Denzil Rankine is chief executive of AMR International, a London-based strategy consultancy with offices in the USA and Germany. AMR is Europe's leading specialist in commercial due diligence - the investigation of target companies' markets, market positions and prospects. Denzil studied law. After two years in the re-insurance industry he began a career in consulting, specialising in business development and acquisitions. Over the next four years he visited 49 American states helping countless European companies establish themselves in the US market. In 1987 he was asked to set up the strategic research consulting practice for a major management consulting firm. Under Denzil's leadership, and working closely with the corporate finance group, it soon became one of the first consultancies to offer commercial due diligence. Denzil founded AMR in 1991; it is now Europe's leading specialist in commercial due diligence.

AMR's success is due to its fact-based approach to company, market and competitor analysis. The company has investigated more than 500 transactions in more than 30 countries in a wide variety of business sectors. The value of these transactions has ranged from relatively small £1 million deals to complex, cross-border transactions of the £1 billion size. AMR has worked for most of the private equity providers in London and Europe as well as corporate acquirers from large multi-nationals to small private companies. AMR's consultants have on average eight years of strategic research experience, typically gained after earlier careers in operational roles. Most are fluent in at least one other language other than English.Denzil Rankine is also one author of A Practical Guide to Acquisitions (Wiley, 1998) and Commercial Due Diligence (Prentice Hall, 1999).