Practice

Private Equity

The world’s leading private equity (PE) firms generate tremendous shareholder returns.

While their investments are not immune to headwinds, they continue to outperform many of the major indices. Without question, much of this success is due to the early identification of outstanding investment opportunities. However, once purchased, the investment must perform. Our experience suggests that the astute equity investor will carefully manage and drive the performance of their investments with a team of seasoned and talented operating partners – people who have a clear view to future success and a track record of leading businesses effectively.

So how do they do it? How can businesses outperform their competition, create value, and realize lasting success? By observing our most successful clients, we have identified several business disciplines that PE owners apply to form a framework for success. While these fundamentals may sound basic, they are not easily achieved.

Let’s take a closer look:

  • They hire senior managers who act like owners
  • They define a clear 3 to 5-year investment thesis and business strategy
  • They make their capital work hard and measure Return on Invested Capital
  • They measure other important value creating activities with an effective dashboard
  • They determine whether senior management is adding or destroying value

Clearly, the first and last items on this list involve finding the right talent to lead the business.

What We Do

Over and again, we hear the following:

  • Equity investors are uniquely time constrained – they value urgency
  • Equity investors often actively manage investments – they value and demand high performance
  • Equity investors measure and reduce risk – they value managers with a strong track record
  • Equity investors focus on results – they want managers who win routinely and overcome obstacles

At August Leadership, we view these challenges as an opportunity. We know where to find the right executives, can assess their potential for success in all circumstances, will properly market the PE opportunity to extremely talented passive candidates, and execute our searches with great speed.

Our Expertise

  • Talent Assessment and Due Diligence
  • Talent Mapping and Pipeline Development
  • Retained Executive Search expertise across multiple industry sectors within a portfolio of businesses

Practice Team

Michael Maeder

Partner

Michael has over 17 years’ experience in executive search.

Thomas Fuller

Partner

Thomas Fuller is a seasoned senior leadership advisor and executive search consultant who serves clients across the global Consumer sector.

James Gathercole 

Partner

James serves key clients in the industrial, consumer, technology and professional services sectors. He has a keen interest in innovative, technology-enabled industrial, consumer and healthcare businesses.

Tom Wilson

Partner

Tom Wilson is a seasoned talent and search executive with broad expertise in recruiting senior leadership and revenue-driving roles across financial services, with deep knowledge in asset management, capital markets, and investment banking.

Elizabeth McCabe

Partner

Known for her innovative and creative solutions to clients’ human capital needs, Elizabeth has built a strong network of senior leaders in healthcare companies and renowned thought leaders at top academic research centers across the US and Europe.

Kelly Smith O'Hara

Partner

Kelly is a seasoned executive search advisor known for her expertise in placing top-tier HR executives.

Katarina Dempsey

Partner

Katarina is an accomplished executive search professional and has 20-plus years of global experience in management consulting, recruiting, and executive search. 

Gavin O' Malley

Partner

Gavin has been working in executive search for the last 13 years, having previously spent 10 years in international and local marketing roles at Unilever.

Jerry McGrath

Partner

Jerry manages searches for HR leaders across diverse industries and organizations, leveraging his three decades of global HR and executive search expertise. 

Peter Grech

Partner

Peter has over 25 years of experience in executive search spanning several continents.

James Theodore

Partner

Jim has been a leader in executive search for the global hospitality, gaming and travel industries for over 30 years.

Eugenio Riquelme

Partner

Eugenio brings extensive experience as a search consultant and leadership advisor, specializing in the financial sector across diverse industries and organizational levels. 

Glenn Tannous

Partner

Glenn Tannous is a leading-edge advisor with over two decades of experience in placing legal counsel within major corporations and law firms across diverse industries.

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