Bespoke Partners Appoints CFO
January 26, 2022 – San Diego, CA-headquartered executive search firm Bespoke Partners has appointed Prakash Patel as chief financial officer. “We are delighted to welcome Prakash, with his extensive track record in driving strategic initiatives and growth for a wide range of organizations,” said Kristie Nova, CEO of Bespoke Partners. “He brings us a rare combination of finance acumen and business growth expertise. Prakash will be instrumental in continuing and expanding our rapid growth and evolution into a comprehensive human capital advisory firm serving the private equity market.”
Based in Chicago, Mr. Patel joins Bespoke Partners from Kaufman Hall & Associates, a private-equity-backed healthcare consulting and SaaS organization. Most recently he led a minority equity acquisition of Kaufman Hall & Associates. Prior to that, he led the spinoff of a SaaS business and four acquisitions along with driving strategy and growth initiatives. Mr. Patel previously spent four years at consulting and professional services firm Accenture, where he was central to strategic transformation projects for global media and communications, hospitality, transportation, and consumer product goods companies. He started his career at investment bank and financial services company HSBC, where he managed major finance operations and reporting projects.
“I’m thrilled to join Bespoke Partners at this exciting time as it achieves massive growth and evolves to the next level,” said Mr. Patel. “The firm has assembled an amazing team and has earned a stellar reputation in the private equity space. I am looking forward to helping to complete the firm’s transformation into a full-service human capital advisory firm.”
Serving the PE Sector
Bespoke Partners is an executive search and leadership advisory firm dedicated to partnering with top private equity firms, including Francisco Partners, Clearlake Capital, WCAS, Insight Partners, GI Partners, General Atlantic, CVC Capital Partners and TA Associates, among scores of others, to recruit software talent and assess and evaluate teams at every stage of the investment lifecycle, from growth equity to buyout.
The search firm has completed over 600 searches since its inception a decade ago. Its expertise includes all C-level searches across multiple functional domains, including financial officers, HR and people, marketing and technology, as well as board of directors and internal private equity operating partner searches. The firm’s expanding leadership advisory platform includes organizational due diligence as well as executive assessment and coaching.
Late last year, Bespoke opened a Philadelphia-area office driven by the firm’s rapid growth in its executive recruiting and leadership advisory services for private equity-backed software companies. Bespoke named Maria Scharper as vice president in the new Philadelphia location. “We are devoted to delivering exceptional service to our clients and the new office in Philadelphia will let us be even more responsive and engaged with clients in the eastern part of the country,” said Kristie Nova, CEO. “Our expansion will boost our services to a new level of efficiency and success for our clients.”
Bespoke Partners Adds CEO of Sales Benchmark Index as Board Member
Bespoke Partners recently added Matt Sharrers, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index (SBI), as a new board member. Mr. Sharrers was appointed to help provide mentorship to CEO Kristie Nova as it relates to effectively scaling a professional services organization.
“I have been tracking Matt and SBI for several years and have always been impressed with Matt’s passion and incredible vision for growth,” said Ms. Nova. “We have been very deliberate in our board member selection, and Matt’s experience in effectively scaling a professional services organization makes him a truly valuable addition to our board as we march towards $50 million in revenue.”
Ms. Scharper joins Bespoke Partners vice president Ned Lanphier in Philadelphia. “We are delighted to have such top caliber executives as Maria and Ned driving our client engagements across the Eastern seaboard,” said firm president Eric Walczykowski. “With this investment we are ramping up our capacity to meet the growing need for services that transform and enhance portfolio company leadership in any part of the market.”
Bespoke recently added Tess Fischer as a partner. “Tess is a proven search leader with an outstanding track record and exceptional industry knowledge that will be a major benefit to our clients as they enhance their leadership teams,” said Ms. Nova. “Her expertise will boost our ongoing evolution to become a comprehensive human capital advisory firm serving the private equity market.” Ms. Fischer is the firm’s sixth named partner this year.
Ms. Fischer is based in the firm’s Austin office and brings more than 16 years of experience in building executive teams for private equity portfolio companies in the software and software-as-a-service sector. She joins Bespoke Partners from Morgan Samuels where she was a partner leading the firm’s software and tech-enabled services practice.
Related: Why Connecting Private Equity with Executive Search Matters More Now than Ever
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
