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Executive Search: Private Equity
Leadership is the value-creation lever sponsors control least, and need most.
Every investment thesis assumes a management team that can execute it. Most hold periods include at least one CEO or CFO change, and the search that follows is usually the most consequential decision of the deal. We help sponsors and portfolio boards get it right the first time, with a process built on assessing culture and fit before anyone is hired.
Why Portfolio Searches Fail
The sponsor hires for the deck. The company needs an operator.
Portfolio company searches fail in a predictable way: a strong résumé from a bigger company, an impressive first board meeting, and a leader who cannot run a lean organization at sponsor speed, or who cannot work with a founder who is still in the building. Fit with the sponsor’s operating cadence and the company’s actual culture decides the outcome, and standard interviewing does not surface it.
Rob Andrews built Allen Austin after running businesses with up to $2.4 billion in revenue for owners who expected results quarterly. The Foresight™ process defines the pivot the executive must execute, the culture they must fit, and the evidence that proves it, before a slate is presented.
Download: What It Takes to Lead a PE Portfolio CompanyWho We Serve
Four seats at the table. One standard.
Our private equity practice works with everyone who has a stake in portfolio leadership, in confidence.
Sponsors and deal teams
Pre-close management assessment, post-close leadership plans, and searches when a change is needed.
Portfolio company boards
CEO succession, independent director recruitment, and counsel when board and management are misaligned.
Operating partners
A search partner who speaks the language of the 100-day plan and the value-creation plan, and reports against it.
Founders taking institutional capital
Help building the professional team a sponsor expects, without losing what made the company worth buying.
Across the Holding Period
Leadership work at every stage of the deal.
Search is the visible part. The rest of the practice reduces the odds you need one.
01
Pre-close management assessment
VantagePoint™ assessment of the existing team against the investment thesis, so the deal model’s leadership assumptions are tested before close.
02
First 100 days
A leadership plan that names the gaps, sequences the hires and gives the CEO and sponsor a shared view of who stays, who grows and who goes.
03
CEO, CFO and COO search
Retained search run by a senior partner, defined by the pivot the executive must execute, backed by a full two-year guarantee.
04
Bolt-on and integration leadership
Leaders who have integrated acquisitions before, assessed for the specific integration you are about to run.
05
Exit-ready team
Eighteen months before a sale, an objective view of whether the team will survive buyer diligence, and the moves that strengthen the story.
06
Onboarding and aftercare
Structured first-year support for every placement, because sponsor timelines leave no room for a slow start.
How We Work With Sponsors
Built for sponsor speed without sponsor shortcuts.
Private equity clients want speed, candor and a partner who will not waste a board meeting. That is how we operate.
What we do
- Senior partner on every search, from the kick-off call to the signed offer
- Weekly reporting against the search plan, in the format your operating team uses
- Portfolio-wide engagements with consistent process across companies
- Candid assessments of incumbents, including the ones you like
What we don’t do
- Recycled candidate lists from the last three searches in the sector
- Junior researchers running the candidate conversations
- Open-ended retainers with no defined deliverables
- Telling the sponsor what it wants to hear about a founder or a CFO
Practice Leadership
Partners who have run companies for owners.
The private equity practice is led by senior partners with operating backgrounds and board experience.
Rob Andrews
Chairman & CEO
Leads the firm’s CEO and private equity work; former operating president for enterprises with up to 516 locations.
Mike Rome
Senior Advisor
Co-leads the Board, CEO and Private Equity practices; a proven operator and counselor to boards and CEOs nationally.
Ara Megerdichian
Partner
Practice leader for leadership advisory and senior member of the private equity and industrial practices.
From the Touchpoint library
Twists and Turns in Recruiting a Great Private Equity CFO
The finance seat is the second search most sponsors run. This is how to make it the last.
“The Allen Austin team is my choice, every time we have an executive search or leadership issue.”
Gary Buckland · President & CEO, Lexitas
Questions we hear most
Before you call, a few straight answers.
How fast can you move on a portfolio company search?
A partner can be in a kick-off call within days, the needs analysis takes about two weeks, and most portfolio searches present a slate inside six weeks. We do not skip the analysis to go faster; it is what prevents the second search.
Do you offer portfolio-wide arrangements?
Yes. Sponsors with several portfolio companies engage us on consistent terms and a consistent process, with one senior partner as the relationship lead and reporting the operating team can compare across companies.
Can you assess the management team before we close?
Yes. VantagePoint™ assessments of the existing team can be completed inside a diligence window and are reported against the investment thesis, not a generic competency model.
Is the engagement confidential?
Completely. Pre-close work and incumbent assessments are conducted with the deal team or board only, and candidate conversations are run without naming the company until the sponsor approves.