Recruitment

THEOREM recruits management teams—ranging from board members and senior advisors to Chief Executive Officers—to lead and oversee direct-investment ventures for our institutional-investor clients. 

Institutional investors increasingly pursue direct investments, co-sponsored ventures, and thematic investment platforms. These initiatives require proven leadership talent who can build and scale a business—not just manage assets.

We recruit the full leadership stack for these ventures, including:

• Board Chairs & Independent Directors
• Senior Industry Advisors
• Chief Executive Officers
• Presidents & Operating Partners
• Functional leaders across strategy, finance,  operations, and business development

Our search work is tightly integrated with our investment-sourcing practice, allowing clients to pair leadership capability with deal opportunity from day one.

As direct investing expands, institutional investors face the complex challenge of sourcing executives who combine operational depth, strategic clarity, governance maturity, and the ability to work within a hybrid ownership environment. These leaders must be as comfortable setting long-term strategy as they are managing day-to-day operational realities, and they must be able to navigate the expectations of sophisticated investors while building teams, processes, and commercial momentum from the ground up. 

Many direct-investment ventures are newly created entities—new subsidiaries, carve-outs, spinouts, or thematic build-and-grow platforms—making the recruitment of the inaugural leadership team even more critical. The early hires define the culture, execution rhythm, and long-term viability of the enterprise. THEOREM  recruits the full leadership stack required to govern, lead, and scale these ventures. This includes board chairs and independent directors who bring oversight, credibility, and strategic guidance; senior industry advisors who contribute specialized domain knowledge and networks; and chief executive officers who serve as the operational and strategic anchor of the platform. We also place presidents, operating partners, and functional leaders across strategy, finance, operations, business development, technology, and other mission-critical roles. Each search is designed to match the specific strategic and operational requirements of the investor’s thesis, ensuring alignment between leadership capability and the market opportunity the venture is intended to pursue.

A defining element of our approach is the tight integration of our leadership recruitment work with our investment-sourcing practice. Because THEOREM actively identifies direct-investment opportunities on behalf of institutional investors, we understand the strategic intent behind each venture—how it is meant to grow, where value will be created, and what kinds of leadership skills and operational expertise are required from day one. This alignment enables us to recruit leadership teams that are not only qualified, but uniquely suited to the specific investment logic of the platform. By pairing leadership capability with deal opportunity early in the process, we help clients accelerate execution and reduce the risk associated with launching or scaling new ventures.

Our recruitment model is built on institutional-grade evaluation. We assess leadership candidates through the lens of long-term value creation: their ability to establish governance structures, build high-performance teams, execute strategic priorities, and maintain alignment with investor expectations. We also evaluate candidates’ experience in relevant operating environments—such as scaling early-stage ventures, managing transformation initiatives, executing integration strategies, or driving operational excellence in capital-intensive or highly regulated sectors. The result is a leadership selection process that is rigorously tailored, strategically informed, and built to support durable performance.

In a market where capital is abundant but leadership capable of converting that capital into enduring enterprises is scarce, THEOREM provides institutional investors with access to operators who can meet the moment. We build leadership teams that can grow businesses, navigate complexity, and deliver the outcomes required by sophisticated stakeholders. Our work ensures that every direct-investment venture begins not only with capital and a strategy—but with the leadership necessary to bring that strategy to life.