Helping Executives and Professionals break into Private Equity as Operating Partners, Executives, Board Directors, or PE-Backed Buyers — positions most never knew were accessible to them.

The Real Problem: Most executives are invisible to PE not because they lack credentials, but because they position themselves wrong. They send resumes (job seeker signal) when PE needs Investment Theses (owner signal). They speak corporate language when PE needs value creation metrics.

My Background: Founder & CEO Single Family Office, Independent Board Director on a dozen boards and Chair of the PDA PE Portfolio Company Certification Task Force. Former PE Principal who made the same transition you want. 100+ M&A transactions and raised over $1 billion in capital. I've been the operator PE firms hire, the board director who advises them, and the investor evaluating thousands of deals & candidates. 

What I Do: I know exactly what they want and what works and compress the typical 18-24 month ‘if ever’ DIY struggle into 12 weeks. Executive & Professional strategic refinement of positioning and Introductions, without losing months of 'Opportunities'

•	PE Strategic Positioning 
•	PE-Readiness Assessment & Gap Analysis
•	Investment Thesis Development
•	Impact Story & Portfolio Examples
•	Targeted PE Network Introduction Map
•	Investment Thesis Pitch Event Invitation
•	Direct PE Introduction Events
•	Private Group Community (Peer networking bonus)

Your track record doesn't expire—your market window does. Let's talk about your PE transition.

I watched three PE firms pass on the same candidate last month.

All three made the same mistake.

They saw "operations" on the resume and moved on.

Five years ago, that made sense.

PE wanted bankers. 

Deal makers. 

Financial modelers who could build a three-statement model in their sleep.

Operations people were for after the deal closed.

Now? 

The best PE hires aren't coming from Goldman or Lazard.

They're coming from the operator track.

Former COOs. VPs of Operations. 

People who actually ran the businesses PE firms buy.

Here's what changed:

PE used to win on deal sourcing. 

Find the company first, pay a fair price, financial engineer the exit.

That playbook is dead.

Every decent company gets 47 inbound emails from PE firms before breakfast.

Winning now happens in the 100 days post-close.

Can you fix the leaky sales process? 

Systemize the chaos? 

Cut 90 days from cash conversion without destroying morale?

Operators know how.

Bankers don't.

I've sat on both sides of this table for 25 years.

The PE firms printing money in 2025 aren't the ones with the best deal flow.

They're the ones who can take a messy $8M EBITDA business and turn it into a clean $15M exit in 36 months.

That requires someone who's actually done it.

Not modeled it.

If you've run operations and think PE is closed to you, you're five years behind.

The door just opened

Get Ready to be PE Ready! Join Executives & Professional making the leap into PE:  thegreghead.com

Greg Head

Helping Professionals break into Private Equity as Operating Partners, Executives, Board Directors, or PE-backed buyer | How to sell your business to PE | Founder Single Family Office | 100+ deals | $1 billion raised

Mary Elizabeth Sadd

I spent 25 years watching boards destroy value in a way nobody talks about.

Not through bad deals or weak talent.

Through something quieter: blurred lines between governance and operations.

Here's what it looks like in practice.

A board member with operating chops decides to "help."

They start joining weekly standups.

Request dashboards.

Weigh in on pricing models, sales comp, product roadmaps.

The CEO treats it like guidance.

The team treats it like direction.

Then results miss.

And suddenly?

"I'm just a board member. That was your call."

The hat gets switched retroactively.

Authority flows one way. 

Accountability flows the other.

That's not support. 

That's a shell game.

I've seen this pattern wreck companies from the inside.

Not because anyone was incompetent.

Because the system allowed someone to operate without owning the outcome.

The damage compounds fast.

CEOs second-guess themselves because someone "above" them might reframe the decision later.

Exec teams start optimizing for board perception instead of market reality.

Speed dies. 

Trust evaporates.

You can't build a durable business when authority and accountability live in different zip codes.

The best boards I've worked with don't do this.

