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1. You’ve spent your career helping organisations transform at a global scale. What first drew you to this kind of work, and how has your perspective on transformation evolved over the years?
I think the first thing that really caught me was the tangible outcomes piece and the ability to impact customers and their journeys as part of the role that you do. I started off in financial services and obviously there are a number of routes there, but I wanted something where you had the opportunity to deliver sustainable impacts to organisations — both those with heritage and those at an entrepreneurial business scale. Transformation gives you that opportunity across both multi-industry and multi-phase environments as part of their growth and diversification journey.
The other part is the global opportunities piece. I grew up living in six different countries and have since lived in another four as part of my corporate career. The global opportunities within transformation, multicultural and varied operating environments, and the ability to transform global scalability and evolve operating models — all whilst delivering operational continuity for a variety of organisations — has always appealed to me.
With experience I have professionally matured. I’ve learned that my values stand true across all environments, particularly honesty, empathy, and integrity. I’ve grown more empathetic to both corporate and personal challenge and developed a solutions mindset.
2. Transformation in private equity has evolved far beyond cost reduction and short-term value creation. From your perspective, what has fundamentally changed about how PE firms have approached transformation in 2025, and what’s driving that shift?
It’s quite a broad question. There will be instances based on industry diagnostics that change. I still think there’s an element that data is king, but it’s the enablers and optimisers that are starting to move the dial and drive sustainable value creation. There is a heavy focus on optimisation as an enabler for automation and digital value creation, combined with center’s of excellence, operational efficiencies and leaner operating models to drive transformation.
The opportunity to significant improve profit margins becomes a key exec agenda item, with a need for global optimisation operating models that enable you to do that. There have been a number of deals across this year and prior where you see two, let’s say, global organisations merging — and the mindset of those organisations is often initially, “We’re big global businesses.” But quite often what they actually are is multiple siloed organisations under that global brand. There’s a real need now for truly globalised operating models that remove silos (visible and invisible) and enable organisations, either as part of a merger, or acquisition integration, to operate from a single globalised operating model and ideally a standardised industry leading platform. This gives consistency, and a measurable value focus —through rationalisation and recognition of operational efficiencies.
There’s also now a razor-sharp focus on add-on acquisitions (buy and build) and the need for rapid, streamlined integration and operational efficiencies, particularly across the transactional operating parts of a business, such as payments and payroll.
All of this is critical work to enable the much-needed automation journeys, accelerate AI adoption and embed innovation at scale.
3. You’ve led large-scale transformations across so many different regions and sectors. What do you think are the key conditions that investors and portfolio leaders need to get right to make transformation truly stick?
I think there’s a few points to that. At a high level a 100-day plan that kicks off transformation immediately, with a prioritised and value-linked portfolio of initiatives, and a clear and measurable path to EBITDA uplift through the transformation execution plan.
Transformation needs to be designed into the investment thesis and aligned to operational sustainability. In reality you will also need some quick wins to build momentum and credibility, and leaders with an appetite for change who drive a value creation culture through empowerment and accountability. Ideally all with a view to transformation being zero based budget led.
This approach (transformation being a primary top table priority) should all drive a mature approach to operational modernisation. And when you say modernisation, the immediate assumption is technology, the drive for automation, and development of efficient platforms and digital tooling. But it’s also the reality of modernisation being a globalised maturity for the way an organisation needs to operate with a consistent location-agnostic structure that supports sustainable growth.
One of the key factors that drives that is empowerment of your global capability. I think we’re now at a phase where, through point of acquisition, one of the key elements to get right is recognising where your true capability sits. Give them structure but also give them empowerment, accountability and clear deliverables that are aligned to client and revenue-based outcomes. Follow recognised industry best practice, and communicate how the business will operate, not just in today’s environment, but from a future state perspective. All your investments and mindset towards change become sustainable as part of that optimisation journey, as opposed to short-term impact with mixed longer-term outcomes.
Don’t be fooled into assuming optimisation maturity will just materialise over time. It’s a tough journey moving through the core optimisation phases…
From what are often sub-optimised states – decentralised operating models, inconsistent processes and expectation management, offshore treated as a devalued outsourced partnership, and behavioral or leadership immaturity.
Through rationalising functions and services, leveraging economies of scale for highly transactional work through shared services partnerships, taxonomies, controls and leverageable industry standards, process improvement and re-engineering, data cleansing.
Into semi-optimised – process efficiency, governance, technology and process-level standardisation, structural and leadership development or change, streamlining and reducing system challenges, and the emergence of a global operating model and ways of working.
