SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bespoke Partners, a leading provider of retained executive search and leadership advisory services for private equity-backed software companies, announced today that Founding Partner Kristie Nova will lead the firm’s dedicated practice placing high-impact Chief Executive Officers in private equity portfolio companies.

“I’m thrilled to return to my roots and lead our search practice to bring exceptional CEOs to our clients”

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“I’m thrilled to return to my roots and lead our search practice to bring exceptional CEOs to our clients,” Kristie said. “The CEO plays the most critical role in driving portfolio company growth and achieving value creation objectives. Finding the most effective leader for that role has never been more important than in today’s challenging economic climate.”

Kristie founded Bespoke Partners in 2011 and grew the firm into the premier human capital advisory partner for private equity firms investing in the growth and middle market software sector. As private equity firms have raised record-breaking funds in recent years, Bespoke likewise has expanded its executive network and search expertise to address leadership needs for companies across the private equity spectrum, from growth to middle market to large cap.

In doing so, the Bespoke team has developed unique insights into the types of chief executives who can lead a portfolio company to achieve an investment thesis.

“Kristie provides exceptional search leadership that will enable us to fast-track the recruiting and placement of CEOs who understand how to inspire teams and grow businesses despite today’s uncertain economic conditions,” said Eric Walczykowski, Bespoke’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to partner with private equity firms to bring their portfolio companies CEOs who win.”

“A key trend we are seeing is demand for CEOs who know how to orchestrate capital-efficient growth in their companies,” Kristie added. “Strategies pursued in the past to ‘grow at all costs’ are no longer viable when economic headwinds make capital more expensive and reduce access to funding. We have a network of CEOs with proven ability to lead companies to grow profitably.”

Bespoke Partners places on average three CEOs per quarter in the portfolio companies of top tier private equity firms. Bespoke-placed CEOs have gone on to lead companies to multiple acquisitions, high-growth market expansion, and numerous successful exits with valuations of more than $1 billion, generating many multiples in enterprise value. Examples of firms that excelled under the leadership of Bespoke-placed CEOs include Brightly, Provation, Quest and Therapy Brands.

Bespoke’s sector expertise and leadership assessment methodology allow the firm to identify leaders who have the greatest potential for success in a role and to recruit them in typically half the industry average time. The company boasts a 95% placement success rate.

“Our experience with recruiting top leaders enables us to comprehensively analyze the technical skills and leadership behaviors that will make a CEO successful in a given company,” Kristie said. “Then our unmatched network of CEOs with outstanding private equity track records permits us to quickly identify and engage the leaders who will be the best fit.”

About Bespoke Partners

Bespoke Partners is a leading firm focused exclusively on executive recruiting and leadership advisory services for private equity-backed software companies.

More than 90% of the most active private equity software investors in the US have relied on Bespoke for leadership recruiting and advisory. Bespoke transformed leadership at portfolio companies achieving buyout transactions totaling more than $25 billion in 2021 alone.

Bespoke’s unique, data-driven services complete searches in typically half the industry average time with a 99% placement success rate.

The firm partners with more than 70 top tier private equity firms, providing human capital services that accelerate execution of value creation plans, cut the risk of mis-hiring, and empower leadership to achieve the investment thesis.

To learn more visit bespokepartners.com.

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bespoke Partners, a leading provider of retained executive search and leadership advisory services for private equity backed enterprise software companies, announced today that Nick Donlan has been promoted to Partner at the firm.

“Nick’s extensive network and track record of success in finding the right candidate, at the right time, empowers his clients to execute on their value creation plans and work toward achieving the investment thesis.”

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Previously serving as Senior Vice President, Nick has specialized in executive searches and placements of high-performance product and technology executives, including CTO, CPO and CIO leaders for private-equity backed software companies. Nick has successfully supported the growth and placement of executives at Quest, Imperva, MeridianLink, and other leading software and SaaS companies.

“Nick has had an impressive impact from the moment he joined Bespoke,” said Eric Walczykowski, Bespoke’s Chief Executive Officer. “Technology executives play a mission critical role in the software and SaaS sector we serve, and Nick has led the creation of a technology executive practice that has excelled in helping our clients to address this essential need.”

Nick began his career working with private equity and venture capital firms to support deal origination and due diligence efforts. Since joining Bespoke Partners in 2016, he has played an instrumental role in growing the firm’s presence in Austin, a rapidly growing hub of innovation in the United States.

“Bespoke is the go-to leader in retained executive search and leadership advisory services for the private equity industry because of the incredible professionals on our team,” Eric added. “Nick’s extensive network and track record of success in finding the right candidate, at the right time, empowers his clients to execute on their value creation plans and work toward achieving the investment thesis.”