They're ruthlessly clear about lanes.

Governance. 
Capital allocation. 
CEO support.

That's it.

If you're going to step into operations, own it.

Define who owns the decision before you influence it.

Stay accountable to the result, not just the recommendation.

If you're advising, advise.

If the CEO ignores you, that's a CEO problem to solve through governance.

Don't create shadow authority through pressure or proximity.

And if you're the CEO?

Name the lanes early.

Be explicit about when you're accepting input versus direction.

Don't let decisions get made implicitly through board dynamics.

You're accountable either way. 

So protect your operating authority like it's oxygen.

Switching hats after the fact doesn't just erode trust.

It collapses the foundation value creation depends on.

Clean roles. 
Clean accountability.

That's how real operators build real businesses.

This one red flag predicts failure every time.

You can fix bad financials.

You can fix operational chaos.

You can even fix a broken sales process.

But there's one thing that kills deals no matter what.

Most buyers miss it completely.

I've been part of 100+ M&A deals.

I missed it twice.

Now I spot it in the first 48 hours.

The red flag isn't in the numbers.

It's not in the org chart.

It's not even in the customer contracts.

"Who makes all the financial decisions when you're on a sailboat in the middle of the Pacific for a year with no phone and no internet?"

If they can't answer immediately, I'm out.

If they hesitate or start explaining, I'm out.

If they say "Well, no one”, I'm definitely out.

When they haven't built a single leader who could run the business without them, you're buying a job, not a business.

First time it happened, we thought we could parachute in new leadership.

The institutional knowledge walked out the door in 90 days.

Second time, same mistake.

Different business, same outcome.

Turns out you can't buy what was never built in the first place.

If a manager needs permission for a $500 expense, the owner still makes every decision.

Scalability requires decentralized authority.

Transferable value lives in systems and people, not the founder.

Here's what I look for now in those first conversations:

Verify if managers can approve refunds without owner consent.

Check if the team has the authority to change vendors or suppliers.

Determine if staff members can launch new marketing campaigns or promotions independently.

Assess whether subordinates can negotiate pricing with clients.

Those tell me everything the financials can't.

Because you're not buying the founder.

You're buying what happens after they leave.

If the company stops moving, the company has no value.

The owner is the business.

You cannot buy a person.

Get Ready to be PE Ready: thegreghead.com

The 5 metrics Private Equity cares about.

Everything else is noise.

PE firms don't build dashboards to feel informed. 

They build dashboards to make decisions.

The only 5 KPIs that matter to PR:

1.  Customer Acquisition Cost tells you if growth is sustainable or just expensive. Most operators can't answer this in 60 seconds.

2.  Lifetime Value shows if customers are assets or liabilities. You need 3:1 minimum against CAC. Anything less? You're subsidizing growth.

3.  Net Revenue Retention reveals if you're building or churning. When existing customers expand their spend, you've got a compounding business. When they leave, you're trying to fill a leaky bucket.

4.  Gross Margin exposes unit economics. SaaS under 70%? Services under 40? You don't have leverage. You have a job that scales linearly.

5.  Cash Conversion Cycle shows if you're profitable or just pretending. Revenue on the P&L means nothing when cash never hits the account.

Five metrics. Five decisions. Every week.

I've walked away from deals where revenue looked great. 

But, these five numbers told the real story.

Here's what nobody tells you about landing a job at a PE-backed company.

The playbook everyone follows is backwards.

They chase:
• McKinsey on their resume
• "PE experience" bullet points
• Perfect LinkedIn keywords

Wrong game entirely.

PE-backed companies operate on a different clock.

They've got 3-7 years to multiply value and exit.

Every hire either accelerates that or slows it down.

So they're not hiring credentials.

They're hiring velocity.

The real question they're asking:

"Can this person make us more valuable faster?"

That's it.

Here's what moves the needle in their world:
~Revenue growth that compounds
~Margin expansion that sticks
~Systems that don't break when you scale
~Execution without constant oversight

If your track record doesn't answer "yes" to those, you're invisible.

