DEALSAGE Taps Ambassador Sullivan to Lead AI-Powered Geopolitical Risk Council

WASHINGTON, DC – July 28, 2026 – DEALSAGE, an enterprise AI platform specializing in legal, regulatory, and geopolitical risk intelligence, announced today that Ambassador John J. Sullivan will join the company as Senior Advisor and Chair of its new Global Advisory Council. The appointment of the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to Russia marks a significant milestone for the technology firm and underscores a major shift in how institutional investors are approaching due diligence in an increasingly volatile world.

DEALSAGE is purpose-built for the high-stakes environment of institutional dealmaking, serving private equity investors, corporate development teams, and general counsel. The platform leverages artificial intelligence to rapidly identify and assess non-market risks—including legal, regulatory, geopolitical, and reputational threats—across a target company, its executives, and its investors. The addition of Ambassador Sullivan brings a level of real-world diplomatic and national security experience rarely seen in the technology sector, aiming to fuse elite human judgment with powerful AI capabilities.

A New Era for Due Diligence in a Complex World

The landscape for mergers, acquisitions, and institutional investment has grown profoundly complex. Dealmakers are no longer just evaluating financial statements and market share; they are navigating a minefield of non-market risks that can emerge from anywhere on the globe and derail a transaction overnight. Geopolitical tensions, sudden regulatory changes, national security reviews like CFIUS, and stakeholder activism have moved from the periphery to the core of the diligence process.

According to industry experts, traditional diligence workflows, which often rely on manual research and siloed expert opinions, are struggling to keep pace. The pressure to execute deals quickly in a competitive market clashes with the need for deeper, more comprehensive risk analysis. This gap creates significant vulnerabilities, where a missed red flag can lead to failed deals, reputational damage, or substantial financial losses. Limited Partners (LPs) are also intensifying pressure on General Partners (GPs) to demonstrate robust management of these broader risks as part of delivering durable, risk-adjusted returns.

DEALSAGE was founded to address this critical challenge. “Ambassador Sullivan has spent his career at the intersection of national security, diplomacy, law, and global business,” said Mario Mancuso, Founder and CEO of DEALSAGE. “His experience on both sides of the most consequential public- and private-sector risk decisions is exactly the kind of judgment DEALSAGE was built to bring to institutional dealmaking: helping professionals identify legal, regulatory, and geopolitical risk earlier, faster, and with greater confidence.” The platform's mission is to help dealmakers distinguish genuine threats from background noise, allowing them to calibrate risk at the inception of a deal, not as an afterthought.

Bridging Diplomacy and Technology

Ambassador Sullivan’s career is a testament to operating at the highest levels of global affairs. In addition to his roles as the second-highest-ranking U.S. diplomat and envoy to Russia, he held senior leadership positions across the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, Justice, and Defense through multiple Presidential administrations. Complementing his public service, he was a longtime partner at the global law firm Mayer Brown, advising clients on precisely the kinds of complex international business and regulatory matters DEALSAGE now analyzes.

His decision to join an AI-driven startup reflects a recognition that technology is becoming an indispensable tool for navigating the modern risk environment. “I am delighted to join DEALSAGE as Senior Advisor and Chair of its Global Advisory Council,” said Ambassador Sullivan. He noted that deal principals and their advisors are operating in an environment where non-market risks “can shape outcomes from the earliest stages of a transaction.” He added that the platform “brings structured analysis across these risk domains at the point when it can be most useful, helping institutional dealmakers identify what matters, what does not, and what requires deeper diligence.”

The company’s leadership team reinforces this blend of deep domain expertise and technological prowess. Founder and CEO Mario Mancuso previously led the CFIUS and National Security practice at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and served as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. Co-founder Louis Citron was the longtime Chief Legal Officer at venture capital giant New Enterprise Associates (NEA), while Co-Founder and CTO Rob Wise previously co-founded Aumni, a VC analytics company acquired by JPMorgan Chase. This combination of M&A law, national security, institutional investment, and AI software development experience forms the company’s core DNA.

How AI is Redefining Risk Intelligence

At its core, DEALSAGE functions as an intelligence engine for dealmakers. Instead of spending weeks manually sifting through disparate data sources, users can get a structured risk report on a target company, its leadership, or co-investors in minutes. The platform synthesizes vast amounts of information from legal filings, regulatory databases, global news, and other sources to deliver what it calls “decision-grade” insights. This speed allows investment teams to screen opportunities with higher conviction and allocate resources more effectively.

This approach directly addresses a major trend in the legal and financial industries: the rapid adoption of AI in due diligence. While AI tools for contract review and financial analysis are becoming common, DEALSAGE is carving out a niche by focusing on the complex, multidisciplinary nature of non-market risk. The platform is designed to see the connections between a legal issue in one jurisdiction, a political development in another, and a reputational concern bubbling up in public sentiment.

For institutional clients, data security and trust are paramount. The company emphasizes its “secure by design” architecture and a firm policy of not using client data to train its foundational AI models—a key differentiator that addresses widespread concerns about data privacy and confidentiality in the AI era. By providing structured and defensible intelligence, the platform aims to augment, not replace, the judgment of experienced professionals, giving them a powerful tool to make faster, more informed decisions.

The Institutional Mandate for Smarter Risk Management

The strategic appointment of Ambassador Sullivan and the company’s mission are resonating within the investment community. DEALSAGE is backed by notable investors, including Teamworthy Ventures and Duke University Management Company (DUMAC), the entity that manages Duke University's endowment. The involvement of sophisticated institutional investors signals strong market validation for the company's approach. Early users across private equity, law firms, and corporate M&A teams have reported significant improvements in their ability to evaluate deals, price risk, and avoid costly missteps.

The platform's value proposition is twofold: it helps dealmakers see the risks that others might miss, but just as importantly, it helps them identify opportunities that others may misread as too risky. In a market where perceived geopolitical risk can cause investors to retreat, a more nuanced, data-driven understanding can unlock value. By providing this calibrated perspective at the earliest stages of a transaction, DEALSAGE empowers its clients to act with greater speed and conviction.

As global complexities continue to mount, the demand for integrated risk intelligence is only set to grow. The fusion of elite human expertise, exemplified by Ambassador Sullivan, with the scale and speed of enterprise AI represents a forward-looking model for the future of institutional investment and M&A. DEALSAGE is positioning itself not just as a software provider, but as a core piece of infrastructure for responsible and successful dealmaking in the 21st century.