By Greg Brown and Jen Ringoen
Our NU Leadership series continues, this time with a look at how requirements are changing for talent in financial leadership.
An article published by Hunt Scanlon Media, April 30, 2024
These are tumultuous times for VC investors and the businesses they fund. According to Ben Dewar, a partner with NU Advisory Partners, that makes linking businesses in the industry with next-generation leaders fascinating, important, and genuinely transformational. With that in mind, Ben sat down with Hunt Scanlon Ventures managing director, Drew Seaman, to discuss the trends he’s been observing in recent work for VC firms and their portfolio companies.
A month after NU launched, we received an assignment that would be challenging for any search firm: hire a chief people officer (CPO) and the entire senior staff for the HR department of a rapidly growing company. We were brought in by OMERS Private Equity, the $23 billion affiliate of Ontario’s behemoth public pension fund. It had acquired more than 15 HVAC companies in the United States, combining them under the name Modigent. At first, they wanted us to find a temporary CPO to look after HR while we were filling the permanent position. I knew just the person: Susana Sala, who has held senior HR roles at Paramount Global and Bacardi. She can be strategic and hands-on at the same time, exactly the type of leader that private equity investors look for. Susana recently talked to us about her experience.