The roles that get hired fastest:
• Finance leaders who speak EBITDA
• AI and automation implementers
• RevOps and supply chain fixers
• Sales leaders who've scaled before
• Product people who ship fast
• Anyone who builds reporting systems

These aren't random.

They're the levers that change enterprise value.

Frame your experience like a deal memo:
- Show the before and after.
- Quantify what shifted because of you.
- Prove you've operated under pressure.

Most people waste time here:

Cold emailing the PE fund directly.

Better move:

Go straight to the portfolio companies.

1. Find the CFOs.
2. The Operating Partners.
3. The talent acquisition teams.
4. Execs who've already taken companies through exit.

They're the ones actually hiring.

When you interview, skip the corporate theatre.

They don't want to hear about your "passion for the mission."

They want to know:

Have you fixed broken things?

Can you prioritize when everything's on fire?

Do you need your hand held?

Fastest way in:
~Join a smaller PE-backed company first.
~Work for a firm that services portfolio companies.
~Sell into PE-backed businesses.

Once you're in the ecosystem, doors open fast.

The pattern recognition becomes your currency.

This AI-driven profile system replaces a $5,000 career coach.

Most professionals are invisible to Private Equity because they speak corporate.

I built a free "Operator Edge" Audit to turn your profile into a PE-ready weapon.

PE firms don't hire executives to "manage" departments. 

They hire operators to "create value."

If your profile looks like a resume, you are losing.

I recently helped a 20-year corporate veteran exit the "exploratory" loop.

We reframed his background, built a deal thesis and sharpened his AI narrative.

Within weeks, his conversations shifted from networking to serious equity offers.

I'm giving away the exact 14-page system we used.

Inside the Audit:

- The "Value Creation" headline framework
- 5 ways to prove AI-driven efficiency gains
- The "Deal Thesis" structure for your About section
- How to signal P&L ownership without breaking NDAs
- The 22-point checklist PE recruiters track in 2025

Stop guessing why you aren't getting the call.

1. Connect with me 
2. Comment "PE"

I'll DM the blueprint straight over.

P.S. Repost this and I'll send you my "PE Language Cheat Sheet" as a bonus.

(We must be connected for me to send the DM)

It’s been a while since I started my role at PE-Ready Executive Accelerator - The Greg Head Helping Executives & Professional Break into Private Equity, but I wanted to share this update with everyone.

I watched a PE firm reject their perfect Operating Partner.

His crime? No Fortune 500 name on the resume.

Six months later, they hired someone with the pedigree.

Paid him $2M more in total comp over three years.

And he couldn't execute.

The guy they rejected had scaled three businesses from $10M to $50M each.

But his companies weren't "sexy enough."

This happens constantly in PE hiring.

Firms optimize for logos on resumes instead of results in businesses.

After 100+ M&A deals, I keep seeing the same mistake:

The best Operating Partners don't come from McKinsey or Goldman.

They come from the trenches.

They've fixed broken sales processes at 2am.

They've rebuilt supply chains that were hemorrhaging cash.

They've turned around underperforming teams without a playbook.

Brand names signal credibility to LPs.

But they don't predict execution.

The Operating Partner who scaled three mid-market companies has seen every problem you'll face in portfolio companies.

The Bain consultant who advised Fortune 500s has seen PowerPoint decks.

Not the same thing.

What actually matters:

1. Have they scaled businesses in your deal size range?
2. Can they operate without a safety net?
3. Do they know how to fix things that are broken?

The logos matter for fundraising decks.

The execution matters for returns.

Most firms confuse the two.

And it costs them millions.

Most executives think private equity is just about buying companies.

The real game is in the distribution waterfall.

After 25 years and raising over $1 billion in funding, I've seen how cash flow distribution structures make or break fund returns.

Here's what matters:

The setup is simple.

GPs manage the fund. 

LPs provide capital. 