Nick has played a valuable role in honing the company’s unique Search 2.0™ process. As a data-driven approach that supplements the human elements of executive recruiting, Search 2.0 features:

• Advanced Scorecarding – tailoring a search to specific company needs and its value creation plan for achieving the investment thesis.
• Deep Validation™ – the industry’s most in-depth backchannel reference checking to yield unparalleled insight into a candidate’s background and skills.
• FIT Profile™ – a holistic view of a candidate’s potential for success in the company, team and role.

“It has been an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience to learn and grow with Bespoke over the last 6 plus years,” said Nick. “I am looking forward to further growing our product and technology practice, and to continue helping our clients build exceptional leadership teams.”

Visit bespokepartners.com to learn how Search 2.0 can transform portfolio company leadership.

About Bespoke Partners

Bespoke Partners is the leading firm focused exclusively on executive recruiting and leadership advisory services for private equity backed enterprise software companies.

More than 90% of the most active private equity software investors in the US have relied on Bespoke for leadership recruiting and advisory. Bespoke transformed leadership at portfolio companies achieving buyout transactions totaling more than $25 billion in 2021 alone.

Bespoke’s unique, data-driven services complete searches in typically half the industry average time with a 99% placement success rate.

The firm has offices in San Diego, Austin and Philadelphia and provides human capital services spanning the deal cycle from due diligence to leadership build-out to exit readiness. To learn more visit bespokepartners.com.

Search 2.0, Deep Validation and FIT Profile are trademarks of Bespoke Partners LLC.

Contacts

SAN DIEGO–Bespoke Partners, a leading provider of retained executive search and leadership advisory services, today announced that Julie Catalano has joined the firm as Chief People Officer.

“Bespoke Partners already has a purpose-driven culture, and a strong foundation of benefits and programs supporting our employees”

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SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bespoke Partners, a leading provider of retained executive search and leadership advisory services, today announced the launch of three new dedicated executive search practices to accelerate recruiting of high-impact leaders for private equity-backed software companies.

“We provide better transparency for the company and the candidates of how they will perform in the role. The outcome is faster placement of a high-impact technology leader who is a true fit for the company and the value creation plan.”

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The new dedicated practices provide in-depth, role-specific focus on sales and marketing leaders, technology leaders, and human resources leaders.

This approach targeting specific roles enables Bespoke to rapidly find and recruit leaders with the greatest potential to execute on portfolio company value creation plans to achieve an investment thesis.

“The talent market is tight, especially for seasoned leaders with successful private equity track records,” said Bespoke President Eric Walczykowski. “At the same time, it has never been more critical to quickly find leaders who can immediately start to execute on value creation plans.

“Our alignment of search and advisory teams around functional roles delivers faster results with more thorough assessment and unmatched access to the best candidates.”

The dedicated practices at Bespoke are formalizing the longstanding success the company has had in recruiting that targets key leadership roles.

Bespoke previously announced dedicated practices for CEO and Board Member Search and CFO Search. Both practices posted record-breaking performance in their respective areas in 2021 and both have exceeded 100 placements.

The new practices joining these include:

• Go-to-Market (GTM) Leaders: recruiting sales and marketing leaders who drive portfolio company growth to win market share and ramp revenues.
• Technology Leaders: recruiting Chief Technology Officers and Chief Product Officers who spearhead innovation, orchestrate development, and create high-value technology intellectual property.
• Talent & Human Resources Leaders: recruiting human resources and talent management leaders who grow and motivate teams, manage corporate expansion, and develop winning company cultures.

Each team combines Bespoke’s proven data-driven search methodology with its unique leadership advisory services.

Bespoke calls this approach Search 2.0™ and it brings management science to shortening search cycles and identifying candidates with the greatest potential for success in the targeted roles.

Record-breaking deal volume in private equity is making competition for talent fierce and lengthening industry average search times. But Bespoke’s Search 2.0 mitigates the impact of this historically tight market, as detailed in a recent company blog posting.

“We pioneered data-driven search and our track record in technology leadership recruiting showcases the power of Search 2.0,” said Nick Donlan, Senior Vice President and co-leader of Bespoke’s Technology Leaders recruiting practice. “Our process enables us to surface the best Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer candidates earlier.

“We provide better transparency for the company and the candidates of how they will perform in the role. The outcome is faster placement of a high-impact technology leader who is a true fit for the company and the value creation plan.”

