What Executive Role Should Be Responsible for Investor Relations?
In most public companies, the head of investor relations reports to the CFO, and that arrangement is becoming more common, not less. But the reporting line matters less than the strategic weight of the role, and that is where companies get this decision wrong. A well-structured reporting relationship with an underpowered IR function protects nothing.
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The Succession Risk Gap in Private Equity Diligence
Sponsors routinely underwrite financial and operational risk with rigor, yet they routinely accept vague, subjective narratives regarding leadership continuity. This creates a deep asymmetry in modern private equity transactions. Significant capital is spent auditing historical balance sheets and customer concentration while leaving execution risk completely unmeasured. In our executive search practice, Cowen Partners Executive Search
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Investor Relations Executive Search: How to Hire a Head of IR
Companies that come to us for a head of investor relations are rarely just filling a seat. Something upstream broke. A valuation gap opened between the story and the stock. An activist scare put the board on edge. Credibility with the Street took a hit the company has not fully recovered from. An IPO is
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What Private Equity Gets Wrong About Executive Hiring (And How to Fix It)
Featuring expertise from Maxwell Salazar, Salazar Leadership Advisory — Maxwell Salazar is a business psychologist who helps private equity firms make better leadership bets. He evaluates C-suite leaders, surfaces culture and execution risk, and gives investors the clarity to hire, align, and support the people who drive value creation. The CFO had an MBA from
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The Importance of a General Counsel in a Private Equity Portfolio Company
Private equity portfolio companies operate in highly demanding environments where growth expectations, operational transformation, regulatory scrutiny, and transaction activity often move at accelerated speeds. As a result, legal leadership has become increasingly important within PE-backed organizations. Modern General Counsels are no longer viewed solely as legal advisors responsible for contracts and compliance. Today’s in-house legal
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What Private Equity Really Wants in a CFO (and Why Big-Company Experience Can Miss the Mark)
Private equity CFO hires are often misunderstood. Boards see a candidate with Fortune 500 experience, a prestigious MBA, and a track record at a recognizable brand, and end up assuming they’ve found their finance leader. Six months later, the hire is drowning, the portfolio company is missing targets, and the sponsor is questioning everything. The
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When Founders Step Aside: Navigating Leadership Transitions in Private Equity
Cowen Partners President Shawn Cole Featured in Hunt Scanlon’s ExitUp on Founder Succession Challenges Founder transitions are among the most delicate leadership moments any company faces, and in private equity-backed businesses, the stakes are even higher. Hunt Scanlon Ventures’ ExitUp publication sat down with Cowen Partners President and Founding Partner Shawn Cole to explore how
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The Leadership Crunch Behind Private Equity’s Stalled Exits
By Shawn Cole, President & Founder — Shawn Cole is a nationally recognized authority on CEO recruiting. His insights regularly appear in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and other leading publications, delivering nuanced and critical analysis on executive recruitment, succession planning, enterprise transformation, and the evolving demands of
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The New CFO Playbook: Navigating Private Equity’s Transformed Landscape
By Walker Stadler, Director of Executive Search — Walker Stadler is a trusted advisor to high-growth companies and private equity firms, recruiting financial executives and operational leaders who drive scale. His work spans finance, manufacturing, distribution, technology, complex organizational design, succession planning, and talent strategy. Picture this: You’re a CFO, and your company just got
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Talent Imperatives: Private Equity’s Obsession With The CFO
With value creation under the microscope and private equity firms facing pressure to deliver, the portfolio CFO has emerged as the linchpin of enterprise performance. From deal viability and debt strategy to pricing, forecasting, and exit timing, the right finance leader can add billions — and the wrong one can quietly erode it. Evan Berta,
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