Recruitment of a Chief Executive – mid size UK Private Equity Firm

The Challenge

Our client was a mid size UK private equity firm that had acquired a number of small, low grade UK biomass assets.  However, the business was barely profitable, lacked direction and a strategy, and had a weak management team.

The Approach

The assignment was to recruit a new Chief Executive, whose remit was to turn the business around by maximising the existing assets, building a new management team and developing a long term exit strategy for the company that maximised the potential value for the investors.  Because the business was close to breaching its banking covenants the search had to be conducted as quickly as possible.   

Within five weeks we had completed an extensive search of the relevant market.  Our target market was potential candidates with a demonstrable track record of success within UK power generation, possessing the leadership, strategy and operational skills to turn the business around and develop a new strategy.  In addition the remit was to identify potential candidates with experience of working alongside private equity and the ability to harness blue chip processes and expectations into a small and under resourced business.

The Result

The successful candidate was a UK national, who had previously spent time in the Asia Pacific region.  He quickly strengthened the management team.  In order to provide time for us to recruit a world class CFO, we initially advised on the appointment of a high quality and experienced interim CFO who was able to strengthen the finance function before the new CFO joined.  The entire recruitment process took approximately four months from the start of the search assignment until the new CFO joined. 

Within two years the new management team had significantly improved the existing assets, refinanced the business, acquired the #1 competitor and developed a pipeline of new assets.

On the back of this success the private equity owners opted to sell the business.  A successful auction process was begun and the business was subsequently sold to a major infrastructure fund for an enterprise value of £200 million, in the process winning Euromoney Deal of the Year.

About Odgers Berndtson 

Odgers Berndtson is the UK’s leading executive recruitment firm.  It operates internationally across 51 offices, of which 8 are regionally distributed throughout the UK.  Offices are located in London (West End & City), Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Cardiff.  It comprises a broad range of dedicated practices offering specialist executive recruitment skills by sector and by job-function.  The Infrastructure Practice specialises in the recruitment of executive roles in a broad range of infrastructure-related sectors including construction, consulting engineering, transportation and utilities.

Contact Julian Fox julian.fox@odgersberndtson.co.uk (Odgers Berndtson UK, Partner in the  Energy, Manufacturing & Infrastructure Practice)