Search 2.0 features three unique elements for accelerating search:

• Advanced Scorecarding – organizing the search and candidate evaluation around the specific needs for the company to grow and achieve the investment thesis.
• Deep Validation™ – the industry’s most in-depth backchannel reference checking for validating a candidate’s skill set and experience.
• FIT Profile™ – providing a unique, holistic view of how a candidate would fit with the company, leadership team and the role.

Visit bespokepartners.com to learn how Search 2.0 and the dedicated practice team approach can transform portfolio company leadership.

About Bespoke Partners

Bespoke Partners is the only firm focused exclusively on executive recruiting and leadership advisory services for private equity firms and portfolio companies in software.

More than 90% of the most active private equity software investors in the United States have relied on Bespoke for leadership recruiting and advisory.

Bespoke transformed leadership at portfolio companies achieving buyout transactions totaling more than $25 billion in 2021 alone.

Bespoke’s unique, data-driven services complete searches in typically half the industry average time with a 99% placement success rate.

The firm has offices in San Diego, Austin and Philadelphia and partners with more than 70 top tier private equity firms. It provides human capital services spanning the deal cycle from due diligence to leadership build-out to exit readiness. To learn more visit bespokepartners.com.

Search 2.0, Deep Validation and FIT Profile are trademarks of Bespoke Partners LLC.

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bespoke Partners, a leading provider of accelerated executive search services for the private equity market, today announced that Prakash Patel has joined the firm as Chief Financial Officer.

“He brings us a rare combination of finance acumen and business growth expertise. Prakash will be instrumental in continuing and expanding our rapid growth and evolution into a comprehensive human capital advisory firm serving the private equity market.”

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Prakash brings more than 14 years of experience in top-tier financial services and consulting engagements, including extensive work in private-equity-backed organizations, leading strategic initiatives and driving enterprise transformation projects.

“We are delighted to welcome Prakash, with his extensive track record in driving strategic initiatives and growth for a wide range of organizations,” said Bespoke Partners CEO Kristie Nova. “He brings us a rare combination of finance acumen and business growth expertise. Prakash will be instrumental in continuing and expanding our rapid growth and evolution into a comprehensive human capital advisory firm serving the private equity market.”

Based in Chicago, Prakash joins Bespoke Partners from Kaufman Hall & Associates, a private-equity-backed health care consulting and SaaS organization. Most recently he led a successful, minority equity acquisition of Kaufman Hall & Associates. Prior to that, he led the spinoff of a SaaS business and four acquisitions along with driving strategy and growth initiatives. Prakash previously spent four years at consulting and professional services firm Accenture, where he was central to strategic transformation projects for some of the world’s most prominent media and communications, hospitality, transportation and consumer product goods companies. He started his career at investment bank and financial services company HSBC, where he managed major finance operations and reporting projects.

“I’m thrilled to join Bespoke Partners at this exciting time as it achieves massive growth and evolves to the next level,” Prakash said. “The firm has assembled an amazing team and has earned a stellar reputation in the private equity space. I am looking forward to helping to complete the firm’s transformation into a full-service human capital advisory firm.”

Prakash joins as Bespoke has closed out a banner year in revenue growth and team build-out. The firm’s unique Search 2.0™ process has captured industry attention and is setting a new standard for human capital search and advisory. Search 2.0 features:

• Advanced Scorecarding – tailoring leadership search to specific portfolio company needs and the value creation plan for achieving the investment thesis.
• Deep Validation™ – validating a candidate’s background and skills with the industry’s most in-depth backchannel reference checking.
• FIT Profile™ – providing holistic analysis of a candidate’s potential for success in the portfolio company, leadership team and role.

Visit bespokepartners.com to learn how Search 2.0 can transform portfolio company leadership.

About Bespoke Partners

Bespoke Partners is a retained executive search and leadership advisory firm dedicated to partnering with leading private equity firms, including Thoma Bravo, Francisco Partners, Clearlake Capital, WCAS, GI Partners, Apax Partners, CVC Capital Partners, and TA Associates, to recruit software talent and assess and evaluate teams at every stage of the investment lifecycle, from growth equity to buyout. Bespoke Partners’ search expertise includes all C-Level searches, as well as Board of Directors and internal private equity Operating Partner searches. Bespoke’s leadership advisory expertise includes organizational due diligence as well as executive assessment, onboarding and coaching. Bespoke Partners has offices in San Diego, Austin and Philadelphia.

For more information, please visit: www.bespokepartners.com.

Search 2.0, Deep Validation and FIT Profile are trademarks of Bespoke Partners LLC.