Portfolio companies generate returns.

But the distribution waterfall determines who gets paid when.

Two models dominate:

Deal-by-Deal Waterfall (American):

GP takes carried interest after each investment returns its capital plus fees. 

Faster GP payouts. 

Higher clawback risk if later deals fail.

European Waterfall:

GP gets carried interest only after the entire fund returns all capital and fees. 

Slower GP payouts. 

Lower clawback risk.

The difference isn't academic.

I've watched GPs celebrate early wins under American waterfalls, then scramble when fund performance lagged.

I've seen LPs push for European structures to protect downside.

The Limited Partnership Agreement defines these terms. 

Most executives gloss over the details.

That's a mistake.

Whether you're evaluating PE opportunities or considering fund structures for your own capital, understanding distribution mechanics changes how you assess risk and reward.

The waterfall isn't just legal language.

It's the economic reality of who gets paid, when, and under what conditions.

I watched another executive get cut last month.

Three months in. 
Strong resume. 
Good intentions.

Gone.

The pattern is always the same.

PE-backed companies don't give you time to figure it out.

Here's what actually gets you fired:

You mistake activity for impact.

Being busy means nothing if you're not moving the needle.

You chase the wrong fires.

Treating symptoms while the real value leaks go untouched.

You wait for perfect information.

PE values decisive judgment over endless analysis.

You create dependency.

When every decision needs your approval, you become the problem.

You hide problems until they explode.

Delivering bad news late destroys trust instantly.

The real issue isn't making mistakes.

It's creating uncertainty.

PE firms can handle problems.

They can't handle surprises.

Most executives think they have quarters to prove themselves.

They have weeks.

The ones who survive understand this from day one.

The Mistakes That Get PE-Backed Hires Fired Fast.

Most PE-backed hires don’t fail slowly.

They fail suddenly.

You're evaluating a $2M business.

Looks good on paper.

Then you dig deeper.

Owner works 60-hour weeks. 

Revenue's unpredictable. 

Margins are thin. 

No real systems.

You can still buy it.

Hope you'll figure it out after closing.

Maybe you'll build predictable revenue.

Maybe you'll document the processes.

Maybe you'll optimize margins.

Or maybe you'll own the exact same mess in 12 months, working 60-hour weeks, wondering why you left your corporate job.

I've been on both sides of 100+ M&A deals.

The pattern is always the same: Businesses without systems become full-time jobs for their new owners.

The smarter path: Buy systematic.

Before you write the check, get a former business owner who has built businesses to investor-grade standards.

Not consultants who theorize. 

Operators who've done it.

A CFO who's closed 50+ deals and knows what makes businesses actually valuable.

A sales leader who's built multiple 8-figure pipelines from scratch.

An operations expert who turns chaos into sellable assets.

A tech strategist who automates what's currently manual.

People who've solved the problems you're about to inherit.

12 months post-acquisition, you're working 30-40 hours.

Generating 40-60 qualified leads monthly.

Margins up 15-25 points.

Taking three-week vacations while your business runs without you.

Most executives wait until after closing to fix what's broken.

The smart ones? 

They validate the opportunity before they buy.

If you're evaluating deals and want to see how this works, DM me "systematic."

I've watched private equity reject candidates last year who would've been automatic hires 18 months ago.

Same pedigree.

Same work ethic.

What changed?

The skillset that made you valuable in 2023 became table stakes in 2024.

Most are still optimizing for getting hired in 2022.

I've been on both sides of the M&A table for 25 years. 

Run businesses, bought them, sold them, fixed the broken parts. 

Raised over $1 billion across portfolio companies.

The ones landing offers today bring capabilities that weren't on anyone's radar two years ago.

AI as a Value Creation Accelerator

PE firms aren't hunting for AI companies.

They're acquiring underperforming operations and using AI to compress turnaround timelines.

The best AI opportunities in PE aren't in tech companies. 

They're in boring businesses everyone else ignores.

