Venture-backed? See executive search for VC-backed businesses →
Each stage of the hold asks something different of the leadership team, and the plan only gets delivered through the people running it. HMN Capital runs executive search for private equity-backed businesses across the UK and Europe: the C-suite, the leadership team beneath it, the board, and interim cover when a seat empties mid-hold.
Recent PE mandate: a buy-and-build CEO in the DACH region, 58 days from brief to accepted offer
The order varies with the deal. These are the moments that most often reset the leadership team.
Entry and the first 100 days
Entry often brings a new CFO to run lender reporting and the value-creation plan, and puts the question of who leads the business on the table.
Mid-hold
The plan meets the business. Commercial and operating seats are often where it needs a different leader: a CRO to restart stalled growth, a COO to industrialise delivery, a transformation CFO through a refinancing.
Buy-and-build
Each acquisition adds people the platform has to absorb: integration leadership, a chief executive who can run a group, and finance that can consolidate across jurisdictions.
Pre-exit
A CFO who can build and defend the equity story, governance a buyer will scrutinise, and a management team the next owner wants to back.
CEO search
The chief executive who has to deliver the value-creation plan, including founder successions and buy-and-build platforms. CEO search
CFO search
Our most frequently placed role: CFOs fluent in lender reporting, KPI infrastructure and exit preparation. CFO search
COO search
Operational leadership for carve-outs, integrations and businesses that have outgrown how they are run. COO search
CRO and CCO search
Revenue leadership that restarts stalled growth and makes the forecast dependable. CRO and CCO search
CTO and CPO search
Technology and product leaders who can re-platform a business without stopping it. CTO and CPO search
Chief AI Officer
A single owner of AI strategy and governance, for one business or across a portfolio. Chief AI Officer search
Chair and non-executive directors
Independent Chairs and committee chairs who professionalise a board after the deal.
Interim leadership
Interim CFOs and CHROs, and interim chief executives, placed at pace when a seat empties mid-hold, through a refinancing or a carve-out. Roles we place
Seven criteria built for the PE operating model
Every candidate clears seven criteria drawn from the private equity operating model before you meet them.
The Seven-Day Leadership Assessment
Before a hire, or instead of one, we can assess up to five executives against the plan in seven days and tell you whether the team and the plan are matched.
Packages and equity
We benchmark salary, bonus and equity for the seat against live market data, so the offer reflects what the seat pays in the market today.
A first candidate inside two weeks
We put the first credible candidate in front of you inside two weeks of the brief being settled, and present the shortlist in two to four weeks. The clock starts when the brief is settled, and how quickly you come back to us moves it.
Interim alongside permanent
When a seat empties before the permanent search can finish, we can place an experienced interim to hold it while the search runs in parallel.
Headline mandate
Buy-and-build CEO, DACH
A value-creation CEO for a newly acquired industrial services platform, with a completed bolt-on inside the first year of the hold. 58 days from brief to accepted offer.
Chief People Officer
PE-backed post-merger technology group. Unifying two cultures, standing up a people function from scratch and setting a compensation framework ahead of the first full-year ownership review.
30 days, brief to signed offer
Chief AI Officer
PE-backed business information group, UK and DACH. A single leader to set AI strategy and governance across the portfolio and give the sponsor a defensible view of where AI would create value.
First CAIO for the group
General Counsel
PE-backed regulated lender, UK. A first institutional General Counsel to build legal and compliance from a standing start ahead of a step-change in scale.
62 days, brief to signed offer
Non-Executive Chair
PE-backed consumer brand, Italy. A founder-led business, freshly institutionalised, needed an independent Chair to professionalise the board and mentor a first-time CEO.
Independent Chair appointed
Interim CFO
PE-backed industrial business, mid-hold. A transformation CFO through an ERP programme and rising reporting demands ahead of a refinancing.
Interim cover, placed at pace
Interim CHRO
PE-backed carve-out, Benelux. Migrating a workforce off the parent’s systems and holding the people agenda together through separation.
Interim through carve-out
Further reading: Buy and build in Europe · Hold period leadership · Take-private leadership
How is a PE-backed search different?
The brief is set by the investment case: the value-creation plan, the hold period and the exit. We assess candidates against that, alongside their track record.
Do you work for the sponsor or the management team?
Both. Sponsors, boards and chief executives all commission searches with us, and the best briefs come from both sides of the table.
Can you assess the existing team before we hire?
Yes. The Seven-Day Leadership Assessment rates up to five executives against the plan in seven days, while a gap is still a development question.
Do you also work with venture-backed businesses?
Yes. Venture-backed businesses are an equal part of what we do. See executive search for VC-backed businesses.
Can you run an interim and a permanent search at the same time?
Yes. An interim holds the seat while the permanent search runs, and the two processes complement each other.
