Domenico Sansalone is the Corporate Treasurer at Expro Group Holdings, one of the world’s leading energy services companies serving the oil and gas industry across 60 countries with over 8,500 employees. As a senior finance executive at the heart of global energy infrastructure, he manages billions of dollars in capital allocation, liquidity, and strategic financing decisions that shape the future of energy investment.
Background
Domenico began his career at Rio Tinto Alcan in Montreal, where he entered corporate finance and treasury after initially studying applied sciences, gaining early experience in risk management in a highly cyclical, capital-intensive commodity business. There, he lived through Rio Tinto’s 40 billion dollar acquisition of Alcan and the ensuing Lehman Brothers crisis, as aluminium prices fell from 3,000 to 1,400 dollars per ton, which deeply shaped his approach to liquidity, hedging, and downside risk.
He later progressed to senior roles in Europe, including Director and then Head of Corporate Finance at Constellium in Zurich, where he helped build the treasury function and prepare the former Rio Tinto Alcan downstream business for life under private equity ownership and an eventual IPO.
In 2012 he joined ArcelorMittal in Paris as External Funding Manager, securing around 1 billion dollars in short-term liquidity lines and working on refinancing for a company carrying roughly 20 billion dollars of debt at a time when EBITDA had dropped from about 7 billion per quarter to 7 billion per year.
In 2015, Domenico moved to the United Kingdom to become Corporate Treasurer at Expro, initially a private-equity-owned company with a leveraged balance sheet facing an oil-price collapse. Across nearly two decades in metals, mining, and energy, he has managed through multiple commodity cycles, restructurings, and capital-market dislocations while building long-term relationships with global banks and investors.
Core Expertise
Domenico specializes in corporate treasury, risk management, capital allocation, and strategic financing for capital-intensive, cyclical industries such as metals, mining, and oil and gas. He is known for a disciplined, liquidity-first mindset in treasury, emphasizing early bank engagement, robust downside scenarios, and clear education of senior leadership on the purpose of hedging and risk management rather than short-term speculation.
His expertise spans liquidity planning, debt structuring, hedging of commodity and financial risks, working capital optimization, and supporting large-scale investment decisions that must balance shareholder expectations, geopolitical realities, and long-term energy-transition dynamics.
Academia
Domenico holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from Concordia University in Montreal, providing a quantitative foundation for his subsequent work in corporate finance and risk management.
He later completed an Executive MBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, which he pursued to challenge his thinking beyond a single industry, gain diverse global perspectives, and build a network of peers across sectors and geographies.
Throughout the Oxford EMBA, he combined rigorous academic work with a demanding executive role, an experience he describes as intellectually enriching but highly intense, and one he would repeat with more careful timing relative to professional workload.
He also engages with lifelong learning and leadership development communities, remaining connected to the Oxford network and broader professional forums focused on finance, leadership, and energy transition.
Key Perspectives that Domenico Shares on the Podcast
Domenico brings a measured pragmatism to discussions about the future of energy, stressing that energy transition is about changing the mix and future growth of energy sources rather than completely eliminating existing fuels, noting that the world still uses wood, coal, and peat alongside modern energy sources.
He highlights the often overlooked technical and economic constraints of renewables, including energy density, storage, grid integration, and thermodynamic losses, and argues that technologies like geothermal may play a larger role than is commonly discussed, especially when combined with existing oil and gas drilling capabilities.
In the conversation with Domenico, you will gain rare insight into how multi-billion-dollar energy and capital-allocation decisions are actually made inside large corporations, how crisis planning for liquidity really works, and how geopolitical risk, energy security, and technology bets intersect in boardroom discussions.
You will also hear a candid philosophy on crisis as both a threat and an investment in organizational learning, as he explains why resilient treasury planning, strong banking relationships, and a culture that learns from mistakes are essential for long-term value creation in volatile industries.
A Quote from this Conversation with Domenico:
“Crisis is going to be inevitable, but oftentimes crisis is an opportunity as well. If you’re willing to endure it, then you have a supportive group to help you endure it from a financing point of view.”
