Case Study:
Hiring a Chief People Officer for a PE-Backed Scale-Up

Overview

We partnered with a PE-backed business to appoint a Chief People Officer during a period of growth and organisational change. The brief focused on hiring a leader who could operate at board level while building the people function to support scale.

The outcome was a successful appointment that strengthened leadership, improved retention and provided the structure needed for the next phase of growth.

The Challenge

We were engaged by a PE-backed business entering a critical phase of growth and transformation. The leadership team had strong commercial and operational capability, but lacked a senior people leader who could bring structure, consistency and support scale.

The brief was not to hire a traditional HR leader. The business needed a Chief People Officer who could operate at board level, while remaining close to the organisation. Someone who could build the function properly, improve retention and support leadership through change without slowing the business down.

We ran a targeted search focused on individuals who had operated in similar PE-backed environments. The emphasis was on:

Experience building people functions in scaling businesses
Ability to balance strategy with hands-on delivery
Credibility with founders, investors and senior leadership
A pragmatic approach to culture, process and performance

We worked closely with stakeholders to refine the brief early, ensuring alignment on what “good” looked like before going to market. This allowed us to focus on a smaller, higher quality pool of candidates rather than running a broad process.

Our Approach

The Outcome

We delivered a concise shortlist of highly relevant candidates, all with proven experience in similar environments. The successful candidate combined strong commercial awareness with the ability to embed structure without creating unnecessary complexity.

Key Insights