Chief Officers Group Annual Business Leaders Dinner 2017 – Not all doom and gloom – senses working overtime, trendy specs and some broken glass!

Last Thursday 1st June, Chief Officers Group welcomed another room of sixty Chairmen, CEOs and private equity investors for an evening of fine dining and well-heeled networking at the two Michelin-star Hélène Darroze restaurant at The Connaught Hotel, in Mayfair.

Seven leading private equity clients attended - CBPE, LDC, Mayfair Equity Partners, Palatine Private Equity, Phoenix Equity Partners, Permira and Silverfleet Capital - an impressive cross section of the UK and European mid-market and the larger global buyout market.

Well over 100 different portfolio growth companies were represented at board level, a great testament to the strength of our network and the buzz in the room was palpable to such an extent that I managed to break a wine glass trying to get everyone’s attention to be seated – my apologies to The Connaught as I am sure their glassware is not cheap - perhaps maybe next time I should invest in a good quality whistle!

We have long understood the bene?t of introducing our candidates and contacts to each other. Many important business relationships and a number of successful board appointments have been born at previous events and the early feedback suggests this event was no different.

It has been an interesting 12 months for the private equity industry with mixed reports on an uncertain future against the backdrop of Brexit, but positive stories do continue to emerge and two of our guests had been appointed chairman into fresh deals earlier that very week – sound evidence indeed that good things are still happening. So congratulations to these two – and well done in particular to them for concluding their deals ahead of the pending general election!

Quality management for successful businesses - One thing that never changes, even in an uncertain world, is the importance of assembling the right management team for sustained business success. Our ongoing pursuit of excellence in this area has meant that we have enjoyed another strong year of growth as we continue to target the very best people available. This year we made board level placements at businesses backed by ten different PE firms in a range of sectors.

Board augmentation, not replacement

One recent headline in particular that caught my eye recently was the claim by Alix Partners and Vardis that “Private Equity firms sack 58 per cent of portfolio company CEOs within two years.” If this were true then I’m sure we would be a lot busier - part of me actually wishes that this could actually be the case, but, alas, this claim is just not borne out by our own experience – we concluded in the room that this was at best an attempt to grab headlines or perhaps more a reflection of the turnaround space where Alix are clearly a strong player and where such changes are likely to be more prevalent.

In fact, most of the executive appointments we have made this year into portfolio businesses have been made for positive, board augmentation reasons, either to strengthen a board ahead of a potential exit or with long term succession in mind – so headlines like this do give completely the wrong impression in our (humble) opinion – but they do stand out!

COG Corporate

We have also launched a new Corporate division this year to extend the same high-quality executive search services to larger blue-chip businesses going through periods of change with high profile permanent and interim appointments. COG Corporate will be headed up by Mike Hollin, pictured here with new team member Peter Moore. Mike is on the left and Peter is on the right.... I think…Mike clearly recruits in his own image...

Mike Hollin MBE with COG Corporate new recruit Peter Moore

Trend setting – for a group of people that are not particularly held up as being great trend-setters or fashionistas I must say that there were some very high quality spectacles on show. The award for the trendiest pair by far had to go to serial PE chairman Stuart Rose, fresh from his recent exit at MKM Building Supplies with everyone else a not-so-close second. As he is also a former Chairman of Tom Davies bespoke though this was only to be expected.

From left to right: Terry Duddy, John Pearce, Stuart Rose (Winner – best spectacles) and Graham Turner.

Sponsors

Our thanks to Tremayne Ducker and Darren Ellis of Zeus Capital for sharing some of their insights on the current IPO climate and again to long-standing friends, John Younger and Simon Smales of RBC Wealth Management, for their invaluable support, without which evenings like this would not be possible. Great support and great people to deal with - much appreciated.

And finally, a word on the food - the four courses, canapes and petit fours were all completely amazing – the Mustard Ice Cream, Tandoori Scallop and Armagnac Baba being particularly worthy of mention – all of which made my random and dreadful rendition of XTC’s “Senses Working Overtime” all the more apt for those of you who wondered what that was really all about!

Chicken dinner!

Armagnac Baba

So thank you to all for coming and making the event so special. Keep in touch and contact us if we can help you with any one of those 100+ portfolio businesses……and see you gain next year?

It's who you know!