Maybe the Game of Thrones references have all been played out (perhaps I should instead be quoting the Roy family from my newest obsession, HBO’s “Succession” series). Nonetheless, the messaging I’m getting from some very smart corners of the distressed investing landscape is that we’re in the late innings of the bull market run up… […]

It’s been just a little over a year now that I’ve been writing this blog… and it’s finally time to address the topic of Operating Partner compensation. To begin, this is not a scientific study.  These are my own conclusions after having run numerous searches and interviewing hundreds of prospects.  Others may have a different […]

If you’re a multi-time, PE savvy CFO, chances are you’ve been called about an Operating Partner role… and chances are, you may have simply blown it off. Out of the last 50 recruit calls you’ve received maybe you got 1 or 2 for Ops Partner roles; but be assured, those numbers will be steadily increasing […]

In a quiet fashion, over the last couple of years, we at Lancor have seen momentum build in support of a newly created C-suite role: one that fundamentally shifts the focal point for change across businesses of all sizes. The actual title varies by company and by industry, but in our experience, the person’s mandate […]

In November of my Freshman year in college, my father gave me some good career advice. At the time, I quickly found myself in the process of washing out of a pre-med curriculum for reasons that, looking back, should have been entirely obvious: doctors who pass out when their blood gets drawn don’t set a […]

What makes some clients more successful than others? Operating Partner searches are unique animals when compared to other recruiting assignments that we undertake. Because of the nature of both the role and the client, there’s very little about them that is straightforward. By comparison, everyone knows what a CFO does… the role is clear. There’s […]

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 […]

“Sometimes I blow things up to be way more impressive than they actually are. The struggle is real.” These were the verbatim comments I recently heard from my college age niece as she was reviewing life after her highly anticipated 21st birthday. (Full disclosure: I had to look up “struggle is real” in the Urban […]

“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 […]

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 […]