Scaling Growth Through Transformative Talent
August 14, 2026 – High-growth environments can compress time, magnify decisions, and expose leadership gaps in an instant. As companies move through periods of rapid expansion, the ability to build and evolve the right leadership team becomes increasingly critical to sustaining momentum and creating long-term value. Across private equity, venture capital, and technology-driven businesses, organizations are rethinking how they assess executive talent, strengthen leadership benches, and prepare teams for the demands of the next stage of growth. From founder-led recruiting and executive assessment to AI-enabled talent intelligence, cybersecurity leadership, and organizational design, the focus is shifting toward more deliberate, data-informed decisions about the people ultimately responsible for scaling the enterprise.
Hunt Scanlon Media will convene more than 250 private equity & venture capital operating partners, chief talent officers, and executive recruiters at The Marker Hotel in San Francisco on October 28, 2026. The program will explore how organizations across venture capital, private equity, and high-growth technology sectors are building the leadership infrastructure required to scale—examining how talent decisions, executive team design, and leadership assessment strategies are evolving to support sustained growth, innovation, and long-term enterprise value.
As companies move from seed to growth stage and beyond, the way founders approach hiring can be a decisive advantage—or a major drag on performance. In this fireside chat, Avisha Mehra Naganath, operating partner at Khosla Ventures, will unpack why founder-led recruiting consistently builds stronger, more resilient leadership teams across high-growth sectors. She’ll explore how engaging passive candidates, tracking the right hiring metrics, and choosing the right moment to bring in dedicated talent leaders can transform a company’s trajectory. Attendees will leave with a practical, stage-aware playbook for scaling leadership teams in PE- and VC-backed environments.
Leadership Through the Growth Equity Lens
Leadership decisions play a critical role in value creation across growth equity, particularly as firms navigate founder transitions, evolving executive profiles, organizational design, and the growing impact of AI. In this fireside chat, Coley Florance, head of talent at Spectrum Equity, and Jon Landau, partner with SPMB Executive Search, will discuss how Spectrum approaches talent across its portfolio, from partnering with founders and assessing C-suite leadership to leveraging executive search partners and identifying the leadership capabilities needed to scale successfully.
Related: How Talent Diligence is Becoming a Priority for Private Equity Firms
The conversation will also explore how AI is influencing operating models and talent decisions while reinforcing the importance of vision, culture, and strong leadership in driving long-term growth.
How Technology Has Failed Human Capital — And What Comes Next
Organizations, their management teams, and investors have long recognized that talent is critical to success—yet despite decades of technological progress, making high-quality hiring decisions often feels more difficult than ever. In this session, Thomas Percy, CEO of Qneiform, will draw on his experience as both an executive search professional and technology founder to examine why the promise of talent technology has fallen short.
Private Equity Recruiting – Return on Investment: Creating Value with Talent
Talent has become a defining driver of performance in private equity, shaping how firms manage risk, execute strategy, and deliver sustained returns. As deal cycles tighten and value creation depends increasingly on operational excellence, leadership quality and organizational design are no longer secondary considerations — they are central to how firms source, underwrite, and scale investments. From talent diligence and CEO succession to team integration and leadership development, human capital decisions now influence outcomes across the entire investment lifecycle.
Hunt Scanlon Media will convene more than 250 private equity operating partners, chief talent officers, and executive recruiters at the Hilton in Chicago on September 29, 2026. The program will explore how firms are elevating human capital into a core driver of investment outcomes—redefining how leadership is assessed, built, and deployed across the portfolio to support growth, execution, and long-term value creation.
To register for Hunt Scanlon Media’s upcoming conference please click here!
He will explore whether this challenge is inherently resistant to technology, or if the industry has been building and backing the wrong solutions altogether. Attendees will leave with a clearer perspective on where current tools fall down—and what must change to enable more effective, consistent talent decisions going forward.
Scaling Leadership in High-Growth Ecosystems
As organizations move from rapid acceleration to sustained expansion, leadership demands shift quickly and often unpredictably. What works in early growth phases may not hold as complexity increases, capital structures evolve, and operational scale becomes more global and multidimensional. This session, moderated by Duncan Barker of Ezekia, will examine how leadership expectations change across technology-driven businesses, private capital-backed platforms, and innovation-led sectors.
Related: The Execution Gap in AI Is Becoming Private Equity’s Defining Divide
Panelists will explore how companies assess whether leaders can scale with the business, when to upgrade or supplement talent, and how to strengthen executive benches without sacrificing speed or entrepreneurial edge. Panelists will include: Jenny Kang, talent partner at Battery Ventures; John Dahlgren, head of talent with SBJ Capital; and Girish Mirchandani, head of talent at WestBridge Capital.
Hiring for the Next Stage of Growth
Scaling a company requires a different caliber of leadership than starting one. As venture-backed companies navigate rapid growth, AI disruption, operational complexity, and investor pressure, the cost of the wrong executive hire has never been higher. In this fireside chat, Avetis Antaplyan, CEO of HIRECLOUT, and Meagan Cooper, head of HR at B Capital, will discuss how founders and investors assess leadership scalability, identify transformational operators, and build executive teams capable of sustaining long-term growth.
Leadership Decisions at Speed
In compressed growth cycles, leadership decisions carry disproportionate consequences for performance and enterprise value. This session, moderated by Alex Bates, CEO of HelloSky, will explore how organizations across high-growth sectors are leveraging data, AI-enabled insights, and structured assessment frameworks to evaluate capability, anticipate scaling risk, and improve executive decision-making. Panelists will examine how talent intelligence is embedded into hiring, succession planning, and team design, as well as how it informs board-level and investment discussions.
As growth accelerates, the ability to combine human judgment with disciplined intelligence is becoming a defining competitive advantage. Panelists include: David Chie, founder and CEO of Maple Drive Executive Search; Tiffany Chandra, head of talent at Sapphire Ventures; and Elyssa Pedote, talent director with Greycroft.
Cybersecurity Leadership in Private Equity
As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms how organizations operate, cybersecurity has become an increasingly critical priority for private equity firms and their portfolio companies. In this session, Matt Comyns, president of Artico Search, and Adrian Peters, chief information security officer at Vista Equity Partners, will discuss how the rise of AI is reshaping cybersecurity strategies, risk management priorities, and leadership requirements across private equity-backed businesses.
The conversation will explore how firms are balancing innovation, operational resilience, and governance while navigating a rapidly evolving threat landscape, as well as the changing role of the CISO in helping organizations scale securely. Attendees will gain insight into the leadership capabilities, organizational structures, and talent strategies needed to protect and grow businesses in an increasingly AI-driven world.
To register for Hunt Scanlon Media’s upcoming conference please click here!
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
