Portfolio Company COO Recruitment

Adrian Lawrence — Founder, Exec Capital

Private equity executive search specialist | ICAEW Fellow | Portfolio company COO and operational leadership appointments for UK mid-market PE since 2018

The portfolio company COO is where the investment thesis meets operational reality. The GP’s value creation plan identifies the EBITDA improvement opportunity; the COO is the person who delivers it — through operational restructuring, process improvement, capacity management, supply chain optimisation, or whatever the specific lever is for the business in question. A COO who cannot translate strategic intent into operational outcomes within the time constraints of a hold period will leave the EBITDA improvement on the table. The right candidate has done exactly this in a comparable PE-backed business, understands the pace the investment cycle demands, and can work with a CEO and a GP board simultaneously without creating the management tension that kills execution. To discuss your requirement, call 020 3834 9616.

Exec Capital recruits Chief Operating Officers for PE-backed portfolio companies across the UK mid-market. Portfolio company COO appointments arise at deal completion when the business needs dedicated operational leadership to execute the value creation plan, during the hold period when operational improvement is the primary return driver and the existing management team does not have the capability to deliver it, and in turnaround situations where the business needs rapid operational intervention. Every mandate is led personally by Adrian Lawrence FCA on a retained basis.

“The business had good revenue and a decent CEO but the operations were a mess — margins were being destroyed by inefficiency the incumbent team had normalised over years. We needed a COO who could come in, diagnose fast, and start delivering results within a quarter. Exec Capital placed someone who had done operational turnarounds in three previous PE portcos in similar sectors. He identified the key margin improvement opportunities within six weeks and the EBITDA impact was visible within four months. Exactly what the thesis needed.”

Investment Director, UK Mid-Market Buy-Out Fund

What a portfolio company COO appointment involves

The portfolio company COO mandate is defined by the specific operational value creation lever in the GP’s investment thesis. Before we discuss candidate profiles, we need to understand what the business actually does, where the operational improvement opportunity lies, and what the COO will be asked to deliver and by when. The candidate specification for a COO appointed to drive supply chain cost reduction is materially different from the specification for a COO appointed to manage a buy-and-build integration programme or a COO appointed to scale operational capacity ahead of a revenue growth plan.

Across most PE mandates, the portfolio company COO owns four areas that together determine whether the operational value creation plan is delivered. First, operational performance improvement — the direct reduction of cost, waste, or inefficiency within the business’s production, service delivery, or supply chain operations. Second, organisational design — restructuring the business’s operational teams, reporting lines, and management layers to match the performance requirements of the investment plan rather than the historical habits of an owner-managed business. Third, systems and process — implementing the operational systems, management disciplines, and performance metrics that make improvement sustainable rather than temporary. Fourth, integration management — where the business is pursuing a buy-and-build programme, the COO owns the operational integration of acquired businesses into the platform.

How Exec Capital approaches portfolio company COO mandates

The COO mandate brief is the most operationally specific of any PE executive appointment we run. We need to understand the business’s operating model in detail — its production or service delivery process, its cost structure, its management team capability, the specific improvement opportunities identified in the investment thesis, and the timeline within which the GP expects to see measurable operational progress — before we can define the right candidate profile.

We run COO searches through direct outreach to the network of PE-experienced operational leaders. The individuals who have delivered operational improvement within PE-backed businesses of comparable size and sector are not advertising their availability. We know who they are, we know their sector expertise and their improvement track record, and we can approach them quickly and with enough specificity about the mandate to generate genuine interest.

For urgent deal-completion mandates, we operate to a compressed timeline: initial longlist within five to seven working days. For planned hold-period mandates, we run a full retained process with a typical appointment timeline of eight to twelve weeks from brief.

The candidate pool

COOs with PE-backed operational improvement track records are the primary pool. These individuals have delivered measurable EBITDA improvement within a PE hold period, have worked directly with GP boards and operating partners, and understand the pace and accountability model the PE environment demands. Their sector experience is the most important qualification after their PE track record — operational improvement methodologies transfer across sectors, but the speed of deployment depends on understanding the business model from the outset.

Operational turnaround specialists are the relevant pool for distressed or underperforming situations where the mandate is rescue rather than optimisation. These candidates are more comfortable with ambiguity, faster to diagnose and act, and more experienced with the management conflict that operational restructuring often generates. They are a different profile from the hold-period improvement COO and the two pools have limited overlap.

Divisional MDs and Operations Directors from larger businesses who have run operations of comparable scale represent the step-up pool. Their operational depth is directly relevant; the adjustment required is to the PE governance model and the pace of decision-making the environment demands. We assess this adjustment honestly rather than presenting candidates whose corporate background we doubt will translate.

COO vs CEO — when each appointment is right

GPs sometimes ask whether the operational improvement mandate requires a COO appointment or a CEO replacement. The right answer depends on where the performance gap actually sits. If the CEO is strong strategically and in the GP relationship but the operational delivery is weak, a COO appointment alongside the existing CEO is typically the right answer — the COO owns execution while the CEO owns strategy and stakeholder management. If the CEO is the source of the operational performance problem — either through capability or through resistance to change — a CEO replacement is the right answer, and the COO mandate may follow. We advise GPs honestly on this distinction at the brief stage.

Working with Exec Capital on a portfolio company COO mandate

Every portfolio company COO mandate is led personally by Adrian Lawrence FCA. The operational specificity of the COO brief means that we invest more time than most search firms in understanding the business before we begin candidate identification — because a COO placed against the wrong operational specification will not deliver the value creation the GP needs regardless of their individual capability.

For the CEO appointment that defines the leadership context within which the COO will operate, see our Portfolio Company CEO Recruitment page. For the finance leadership that sits alongside operational improvement to manage the P&L impact, see our Portfolio Company CFO Recruitment page.

Recruit a Portfolio Company COO with Exec Capital

Exec Capital recruits COOs for PE-backed portfolio companies across the UK mid-market. Operational improvement, buy-and-build integration, and turnaround mandates. Every search is led personally by Adrian Lawrence FCA on a retained basis.

EBITDA focused

Operational leaders with measurable PE improvement track records

All situations

Improvement, turnaround, buy-and-build integration, and scale-up mandates

Retained search

Led personally by Adrian Lawrence — not contingency recruitment

Tell us about your COO requirement →
Contact us
or call 020 3834 9616

Related Private Equity Appointments

Private Equity Executive Search — All PE executive appointments across the investment cycle
Portfolio Company CEO Recruitment — Operational CEO for the PE-backed business
Portfolio Company CFO Recruitment — Finance leadership with PE reporting and exit preparation expertise
Value Creation Executive Recruitment — Specialist senior hires tied to specific value creation levers
Interim COO — COO cover for urgent operational situations or transition periods
COO Recruitment — Permanent COO appointments outside the PE-backed context

Sources and Further Reading

Portfolio Company COO Recruitment