§
The firm
Small on purpose.
You are not buying a bench of analysts. You are buying the person who runs your search, and an origination capability no firm of this size should have.
§ 01
The name
A ridge, and first light on it.
Drummond is a Scottish territorial name from the Gaelic dromainn — a ridge, a high back of land. Leonardes is the founder’s own name. The mark is the two initials, cut as they would be on a share certificate, inside an engine-turned rosette — the guilloche that has been printed on securities and banknotes for two hundred years because it is hard to counterfeit and impossible to hurry. Nothing was invented around it.
§ 02
The founder
You deal with the person who runs the search.
Drummond Leonardes Partners was founded by J. Leonardes dos Santos — over ten years in mergers and acquisitions, and twenty in B2B origination: the discipline of finding companies nobody has a list of, and getting the person who owns them to take the call.
On a mandate he writes the buy box, reads the target list, approves every message that goes out, and sits in the meetings through to closing. There is no handover to an associate two years out of college, because there is no associate. That is the trade a firm this size offers, and it is the whole of it.
The proprietary database and the sending infrastructure behind every mandate were built from scratch, in the Azores, over three years. They are not licensed from anyone.
- 10+ years in M&A
- 20 years in B2B origination
- Azores, Portugal · US hours
§ 03
Principles
Four, and they are operational.
One side
We work for buyers. We take no consideration from sellers or targets, and the engagement letter forbids it.
Senior throughout
The person you meet is the person who defines the buy box, reads the target list, writes the outreach and sits in the meetings. There is no handover.
Coverage before charm
We would rather have read four thousand companies than know four people. The network follows from the coverage; it does not substitute for it.
Nothing invented
No fabricated transactions, no borrowed logos, no invented assets under advisement. Every number on this site is one we can show you the query for.
§ 04
Track record
Stated plainly.
Drummond Leonardes Partners is a new firm and has completed no transactions under this name. Saying otherwise would be the fastest way to lose a professional buyer, who will check.
What exists is the principal’s prior transaction experience, the origination platform, and terms that put our fee behind your closing. If that is not enough for a first mandate, it should not be — and a short conversation costs you nothing.
§ 05
Where we are
The Azores, working the United States.
The firm operates from the Azores, in the Atlantic, five hours ahead of New York and one behind London. All work is conducted remotely: meetings by video, outreach by letter, mail and telephone. We do not attend in person, and we are explicit about it rather than discovering it at the wrong moment.