC member. CSO appointed. GRI reports. EU Taxonomy-aligned. All four dots green. Where do the bars place the asset base?
Spotlight
Corsa Coal
Extractives, Canada / Pennsylvania
FY2019 to FY2024
Rev. CAGR-1%
'20
-41%
'21
+431%
'22
-30%
'23
+15%
'24
-82%
Terminal
-100%
 
MSCI
UNGC
SRI
FTSE
Chapter 11 January 2025
Top strengths
None qualifying
Impact explorer
Material dependency
Process utilization
Circular value capture
Revenue direction
Supply chain resilience
External risk
FY2023: best net income since 2017. USD 23.6 million profit. Where do the bars place that year?
Spotlight
Nine Energy
Extractives, Houston, Texas
FY2020 to FY2025
Rev. CAGR+17%
'21
-64%
'22
+1131%
'23
-79%
'24
-60%
'25
-72%
Terminal
-100%
 
MSCI
UNGC
SRI
FTSE
Chapter 11 February 2026
Top strengths
None qualifying
Impact explorer
Material dependency
Process utilization
Circular value capture
Revenue direction
Supply chain resilience
External risk
Adjusted ROIC 8.8%. Adjusted EBITDA USD 73 million. All shareholders wiped out. Where do the bars place that return?

The calibration is versioned and maintained on a fixed revision cycle as the observation base grows. The framework identifies which companies preserve their asset base and which deplete it. It shows where the investment decision should begin.

The Company's Starting Position

Where a company stands is a starting point. Every starting position carries levers that can be activated, strengthened, or redirected. The question is which ones, how quickly they can move the company toward the position it wants to reach, and what risks need to be addressed along the way.

A structured view of where the company's capital position stands today, where it is well served, and where structural risks may need attention.

Assess the Capital Position
Situational Assessment

Your company through a different lens

How the company ticks, what it has built, and which levers could move it to its next chapter. 22 questions. 15 minutes.

Take the Assessment

If you want to explore what the profile means in practice, schedule a conversation.

In Practice

Which assets compound.

We measured 40 companies on whether they preserve or erode the assets that generate their future earnings. Here are fifteen. The contrasts tell the story.

Which assets compound.
15 companies. The bars show the answer.
15 companies across 9 sectors
Extended Shareholder Return™ analysed 40 companies across 11 sectors.
Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Extractives, Construction, Food Systems, Transport & Logistics, Technology, Financial Services, Defence & Aerospace, Agriculture, Chemicals.
I want to understand the mechanics What does this show for the companies we hold?
Perspectives

From the Pull or Push newsletter series

Where capital allocation meets governance design.

It’s Called Fiduciary Duty

Read →

Who Holds the Pen?

Read →

China vs. Europe: Who Builds the Architecture?

Explore →

Capital Flows Like Water

Read →

The Ice Tank in Kupferzell

Read →

Next edition

Coming soon
About

Catherine Schoendorff

Capital Stewardship | CEO and Board Advisor

Former CEO of Mercer Switzerland. Former CTO across multiple regulated industries. Three decades of restructuring, turnaround, and building revenue in professional services and asset-heavy sectors.

Today: advising CEOs and board chairs whose capital allocation decisions determine whether their companies lead the next industrial cycle or exit it. Teaching restructuring and digital transformation at executive level through WAR/IHK Cologne. Active research on how CEOs navigate structural change at the normative-strategic level.

LinkedIn thought leadership on capital stewardship and governance with 800+ subscribers.

Catherine Schoendorff
“Catherine demonstrated impressive capabilities of strategic visioning with down-to-earth effective execution with highly engaged people.”
Thierry de Beyssac
Partner, Axialent | Former CEO, Aon Europe Cluster
“She understands that motivation and appreciation are equally important to get people to do their best, and to do it with passion.”
Stefan Hepp
Entrepreneur & Global Private Markets Leader
“Catherine Schoendorff is the superwoman you need to transform your business in depth.”
Friedrich Tanner
Former CFO, Swiss Papermill Industry

Our Expertise

I have the pleasure of working alongside professionals with direct operational experience at C-level and equivalent positions across pension funds, governance, institutional capital markets, analytical methodology, legal, and operations. This expertise spans South Africa, the Western EU, and Switzerland. Gender balance, a wide range of professional backgrounds, and generational diversity are defining characteristics, by design.

How We Work

Our three-step approach

1

Where does the journey start

A first conversation about where you are, what is important to you, and what you want to achieve, once you have seen your starting position.

2

Starting Position Analysis

You share your financials, and we produce a grounded analysis of where you are. Together we agree upon your strategic profile and the options that strengthen your position, so you enter the next step from a stronger starting position.

3

Advisory Partnership

We go deeper into what can be done and what you want to do, tied back to your strategic profile and the options we agreed upon. We prepare the options for you and your board to decide upon, then work alongside your leadership team to execute.