Take a portfolio company with a bloated sales process where 47% of rep time goes to admin work. 

You identify where an AI agent can automate CRM updates, proposal generation, and follow-up sequences. 

Sales capacity doubles without hiring.

Or you inherit a customer service operation drowning in tickets. 

You implement an AI triage system that resolves 60% of inquiries without human touch. 

Response time drops from 18 hours to 90 minutes. 

Churn falls by 8 points.

I've spent two decades fixing leaky sales funnels and systematizing chaos. 

The difference now isn't the problems. 

It's the speed of the fix.

AI compresses "eventually profitable" into "profitable next quarter." 

Those who can identify these leverage points become desirable and wanted by PE

What This Means for Your Career

The executives struggling most are the ones who spent the most time perfecting skills that no longer matter.

The leaders who can articulate how cash flow or where AI creates operational leverage are competing with yesterday's playbook in tomorrow's market.

If you want to break into PE today, you need to think like an operator who sees risk and opportunity beyond the model. 

That's the shift.

PE firms are staring down a decade that will separate winners from has-beens.

The old playbook is dead.

Multiple arbitrage? 

Gone. 

Cheap debt? 

Evaporated. 

Quick flips? 

Ancient history.

The next generation of PE belongs to firms that can actually drive real profit improvements. 

Fast and at scale.

Call them quant PE houses.

Here's what separates them from the pack:

They stress test everything. 

No more single point forecasts. 

Monte Carlo simulations that model FX shocks, inflation spikes, tariff chaos.

They mine external signals. 

Satellite footfall data. 

App reviews. 

Web scrapes. 

Intelligence that spots pricing opportunities and risks before competitors see them coming.

They predict and intervene. 

Machine learning monitors portfolio companies continuously. 

Neural networks optimize pricing based on demand elasticity. 

Early warnings become early wins.

They centralize data ruthlessly. 

Every portfolio company feeds a central data lake. 

Automatic benchmarks. 

Cross portfolio synergies. 

Playbooks that actually work.

They rebuild the operating model. 

Functional beats deal centric. 

Best practice firms run one operating partner per two deal partners. 

Some houses need to triple their operational talent just to catch up.

Why the urgency?

LPs have shut their wallets until they see real distributions. 

DPI is the only metric that matters now. 

Fundraising dropped 12% annually from 2021 to 2025.

Hold periods stretched past six years. 

You can't flip your way out anymore.

Multiples compressed and scattered. 

Sellers anchor to old marks. 

Buyers price in new chaos.

The smart money sees it. 

70% of PE leaders plan to increase investment in operational AI. 

They're betting on technology to deliver the returns their old playbook can't.

The rest will explain to their LPs why they didn't.

Execution beats excuses...Every time!

The One Question Private Equity Is Always Asking About You

But doesn’t ask out loud.

But it drives every decision:

“Does this person act and reduce risk — or create it?”

Not your resume. 

Not your pedigree.

They're measuring: Do you shrink problems or multiply them?

Every move you make answers that question.

The way you frame bad news.

The speed you kill small fires.

The clarity you bring to chaos.

The systems you build so things don't break twice.

Most people think PE firms are hunting for the smartest person in the room.

They're not.

They're hunting for the person who makes everything easier.

The executive who simplifies complexity instead of adding layers.

The operator who surfaces invisible work before it becomes a crisis.

The leader who turns one-time wins into repeatable systems.

That's the actual game.

You're not proving you're smart.

You're proving you're safe.

And in PE, safe means scalable.

Think about it like this:

When something breaks, do people come to you because you'll fix it fast?

When you deliver bad news, does leadership breathe easier or brace for impact?

When you build something, does it work without you or fall apart the moment you're gone?

The executives who understand this build trust at 10x speed.

The ones who don't spend their careers explaining why things went sideways.

If a PE firm shadowed you for a week, would they see someone who shrinks problems or multiplies them?

How I Used AI to Find $500K+ in Hidden Cash Flow That PE Spreadsheet Didn't (Without Cutting Headcount)

Every business has a leaky bucket.

