Senior Advisor Appointment with Middle-Market Private Equity Firm

Introduction

JSS Executive recently partnered with a middle market private equity ($4bn AUM) firm to identify a senior advisor to support with investment diligence and value creation initiatives across their financial services portfolio. The firm broadly seeks to invest in the asset management, banking, brokerage, financial technology, insurance, speciality finance and the healthcare payments sectors.

The challenge

Our specialist FinTech & Payments team were thorough and diligent when taking an in-depth brief for the client, understanding the nuances around commitment, required expertise, culture fit, day-to-day responsibilities, and the longer-term vision the partners had for the current portfolio and future investments. With $1.5bn of dry powder available and 12 financial service firms in the portfolio, the partners sought a technology expert who could both assess and create enterprise-wide value through improved speed to market, digital transformation, and increased data leveraging.

The solution

The team ran a two-week research and market mapping process, creating an initial long-list of 125 senior executives who, on first brush, were aligned to the brief – retired CEO’s, CTO’, CIO’s and CDO’s. We presented the long list to the client during our weekly meeting cadence, discussing executives who we felt were a priority to connect with and introduce the role to. The client agreed that c.20 executives were highly relevant, and we should focus our attention on those executives as the priority setting. We then began reaching out and connecting with the executives, running a rigorous 1st and 2ndstage assessment process to ensure a suitable fit.

The impact

With an initial shortlist of eight executives presented to the client, a five round interview process was kicked off. Over the course of the following two months, the client moved three executives to final stage before a compelling offer was presented and the executive accepted. Throughout the process, JSS remained close with both the executive and client to ensure questions were answered and that commercial negotiations were seamless.

Since the Advisor joined the fund, they have been fundamental to accelerating growth and advising on transformation projects across the portfolio, with two exits also successfully taking place during their tenure. They have also led multiple due diligence processes for new deals, even taking a board seat on one of the acquisitions.