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Tindall Sewell, partner at ON Partners, shares five key insights into the state of the operating partner role in 2021

Tindall Sewell, a partner with ON Partners who builds executive leadership teams at growth equity, private equity, and Fortune 500 companies, offers insights on the state of the operating partner (OP) role, its relationship to the CEO, and how OPs can help to build more diverse boards. She also shares how she made her way into executive search, her favorite engagements, and what she learned in 2020. Sewell’s work in the last year has included executive search engagements for growth and private equity organizations such as Marlin Equity Partners, Tailwind Capital, Littlejohn, Francisco Partners, and Sunstone Capital.

Following are key observations from Sewell while working with a range of leading organizations, OPs, and CEOs over the past year.

Insight 01: While the OP role is typically a step before retirement given the needed experience, the OP’s I’ve been talking to and working with say they’re working harder now than ever before, balancing the role of coach with being deep in the weeds of three or four companies.

Insight 02: Operating partners can be an interesting way to build more diverse boards: When a PE firm hires an OP, that person will likely serve on as many as four boards because it’s a full-time role. Hiring a diverse candidate as an OP therefore automatically creates several more diverse boards.

Insight 03: PE firms are typically backing management teams, not companies, so putting the most experienced and talented candidates in place is key. An OP must balance being trusted by the portfolio company while also serving as an advocate for the investor and acting as a liaison between them.

Insight 04: When an OP is a former CEO with multiple exits, it can potentially give more leeway to a first-time CEO, who is typically not coming in with his or her own playbook and can learn from the OP’s experience. This creates a nice balance when you need to recruit a first-time CEO with specific industry knowledge or drive to get his/her first exit.

Insight 05: Investors kept CEOs in place through COVID to lead through the pandemic so expect the market for CEOs to heat up during 2021. For example, just in Q1 2021, I’ve placed two CEOs and one operating partner.