Most operators panic and start cutting headcount.

That's the wrong move.

I run AI analysis on three specific areas first:

1.  Leads die in the inbox.
2.  Reps stop following up.
3. Existing customers churn quietly.

Problem: Sales reps take too long to respond to new inquiries.

AI Solution: AI chatbots or agents engage leads in seconds. These tools qualify prospects and book meetings on the calendar immediately.

Problem: Most sales require five or more touchpoints, but reps quit after two.

AI Solution: AI sequences send personalized follow-up emails based on specific prospect actions. The AI varies the messaging and timing to stay relevant without human effort.

Problem: Companies focus on new sales while current clients leave due to neglect.

AI Solution: AI sentiment analysis monitors support tickets and usage data. It alerts the team when a customer shows signs of frustration so a human can intervene before the account cancels.

We didn't fire anyone.

We didn't renegotiate contracts.

We fixed the leaky bucket

You don’t fix a leaky bucket by pouring more water in it.

Your executive skills are becoming obsolete.

Your job title is safe for now. 

Your job description is not.

In the near future, the title "Executive" will be synonymous with "AI-powered Executive." 

They won't be two different roles; they will be the same thing.

This isn't about learning to code. 

You don't need to be a data scientist. 

You need to be the pilot, not the engineer.

The old executive role was about managing people. 

The new executive role is about managing systems of decision.

The Shift:
Yesterday: You asked for reports (A summary of the past).

Tomorrow: You ask for models (A forecast of the future).

Your New Job Description:

Ask better questions: Move from "What happened?" to "What is the most valuable question we could answer with our data?"

Kill the guesswork: Identify where your team makes slow, "gut-feel" choices. Start with pricing, inventory, or lead scoring.

Build the Engine: Stop running on feelings; start running on a decision engine you help design.

Yesterday's value came from experience and intuition. 

Tomorrow's value comes from the speed and accuracy of your decisions.

Your intuition is still critical...it’s how you know which questions to ask. But the leaders who win will be the ones who build systems that lead the business to the right answer faster than the competition.

PS: Are you building a decision engine, or are you still waiting for Friday's report?

Stop climbing the corporate ladder.

Buy the company instead.

You spend years building someone else's business.

You grow your division. 

You hit your numbers.

Your reward is a bigger title and a bonus...maybe

The owners get the equity value.

You think you need millions to buy a business.

You don't.

Your track record is the currency.

Private equity firms have capital.

They need proven operators to run their companies.

This is the Executive-as-Acquirer model.

They provide the money.

You provide the playbook.

You become CEO with a major equity stake.

I watched a division President do this.

She ran a $200M unit for a public company.

She partnered with a PE firm.

They bought a $40M competitor.

Three years later, they sold it for $120M.

Her personal take exceeded $10M.

PE firms want executives with:

→ A history of full P&L ownership.
→ A specific, repeatable growth playbook.
→ Deep expertise in a single industry.
→ A clear thesis on how to create value.

Here are your first steps:

→ Define your ideal acquisition criteria.
→ Document your 100-day plan and value creation strategy.
→ Identify PE funds that invest in your sector.
→ Build relationships with deal sources.

Your salary pays your mortgage.

Your equity builds generational wealth.

Stop renting out your talent.

Start deploying it for ownership.

You are the asset the capital is searching for.

I help Professionals break into Private Equity as Operating Partners, Executives, Board Directors, or PE-backed buyer | How to sell your business to PE | Founder Single Family Office | 100+ deals | $1 billion raised

I've watched 47 Investment Bank Analysts get rejected by Private Equity this year who would've been automatic hires 18 months ago.

Same pedigree. 

Same modeling chops. 

Same work ethic.

What changed?

The skillset that made you valuable in 2023 became table stakes in 2024.

I've been on both sides of the M&A table for 25 years. 

Run businesses...bought them...Fixed the broken parts...and then sold them. 

