Directorbank

The Chairman/CEO relationship –

In a series of mini reports, Directorbank explores the role of the PE Chairman – the draw, the required skill set, the opportunities and the challenges, particularly concerning the relationship with the CEO, the wider management team and the backers.

These reports specifically explore the Chair/CEO relationship and encompass feedback from a recent survey of 240 experienced PE Chairmen from Directorbank’s network.

Part 7 – The attributes of a strong CEO, from a PE Chairman’s perspective

Our findings show 7 key attributes as follows:

• Leads and develops a winning team
• Clear vision and the ability to deliver the strategic plan
• Has knowledge and understanding
• Maintains trust and respect from the shareholders
• Knows own limitations
• Good understanding of the numbers and financial drivers
• Has the X factor
  
  Read Part 7 here.

Part 8 – When the CEO sees the Chairman’s role as an imposition …

Advice given by the surveyed Chairmen was:

• Understand the concerns
• Remove the threat
• Prove your worth – provide specialist knowledge; be a good mentor and sounding board; effectively manage the Board and its processes
• If all else fails, consider more extreme action
  
  Read Part 8 here.

Part 6 – The challenges of chairing a PE-backed business

In a series of mini reports, Directorbank explores the role of the PE Chairman – the draw, the required skill set, the opportunities and the challenges, particularly concerning the relationship with the CEO, the wider management team and the backers.

This report explores specific challenges of the PE Chairman role and encompasses feedback and insight from a recent survey of 240 experienced Chairmen from the Directorbank network. 

Our findings show 5 key scenarios where challenge is likely to arise. These are:

1. A breakdown in the PE investor and Management Team relationship

2. An underperforming Management Team

3. Getting agreement on the right time to exit

4. The PE investor overwhelms Management with unnecessary interference

5. The PE investor manages by numbers and lacks understanding of the business

To read the full report, download here: Part 6_The challenges of chairing a PE-backed business

Part 5 – The attributes of a strong PE Chairman.
In a series of reports, Directorbank explores the role of the PE Chairman – the draw, the required skill set, the opportunities and the challenges, particularly concerning the relationship with the CEO, the wider management team and the backers.

In this report, we explore the desired skill set of the PE Chairman using insight from our recent survey of 30 PE Investors – at director or partner level – and 240 PE-experienced chairmen.

For more information, download the report here – Part 5_The attributes of a strong PE Chairman.

2016 YEAR END UPDATE –
Despite the extreme politics of 2016, it has been a year of strong achievement for Directorbank with a number of notable successes:

• Portfolio search assignments remained the core part of our activity and we continued to play a key role in pre-deal situations by introducing board directors and advisors on behalf of our private equity clients.

• Assignments for non PE-backed firms increased from 2015 figures, and notably we saw a 27% increase in assignments for privately-owned firms.

• We continued to fill the core mix of board roles as well as an increasing number of other senior and critical positions such as Commercial Directors, Business Development Directors and CTOs – here we saw a 62% rise in work. The number of Sales Director roles completed rose 38% on 2015 figures.

For more information on our key achievements across the year, including a track record of recently completed assignments, please click on the link below.

directorbank-news-update-jan-2017