Taurean Establishes Investment Search Practice
October 30, 2026 – Taurean recently launched an investment search practice with the addition of Paige Ware as principal in Los Angeles. The practice serves private markets firms across asset classes. “We help these firms shape and build their capital raising and investor relations, origination, and deal teams, and place corporate development leaders into their portfolio companies,” Taurean said in a LinkedIn post.
For more than nine years, Ms. Ware has recruited senior talent across investment, investor relations, and executive leadership functions, partnering with private equity firms and their portfolio companies to build high-performing teams. She has spent the last decade recruiting investment professionals across private equity, growth, credit, and infrastructure strategies, from associate through senior leadership. Ms. Ware has also placed numerous corporate development and M&A leaders into portfolio companies. She most recently served as a financial recruiter with CarterPierce.
“What makes Taurean different is that we understand talent is only one part of building a great firm,” Ms. Ware said in a LinkedIn post. “We advise clients on how they grow, operate, and perform, allowing us to bring a broader perspective to every search and serve as a true strategic partner, not just a recruiter.”
Taurean was founded last fall by former Vista and Marlin leaders John Zink and Edward Richards. Taurean is exclusively focused on hiring and team building at the GP level – helping private equity firms design value creation functions and leadership roles for durability, impact, and alignment to firm strategy. The roles the firm recruits for includes: operating partner, portfolio talent leader, functional specialists, office-of-CFO, among others.
Taurean positions itself not simply as a search firm, but as the creator of a new category – performance architecture. Through its structured process – strategy, selection, success – Taurean ensures alignment on what firms truly need, builds teams that last, and supports post-hire integration that drives long-term enterprise value.
Mr. Zink is the former transformation leader at Vista Equity’s flagship fund, where he built and scaled a 25-person team driving portfolio-wide business transformation. At Marlin Equity, he designed the firm’s operating model, built its talent framework, and led cross-functional execution across M&A, strategy, cost, GTM, and product. Earlier, Mr. Zink was a consultant and corporate development leader at Deloitte.
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Mr. Richards is the former COO and head of operations at Marlin Equity, where he led four generations of value creation model development across fund strategies and global markets. Prior to Marlin, he built and led EY’s working capital group serving PE-backed portfolio companies. Mr. Richards has personally led over 75 executive searches and hired more than 50 fund-level operators.
Focusing on GPs
“We think about the private equity firm itself as a business, and we exclusively focus on helping the GP vs. many others, who primarily support the portfolio,” said Mr. Zink. “We help firms view their value proposition the way a product company would: what exactly are we “selling” to LPs, management teams, and talent, and how can that product be improved and made more repeatable?”
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Taurean recently appointed Abby Spare as vice president in the firm’s value creation practice. “This marks an important milestone for Taurean, fueling our mission to build distinct, enduring investment firms,” the firm said in a LinkedIn post. “Abby’s reputation for delivering an exceptional experience to clients and candidates is well-known, and her deep network across the private equity community expands our reach and capabilities to help clients grow their firms. We couldn’t be happier to have her onboard.”
Ms. Spare is a private equity recruiter focused on recruiting talent into roles in portfolio operations functions. She previously served as senior consultant, portfolio operations lead with The Barton Partnership. Prior to this, she was an associate with Hedley May.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor — Hunt Scanlon Media