Raised over $1 billion across portfolio companies.

Those landing offers today bring two capabilities that weren't on anyone's radar two years ago.

Capability 1: Operational Risk Assessment

This isn't about satisfying LP questionnaires.

It's about identifying cash flow vulnerabilities before the deal closes.

How does a 40% turnover rate in diverse talent pools compress exit multiples?

They model the downside, not just check compliance boxes.

Capability 2: AI as a Value Creation Accelerator

PE firms aren't hunting for AI companies.

They're acquiring underperforming operations and using AI to compress turnaround timelines.

Here's what this looks like in practice:

A portfolio company has a bloated sales process with 47% of rep time spent on admin work. 

You identify where an AI agent can automate CRM updates, proposal generation, and follow-up sequences. 

That 47% becomes 12%. 

Sales capacity doubles without hiring.

Or you inherit a customer service operation drowning in tickets. 

You implement an AI triage system that resolves 60% of inquiries without human touch. 

Response time drops from 18 hours to 90 minutes. 

Churn falls by 8 points.

I've spent two decades fixing leaky sales funnels and systematizing chaos. 

The difference now isn't the problems. 

It's the speed of the fix.

AI compresses "eventually profitable" into "profitable next quarter." 

Analysts who can identify these leverage points become operators, not just spreadsheet builders.

What This Means for Your Career

Your MBA and financial modeling foundation remain essential.

But they're no longer differentiators.

The analysts who can't articulate how ESG affects cash flow or where AI creates operational leverage are competing with yesterday's playbook in tomorrow's market.

If you want to break into PE today, you need to think like an operator who sees risk and opportunity beyond the model. 

That's the shift.

The PE Positioning Strategy That Got My Client 4 Board Seats in 90 Days.

I spent one afternoon with a CFO who had 20 years of experience.

90 days later, he had 4 PE board seats.

This wasn't luck.

He'd been applying to PE board roles for months.

Zero responses.

His resume looked perfect on paper.

Two IPOs. Three turnarounds. $500M+ in enterprise value created.

But PE firms weren't calling.

He was invisible 

I looked at his LinkedIn profile.

Every headline read like a job description.

"Managed financial operations for a $200M portfolio company."

"Oversaw treasury functions and capital allocation."

"Led finance team of 15 across multiple divisions."

I asked him one question:

"What did the business actually gain because you were there?"

He started talking differently.

"We reduced cash conversion cycle from 90 days to 45."

"Renegotiated debt covenants that freed up $8M for growth."

"Built a forecast model that caught a margin issue three quarters early."

We spent the afternoon rewriting his profile around three ideas:

Replace responsibilities with financial outcomes.

Translate corporate language into investor language.

Position himself as someone who creates enterprise value, not someone who runs a department.

One month in, his LinkedIn inbox changed.

Four separate PE firms reached out about board roles.

All funds he'd never contacted.

All boards he didn't know existed.

By day 90, he had four seat offers.

Your track record isn't the issue.

How you describe it is.

Most executives write their profiles like they're applying for another W2.

PE firms don't hire employees.

They buy results.

If your profile reads like a resume, you're telling the wrong story.

Show the value you created.

Show how you'd replicate it.

The board conversations start on their own.

It was a sincere honor to receive a thank you plaque from the Private Directors Association (PDA) this week. 

While the recognition is deeply appreciated, the real "award" has been the opportunity to serve alongside some of the sharpest governance minds in the country.

In the world of Private Equity and SME growth, we often focus on the "Engine" (Operations) and the "Fuel" (Capital). 

But Governance is the steering wheel. 

Without it, you’re just going fast in an unknown direction.

If you are an executive looking to sharpen your "Boardroom IQ" or a founder looking to professionalize your governance, I can’t recommend the PDA ecosystem enough.

Thank you to the PDA leadership and my fellow members for the recognition and the continued partnership. Debra McGuire, FASAE, MBA, IOM, CAE Sue Siradas

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