Advisor to PE-backed CEOs
Most CEOs don't lose their position because they stop performing. They lose it because something in how they're operating stops landing the way it used to.
One-to-one advisory for CEOs of PE-backed businesses: board relationships, investor trust and the first 90 days.
The Signal
Authority erodes quietly, long before it shows up in the numbers.
It rarely arrives as a single failure. It arrives as decisions that take longer to land. A board that asks more questions than it used to. A team that waits for direction instead of moving on it.
By the time it reaches the numbers, the pattern is already set. The work is to read the signal early, while it can still be changed, and to change how you are operating before the room decides for you.
Three minutes will tell you how far along it is. Run the audit.
The Audit
Read the signal. Three minutes.
The Authority Audit
Seven statements. Answer them honestly, nobody sees this but you. Takes about three minutes.
The Work
The first 90 days sets the operating pattern.
New seat, new ownership, new board. The habits you set in the first quarter become the ones the organisation reads back to you for years. Set them deliberately.
Establish authority early
Before it is tested. The room needs to know how you decide, what you will own, and what you will not carry.
Make decisions earlier
The calendar tells you when a decision is due. The pattern is set by the ones you make before it asks.
Let execution compound
Authority early, decisions earlier, and delivery starts to build on itself instead of resetting each quarter.
Authority early. Decisions earlier. Execution compounds.
Why this advice holds
Pattern recognition, earned under pressure.
I am not advising from theory. I have sat in the seat, under private equity ownership, with the board in the room and the numbers on me. The arc below is not a CV. It is evidence of what I have learned to see coming.
Read Chemical Engineering, First Class. The engineer's habit: reduce a complex system to the few things that actually move it, and ignore the rest.
Fifteen years across three major energy groups, from process engineering to trading commodities and running commercial P&L, negotiating and leading joint ventures with Morgan Stanley and PetroChina along the way. Once spent a week walking a founder-owner through what his own trading floor was actually doing. Decisions made in hours, held under real exposure, judged by the market the same day.
My first CEO seat, in a technical business, under private equity ownership. Revenue from £10m to over £20m, EBITDA from £2.1m to £4.3m, headcount doubled, operations opened in Germany and South Korea. I learned where authority is won and lost from the inside.
I advise CEOs in the position I was in: new to the seat, new to the ownership, carrying more than the org chart shows. Same pressure, seen from the other side of the table.
In their words
Nick has a strategic approach to leading a business combined with an excellent understanding of the underlying operation of a processing business.
Nick's clear and perceptive analysis of fast-moving and sometimes complex business issues was invaluable... He was decisive in his leadership and combined this with an ability to motivate everyone to pull in the same direction.
He has an exceptional ability to drive growth, build strong, motivated teams, and help individuals reach their full potential.
How the work runs
Shaped to the situation. Disciplined in the rhythm.
A CEO nine months in and one preparing for exit need different work. The shape flexes. What holds constant is the cadence, the confidentiality, and the directness.
Weekly 1:1 sessions
Enough cadence to shift the operating pattern. Not so much that it becomes a dependency you have to manage.
Confidential by default
What is said in the room stays in the room. Including from the board and the sponsor. That is what makes it useful.
Built around your mandate
New ownership, a new board, or a step-up in scope. The work starts from where you actually are, not a standard programme.
Who this is for
Where most CEOs feel friction
I work with CEOs who are performing but losing ground, and can't yet name why. Usually at one of four moments.
Performing, and still losing ground
The numbers are moving. Something in how you are landing with the board is not. Read it early.
Read more New seat, new ownerThe first 90 days
New seat, new ownership, new board. The habits you set in the first quarter are the ones the organisation reads back to you.
Read more Stepping upCFO to CEO
The precision that made you a strong CFO is not what the board reads as authority in the CEO seat.
Read more For chairs and partnersWhen the view is forming
An independent read on a portfolio CEO, while the pattern can still change. Confidential to the CEO.
Read moreFAQ
Questions CEOs ask first
Is this executive coaching?
No. Coaching develops the person. This work is about how you operate in role: board relationships, investor trust and the decisions that set the pattern in your first 90 days.
Who is this for?
CEOs of PE and VC-backed businesses, particularly in transition: a new seat, new ownership or a new board. Often it is a first CEO role under a sponsor. It is also for CFOs and commercial directors stepping up to CEO, and for chairs and operating partners who want an independent read on a portfolio leader.
How does an engagement run?
Weekly one-to-one sessions, built around your mandate. A CEO nine months in and one preparing for exit need different work, so the shape flexes. What holds constant is the cadence, the confidentiality and the directness.
Is it confidential from the board and the sponsor?
Yes. What is said in the room stays in the room, including from the board and the sponsor. That is what makes it useful.
What is your background?
Cambridge, First Class in Chemical Engineering. Fifteen years at BP, Innovene and Ineos in engineering, commodities trading and commercial P&L. Then CEO of a PE-backed business, growing revenue from £10m to over £20m. 28 years in senior operating and board roles.
What happens in the first conversation?
One conversation. No pitch. We establish whether the pattern you are seeing is one I can help you change, and you decide from there.
Start with one confidential conversation.
One conversation. No pitch. We establish whether the pattern you are seeing is one I can help you change, and you decide from there.