Senior Advisors, including Board of Directors or Advisory Board members or individuals who might act as a consultant to a private equity firm or portfolio company, frequently play critical roles in Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. If you have specific industry expertise and experience working with private equity firms, we would like to know more about you. Please click to Join the PE Executive Network database

The Private Equity Executive Network has been developed to assist Private Equity Investors gain access to Senior Advisors. In the industry, a Senior Advisor can also be referred to as Executive In Residence, CEO In Residence, or part of a CEO owners program. The overall goal of the PE Network is to identify and match senior C- level executives and Board or Advisory Board Members with Private Equity investors to work with them in a number of ways such as:

• Assessing a specific industry sector
• Performing due diligence on specific "deals"
• Assisting in the general management of a selected portfolio company
• Serving on boards of directors/advisors
• Acting as interim/project executives in areas of immediate urgency
• Assisting with the recruitment of talent to the portfolio companies

These Senior Advisors can help create the operating leverage to increase the productivity and value of the PE firm's portfolio companies. If desired, the chosen executive may be engaged, on an interim or part time basis, by the portfolio company through the PE firm. The executive can also serve as a board or advisory board member.

The senior advisor is typically on-site a specific number of days per month and is always available to consult with and/or advise the PE firm. The individual’s compensation is usually based on a per diem allowance and/or some form of equity based on performance. The individual is someone who has been very successful in a industry sector and wants to utilize their contact base to bring an "deal idea" from financing and growth to an exit strategy.

The Senior Advisor works closely with the PE principals in developing an investment strategy for a particular industry niche, evaluating and handling "due diligence" on specific targeted companies, and helping to create the going forward business plan.

Once the investment strategy is established, the Senior Advisor will play a role in "sourcing deals" by working with the PE firms, using their industry contacts, as well as, personal contacts.

When a company is acquired, the Senior Advisor will become closely involved with the new portfolio company. Duties will include, but are not limited to, working closely with the CEO and senior management team of the portfolio company as a coach, mentor, advisor, and in some cases, a project manager. Also, monitoring the company on behalf of the fund in the areas of risk analysis, strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting and growth initiatives will be an important part of his/her duties.

The Senior Advisor will continue to seek and evaluate investments in the defined industry niche over a three or four year period. It is anticipated that two or three additional companies will be acquired and the Senior Advisor will assume coaching and monitoring responsibilities for the portfolio companies and may or may not assume Board duties for those portfolio companies.

When you network with the PE Network you may be considered as a possible Board Member because you have:

• Substantial industry experience and expertise
• A high level of industry contacts
• Strong functional experience, i.e. general management, finance, marketing, sales, technical background, etc.
• Ability to spend time with the companies involved
• Worked with PE firms in the past
• An interest in being an investor

The primary requirements for a Senior Advisor and/or Board Member are a successful career, 25 plus years of experience in a specific industry sector and having worked with private equity investors. Ideally this experience will include:

• Day-to-day operating experience with significant P&L management responsibility as a CEO, President, COO or CFO for a company or business unit.
• Experience in the industry sector with both large (Fortune 1000) and small companies.
• Experience as a consultant with a "big bracket" consulting firm servicing a specific industry sector with excellent project management skills.
• A track record of creating value for a private equity sponsor in a leveraged environment is highly desirable.

From a personal standpoint, the successful candidate should be at a point in his or her career as having the financial resources to not need a "full time" operating job for "annual income", but rather a desire for a mentoring and strategic planning role to create a longer-term payout. The individual's motivation should be in concert with the PE firm; to create value in the portfolio company providing a successful exit and a significant return to investors.

This is a unique role requiring an executive who has excellent strategic planning and marketing skills, which can be employed to coach a management team. The individual must be able to gain the confidence and respect of the portfolio company such that the management team considers the Senior Advisor as a valuable asset and team player, not as a boss.

To add value, the Senior Advisor should have state-of-the-art knowledge in certain functional areas gained from recent experience in the industry. For example, the Senior Advisor might have recently been CEO directing a turn around of a mid-size company but the individual's early career experience and on-going knowledge is heavily focused on a functional skill, such as, distribution, logistics, brand development, marketing alliances, outsourced manufacturing etc., a background in financial restructuring, capital markets, treasury etc is not a primary requirement; that knowledge resides with the fund.

Finally, although this is not a day-to-day operating role, the Senior Advisor should have the leadership skills and energy level to "step-in" as interim CEO for six to nine months should there be the need.

Please click to Join the PE Executive Network database.