About John FlanneryJohn Flannery joined Charlesbank in an advisory role in 2019 after 31 years at GE, where he most recently served as chairman and chief executive officer. At Charlesbank, he co-leads the Portfolio Resources Group, working with CEOs and their teams to improve operating performance, strategy and governance. He also helps the PRG team […]

If you happen to be a sports fan, and in particular a college football fan, then you most likely have heard about the NCAA Transfer Portal.  Created in 2018, it’s a database where collegiate athletes can test their marketability to other college programs to potentially improve their situation as a student athlete.  There’s been quite […]

Now that I have drawn a line in the sand around the superiority of housing industry specific Operating Partners alongside the deal teams who focus on those sectors, I need to examine the reasons why I arrive at this conclusion.  I’ll start at the macro level, and progress down with more granularity as we dive […]

I ran my first Operating Partner search in 2006 for TPG. We wanted an executive who would come in and contribute across the firm’s Technology related deals. Back then, I really didn’t know what an Operating Partner role was all about, but the folks at TPG sure did. I’m grateful to have been in that situation so […]

One of the more prevalent developments within Portfolio Operations teams has been the creation of the Human Capital Partner. As money and debt become more of a commodity, and transformation expertise is more regularly and uniformly deployed, one of the remaining levers ripe for differentiation centers around Human Capital. The prosperity of a PE firm […]

When I started writing this blog I wanted it to be a destination for both sitting and prospective Operating Partners. It occurred to me that many times an exec becomes an Operating Partner because they’ve had experience with a PE firm via deal due diligence. It dawned on me that there’s a greater majority of […]

It seems to me that a company’s organizational structure is always being pressure tested for how it responds to the realities of a changing market. So many times we see large corporations undergo significant structural overhauls. One day they are organized in distinct business units where the GMs run the show with a good degree […]

“Make Private Equity Great Again.”  Can the Operating Partner role “Make Private Equity Great Again?” Maybe we could print up some hats!  Seriously though, borrowing the phrase in a playful manner and applying it to Private Equity got me thinking a bit. Can Operating Partners play a role in humanizing our industry? Certainly, the PE […]

Earlier this month I had the great fortune to attend The Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. For those of you lucky enough to have experienced it for yourselves, you already understand how special the event is. For those that haven’t, it is as close to perfection in a golf […]

In 2006 when I ran my very first Operating Partner search the environment around the role was markedly different from what we see today.  Back then, even getting a successful executive to consider taking such a role inside a “corporate raider” was a tall order. Many times when I called a CEO about an Operating Partner […]