CEO, Building Materials

CEO, Building Materials for PE Target Co.

The Client:

Our Client is a primary PE Fund, currently engaged in a bilateral discussion concerning the acquisition of a mid-sized company in the Building Components & Materials space. The company is about €50m in turnover, with a leading positioning in its niche and a highly profitable business model. Both the PE Fund and the Target Co. will remain undisclosed during the initial stage of the process.

The investment is still to be finalised and the Client’s goal is to identify the ‘next CEO’ in advance. Ideally, they will work together throughout the due diligence and deal finalisation process to establish common ground.

Upon completion, or as soon as practically possible, the candidate will be appointed as CEO of the Target Co.

The equity story of the investment is mainly centered around international growth , potentially coupled with selected acquisitions.

The role:

Subject to the specificities connected to the investment opportunity, the new CEO will possess a distinctive track record in commercial leadership roles at international level, as wll as expertise as CEO or GM with focus on hands on, transformational-growth missions and P&L management with all levers.

The Target Co. operates in the B2B commercial sector and is a leader in its niche in Italy, with room to grow internationally. The strong competitive positioning is grounded on R&D as well as an articulated go-to-market embedding a strong service component. Growth has come, and will need to be further pursued, through mastering long value chains and go-to-market routes including multiple stakeholders – as typical within the premium building materials space.

Position – Specific responsibilities:

The range of responsibilities will follow the course of the investment evaluation across to the closing, i.e.:

• In the PRE-DEAL PHASE – responsibility of the potential “next CEO” will consist in 1) establishing trust with the PE, contributing to formulate own ideas on the current due diligence in progress for Target Co. , providing both potentiality and criticalities of the specific business; 2) suggest and present a specific proposition to define the (post-acquisition) business plan; and
• In the POST-DEAL PHASE – responsibility will consist in taking the leadership .

The new CEO of the newly bought Portfolio Co , will 1) be “the person of trust” of the Investor, with direct responsibility on the business plan execution, and 2) initiate a new company cycle, that will necessarily start from connecting with current management; creating a team culture while working on the new strategic framework, designing people & organisation pillars to enhance the development of the business, as well as the go to market operating model to sustain it.

The scope of the role will in essence require:

• Provide leadership upwards with stakeholders, as well as downwards with the organisation at all levels: will build consensus through vision and distinctive add-on competences, will influence and drive the organisation across the new cycle, that will imply transformational steps and projects
• Focus, sustain and empower the current Management Team, that is made up by a cohesive group, with long dated valuable experience; foster a high performance culture, push the boundaries to identify new market / business / channel opportunities rooted on a resilient capex | operations’ framework
• Design quick wins to fuel engagement; streghthen the basics across the main workstreams (organisation and leadership – go to market model – operations); create a new culture around shared goals, and make it a culture of challengers to accelerate growth
• Focus on business sustainable evolution with consistent analysis of market potential vs company capacity to face future challenges and create a consistent organisation
• Interact with shareholders regularly as well as during the business reviews, show accurate and timely progress, sustain reasons behind analytics, track problems. Delays, inconsistencies and lead problems solving actions
• Quickly understand business criticalities, priorities and possible solutions; interact with hands on approach, through judgment and analytics, and consistent KPIs. Able to look at growth opportunities, qualify their feasibility and help on growth acceleration
• Support the company in designing and implementing robust management control and reporting systems that enable better decision-making and underpin processes consistent with a new phase of international development and growth.

Requirements (“Must have”):

• Scientific Degree (Economics, Engineering), MBA a plus
• Solid corporate track-record in multinational organisations with international exposure, coupled with small/mid corporate leadership A specific knowledge of building materials, or go-to-markets which share the same pattern, is a must.
• Background rooted on commercial b2B; demonstrated achievements of growing the business in different markets, with different go-to-market models
• Must be or have been fully accountable for a business P&L with an international remit, including managing all key functions (Commercial and Business Dev, Product Dev, Operations & Supply Chain, HR, Finance, IT)
• Hands on style, a thinker and a doer, with, strong entrepreneurial attitude, natural leadership personal energy, and a mix of:
  • Strategic thinking, based on solid analytical skills and numeric capabilities
  • Business judgement and ability to present a qualified proposition
  • Action orientation and drive for results with sense of urgency, to achieve measurable outcomes on challenging targets
• A change agent, who acts with self-confident leadership, combined with effective interpersonal and communication skills

Fluency in English is a must | The Location of the target is in the north of Italy.

Please note that only those profiles that meet all client’s requirements will be responded to and contacted. Thank you.

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