Executive Search Success Story: Building the Executive Team for a Rapidly Consolidating Veterinary Services Group

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a fast-growing veterinary services consolidator with the chief operating, medical, financial, corporate development, and people leadership required to integrate more than 150 acquired practices, stabilize veterinarian retention, and build a scalable operating platform.

The Challenge

A veterinary services group had acquired 160 practices in four years, far outpacing its management infrastructure. Acquired hospitals operated on dozens of practice management systems with no common operating model, veterinarian turnover had reached 28% as clinical culture varied widely, integration backlogs were eroding acquisition returns, and the sponsor’s board had flagged that the platform could not sustain its acquisition pace or prepare for exit without a professional executive team. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the platform:

• No common operating model across 160 acquired hospitals
• Veterinarian turnover of 28% threatening revenue and acquisition value
• No clinical leadership setting standards of care and supporting veterinarians
• Integration backlogs eroding returns on completed acquisitions
• Finance capability unsuited to a $720M multi-site platform with ongoing M&A
• A people function unable to recruit, onboard, and retain clinical staff at scale

Recognizing that the platform required an executive team built for scale, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Financial Officer, VP of Corporate Development & Integration, and Chief People Officer. The company required an executive search partner with deep veterinary and multi-site services expertise and the ability to deliver a coordinated team quickly.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Pet Food & Pet Care Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving pet care companies, including veterinary services groups, pet services platforms, and animal health businesses, with a clear understanding of veterinarian dynamics, clinical culture, and the economics of practice consolidation.

Multi-Site Services Expertise

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have scaled acquisition-driven multi-site services platforms, with a clear understanding of integration, operating model standardization, and clinician retention.

Private Equity Portfolio Experience

Our team works routinely with sponsors on executive team builds for consolidation platforms, with a clear understanding of value-creation plans, board expectations, and exit preparation.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Platform Assessment

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor, CEO, and board to review integration status, veterinarian retention data, clinical governance, financial systems, and the acquisition pipeline, defining five executive profiles aligned with the scaling plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operating, clinical, finance, corporate development, and people executives at veterinary services groups, multi-site healthcare platforms, and consumer services consolidators who had led documented scale-ups. Over 400 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of standardizing operations across hundreds of sites, reducing clinician turnover, building integration engines, institutionalizing finance for multi-site platforms, and recruiting clinical staff at scale. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented scaling plans to the sponsor, CEO, and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified integration, retention, and financial outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 400+ veterinary, healthcare services, and multi-site operations executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning operations, clinical, finance, corporate development, and people within seven months.
• Standardized operations across 160 hospitals within eighteen months.
• Reduced veterinarian turnover from 28% to 15%.
• Cut integration time per practice from nine months to ninety days.
• Hired over 300 veterinarians and technicians in the first year.