60 employees from 12 countries gather for three days of leadership development, AI training, and cross-regional team building
GUANGZHOU, China, May 16, 2026 — ARC Group, the global investment bank and management consultancy with offices spanning 12 countries and 3 continents, brought together more than 60 employees from across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America in Guangzhou, China from May 13 to 15 for its 2026 annual global retreat.
The three-day program combined leadership sessions, AI training, experiential team-building, and business training focused on cross-border M&A and capital markets execution. Many participants met in person for the first time despite having worked together across time zones for months or years.
The Firms That Win Are Built on Principle
Senior leadership worked directly alongside global teams on live market challenges, including cross-border deal execution, risk assessment across regions, and decision-making under pressure. President Sergio Camarero led sessions centered on ARC Group’s foundational principles, with particular focus on the firm’s Ten Golden Rules. One principle emerged as a recurring theme across the week: “If there is a will, there is a way.”
The Tools That Change How We Work
An AI training workshop moved immediately from concept to application. Teams ran a live deal screening exercise using AI tools, processing in minutes a pipeline that would typically require hours of manual review. Within the same timeframe, teams were able to evaluate up to three times more opportunities, prompting discussion across offices on how AI is already reshaping workflows and elevating the quality of decision-making at ARC Group.
The Best Teams Are Built Under Pressure
A dragon boat session at Baiyun Lake began with the traditional eye-dotting ceremony before moving into synchronized training and competitive racing. In the opening practice run, timing was off and the boat struggled to find momentum. It was only when one teammate began counting each stroke aloud that the entire crew synchronized and accelerated as one unit. By the final race, teams that had struggled in practice were moving in clean, coordinated form across the water.
A paintball challenge followed, testing strategy, communication, and adaptability under pressure. One team that opened aggressively lost positioning early, paused to reassign roles and restructure their approach, and recovered to finish with discipline and coordination. Both activities reinforced a consistent theme across the retreat: execution is a collective discipline, not an individual one.
Execution Defines the Outcome
A live simulation put teams inside a real transaction: a Southeast Asian company evaluating an IPO and an acquisition simultaneously. The exercise demanded real-time decisions on capital structure, deal timing, and execution sequencing, with no single right answer and no room to defer.
Teams across offices worked through the same problem together, surfacing the friction that defines real transactions. Where one region prioritized speed to market, another flagged integration risk. Where one team pushed for optionality, another argued for focus. The disagreements became the focus of discussion.
In a live transaction, outcomes are determined long before closing, by how fast a team moves from misalignment to a unified position and executes from that point onward.
One Team, Every Market, What Comes Next
Reflection sessions extended naturally beyond the scheduled program into informal conversations over meals and during departures. What emerged across three days of structured and unstructured exchange was a shared operating rhythm built through direct experience rather than instruction.
“At ARC, culture is demonstrated through action, especially under pressure, not simply documented. This week, I witnessed teams from 12 countries come together, align quickly, and perform both on the water and in the room. In today’s market, the strongest teams are not necessarily those with the greatest resources, but those that align with purpose and execute with discipline. Guangzhou reaffirmed that ARC has that capability, and that is our competitive edge.”
— Sergio Camarero, President, ARC Group
As employees returned to their respective markets, the retreat marked another step in ARC Group’s ongoing commitment to building a global team capable of operating with speed, alignment, and precision across every market it serves.
About ARC Group
Established in 2015, ARC Group is a global investment bank, asset manager, and management consultancy deeply rooted in Asia with a global reach. Operating across 12 countries and 3 continents, ARC Group specializes in cross-border financial advisory, M&A, IPOs, SPAC transactions, financing, and management consulting. ARC Group wholly owns ARC Group Securities LLC, a U.S.-registered, FINRA-member broker-dealer.