That then leads to planned – multi-function and multi-service delivery, scalability and adaptability, global process ownership, workflow that is pre-automation-ready, working-capital and location optimisation.
And finally optimised operations — where the global operating model is fully integrated, the holistic framework for success is in place, value creation and cost reduction are realised, and automation and tech enablement are active.
Another consideration is globalisation. Future focus on how you can build a truly globalised, sustainable business, and where you decide to build or transition parts of your organisation to give you “true value”. It’s no longer just about offshore, but truly globalised operating structures. It’s not about cost anymore — it’s about value and capability.
And while historically you might have asked questions around cost of employee and cost of property, now there are far more questions and key programs you need to run to drive a clear location and workforce strategy that’s impactful: tax and legal entities, economic incentives, competitors in-region, cost of property, and all of the additional considerations around enablement that will make a real difference to how you build that future generational state.
There are also cultural considerations and alignments — the ability to not just attract but retain your talent, brand perception and how to build a truly aspirational brand, partnerships within region, risk registers, diversity and inclusion, and building a diversified workforce that will help your business sustain and grow.
4. Interim leaders are increasingly at the center of PE transformations today. How do you see their role changing in 2025, and what separates the ones who make a lasting impact from those who don’t?
It’s a great question. Clearly, instant and measurable impact — and by instant I don’t necessarily mean day one, but I do mean very quickly — is of real value. And that usually comes with a degree of maturity and lessons learned from going through these programs in multiple phases, in different operating environments, and having to deliver and stand behind truly sustainable results. So that’s one.
The second is a degree of independence and the ability to rapidly see outside of the corporate and ownership pressures that you often get as an employee. Having that independence helps you get out of the weeds, understand what the true challenges are for that organisation, and come up with really clearly defined outcomes as part of your value creation plan. I think it’s a unique skill that can demonstrate value quickly, but you need thick skin and an thirst for outcomes.
The third is the optimisation-maturity piece. I think organisations are require a journey from being sub-optimised to needing to be fully optimised and integrated. You have a number of markets that have been relatively fluid, where organisations have been driving significant revenues but potentially not the profit margins required, particularly post-acquisition/merger. The real focus of an interim coming in is how quickly you can sustainably move an organisation from being sub-optimised to truly optimised and globally integrated, and therefore delivering those needed profit margins in a quick period of time.
5. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities — or perhaps the biggest risks — for PE firms trying to build operations that are not just efficient but also globally sustainable and future-ready?
I’m going to refer to the global piece, because that’s where I’ve personally delivered the highest impact. And I think for me, that’s offshore readiness. Offshore readiness is something that people often don’t think about — they just focus on a globalised model, how quickly they can get there, and the cost saving associated. But the focus must be on value, and leveraging global ecosystems to drive innovation at scale. There are core phases and steps you need to take with your existing workforce or onshore teams to make sure that as you diversify and grow your business, you ensure that change is both sustainable, robust and consumable.
From an operational standpoint you will need to address performance productivity, workflows for global delivery, and the potential to automate what is manual, freeing up your workforce to focus on value-add, critical tasks. There’s an overview of location strategy and cross-jurisdictional opex to ensure your organisation is both efficient and enabled to grow at pace sustainably. There’s an operational maturity evolution and a framework to put in place to make sure that as your revenue grows, your profit margins can continue to grow at the rate that’s required as you go through those growth phases.
There’s also the ability to split a business from a cost and value realisation perspective — from an operational cost perspective — between enabling cost and delivery engagement. Enabling cost is about rationalising and standardising, and delivery engagement is about truly focusing on your customers, improvement of that customer journey, and making sure that what you’ve built remains sustainable and scalable. Through optimisation and enhancement (automation, analytics, workforce rightsizing) you can embed innovation into daily operations to drive enhanced profitability.
Looking ahead, optimisation readiness and offshore maturity become even more important to deliver tangible value creation.
A data and CRM cleanse, simplified and defined SLA’s, practice standardisation, and a rationalised footprint will all support you implementing and embedding a globalised, integrated, location agnostic TOM, CoE ecosystem fulfilment, performance productivity metrics and effective acquisition integration.
This readiness creates huge opportunity, and if neglected a degree of risk, for PE firms aiming to build port Co’s structures that are efficient, globally sustainable, and genuinely future-ready.
A clearly defined transformation value creation model and the evolution of an operating structure can become a strategic barometer for exit readiness.
