What Two Decades of Executive Search Taught Me About PE’s Most Important Role

Twenty years ago, when I started placing operating partners at private equity firms, the role barely existed. Most funds relied on a handful of retired executives on advisory retainers — no carry, no seat at the table, no real accountability. Today, operating partners drive nearly half of all buyout value creation. I’ve had a front-row seat to that transformation, and these are the lessons that have stayed with me.

1. What we have today is not what we had in 2006. The operating partner of 2006 and the operating partner of 2026 share a title and almost nothing else. Early practitioners were brought in to cut costs after a deal closed. Today’s best operating partners shape the investment thesis before the LOI is signed. That shift — from post-close hatchet man to pre-deal strategist — is the single biggest change I’ve witnessed.

2. The math broke. Financial engineering hit a wall, and operations filled the gap. In the 1980s, firms used 85-95% leverage and rode multiple expansion from 4-6x to 8-10x EBITDA. As Bain & Company notes, today interest rate borrowing costs are in the 8%-9% range, and leverage ratios are closer to 30%-40%. Operational value creation went from nice-to-have to the only reliable path to returns.

3. LPs forced the issue. The fundraising conversations changed. Limited partners stopped asking “do you have an operating team?” and started asking “what’s their carry allocation?” and “show me attribution data.” The moment LPs made operational capability a diligence criterion, every serious fund had to invest.

4. Compensation is the truest signal of how a firm values its operators. I’ve seen every arrangement: 1099 contractors paid from portfolio company budgets, salaried advisors with no carry, and true partners with full economics. The firms that treat operating partners as second-class citizens get second-class talent. The candidate pool is too smart and too savvy. It’s that simple.

5. Carry changes everything. When operating partners started receiving meaningful carried interest — not token allocations — the caliber of talent entering the role shifted dramatically. Senior executives who would never have considered a “consulting-adjacent” role suddenly saw a real wealth-creation path. 

6. There is no single “right” background. I’ve placed former McKinsey partners, Fortune 500 COOs, PE-backed CEOs, and sector specialists who’d never set foot in a consulting firm. The common thread doesn’t have to be pedigree anymore — it’s the ability to drive results through influence rather than authority, in environments where the clock is always ticking.

7. The best operating partners are translators. They speak the language of the deal team, the management team, and the board — often in the same meeting. Translating between financial objectives and operational realities is an underrated skill, and the people who do it well are the ones who last.

8. Structure matters more than most firms admit. Centralized ops groups, embedded sector teams, hybrid matrices — I’ve watched firms try all three. The model that works best depends on fund strategy, portfolio size, and investment thesis. But the firms that never think structurally about how they deploy operating talent consistently underperform.  Structured > Unstructured.

9. The talent war is real and getting worse. Demand for experienced operating partners has outpaced supply for years. Every search I run today is more competitive than the last. The candidates who would have had two or three options five years ago now have five or six. Firms that move slowly or lowball on comp lose the best people every time.

10. The 100-day plan is table stakes — what matters is the next 900. Everyone talks about the first 100 days post-close. The operating partners who create transformational value are the ones who sustain intensity through year two and year three – long after the initial playbook runs are complete and the hard, unglamorous work of execution takes over.

11. Vista proved the model. When Vista Equity Partners was unashamed to slam a playbook down on the table and instruct their portfolio companies to follow it, it was considered radical. Their sustained top-quartile performance turned it into a benchmark. That single decision gave every operating partner in the industry a proof point to reference.

12. Mid-market firms have the most to gain — and the most to lose. The mega-funds invested early in operational capability. Many mid-market firms are still running with one or two operators covering a dozen portfolio companies. That’s a structural disadvantage that compounds with every fund cycle. But it also means the upside from getting it right is enormous.

13. The consulting-to-ops pipeline is powerful but incomplete. Strategy consultants bring analytical rigor and pattern recognition. What they sometimes lack is the scar tissue that comes from owning a P&L through a downturn. The strongest operating teams hire people who blend both profiles — the frameworks of consulting with the grit of operational leadership.

14. AI is amplifying operators, not replacing them. The firms and people deploying AI most effectively – in diligence, portfolio monitoring, and performance analytics – are the ones with strong operating teams to interpret and act on the output. Technology is a force multiplier, but it needs someone at the controls who understands the business.

15. The best firms measure attribution rigorously. You can’t claim operating partners drive 47% of value creation without the data to back it up. The firms winning the talent war and the fundraising market are the ones tracking EBITDA improvement, revenue acceleration, and margin expansion at the initiative level — and tying it back to specific operating team interventions.

16. Culture fit is the silent killer of operating partner placements. I’ve seen brilliant operators flame out at firms where the deal team viewed them as overhead. And I’ve seen good-not-great candidates thrive at firms where operations had a genuine seat at the table. The cultural question that must be asked… Does this firm actually want an operating partner, or just the appearance of one?

17. The COO-to-Operating Partner path is underutilized. Some of the most effective placements I’ve made came from executives who served as COO at PE-backed portfolio companies. They already understand the pace, the reporting cadence, and the pressure of sponsor-backed environments. More importantly they’re accustomed to being in the background. They don’t need to be in the center of the stage. More firms should be looking at this pipeline.

18. International experience is increasingly non-negotiable. As funds expand globally and portfolio companies source, manufacture, and sell across borders, operating partners who’ve only worked domestically face a narrowing set of opportunities. Cross-border M&A integration alone has become a critical capability. Not to mention the need to fundraise outside your own country.

19. The next frontier involves AI agents. The economics of running a private equity firm these days are becoming more complicated. The carrying cost for a portfolio operations team has risen dramatically. Going forward portfolio operations leaders must embrace the idea and usage of AI agents doing work that makes everyone more cost-effective.

20. This role is still in its early innings. After twenty years, I’m more convinced than ever that we’re only at the beginning. The operating partner function will continue to professionalize, specialize, and move closer to the center of how private equity creates value. The firms and practitioners who lean into that trajectory – with the right structures, compensation, and commitment – will define the next era of the industry.

These aren’t academic observations — they’re patterns I’ve seen repeat across hundreds of searches and thousands of conversations with PE firms, operating executives, and LPs. The operating partner role has come further in twenty years than most careers evolve in fifty. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next twenty bring.

About the Author

Chris Conti is a founder of Lancor, a global executive search firm, and authors OperatingPartner.com, a leading resource for professionals navigating operating partner careers in private equity.