Executive Search Success Story: Building an Integration Executive Team to Unify a Private-Equity-Backed Managed IT Services Roll-Up Ahead of Exit

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed managed IT and cybersecurity services platform with the integration, finance, service delivery, commercial, and people leadership required to unify 22 acquired providers into one brand and operating model, raise margins and recurring revenue quality, and position the platform for a successful sale.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had built a managed IT services platform through 22 acquisitions, but with a sale planned in two years, sell-side advisors warned that buyers would see 22 companies rather than one: multiple brands, service desks, monitoring and ticketing tools, and contract structures; recurring revenue that could not be reported cleanly by customer; no cross-selling between acquired customer bases; margins below platform peers; and engineer attrition after each acquisition. The CEO had led the acquisition program but the platform had no integration leadership. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the exit:

• Twenty-two brands, service desks, and tool stacks presenting as separate companies to buyers
• Recurring revenue not reportable by customer, service, or cohort to a buyer’s standard
• No cross-selling of cybersecurity and cloud services across acquired customer bases
• EBITDA margins below managed services platform peers
• Engineer attrition after each acquisition eroding service quality and customer retention
• A two-year exit timeline requiring a unified operating company and clean financial story

Recognizing that exit value depended on integration, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Integration Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Service Delivery Integration, Vice President of Sales Integration & Cross-Sell, and Chief People Officer. The company required an executive search partner with deep buy-and-build expertise and access to leaders who had unified technology services roll-ups for sale.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Private Equity Buy & Build Integration Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice recruiting integration and platform leadership for private-equity-backed buy-and-build strategies, with a clear understanding of what buyers scrutinize in roll-ups and how to sequence integration against an exit timeline.

Technology Services Roll-Up Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have unified managed services and technology services platforms, consolidating brands, tools, and service delivery while protecting recurring revenue.

Exit-Readiness Expertise

Our team works routinely alongside operating partners and sell-side advisors preparing platforms for sale, ensuring executive profiles match the integrated-company narrative buyers expect.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Exit-Readiness Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor, CEO, and sell-side advisors to review integration status, recurring revenue data, service delivery tooling, cross-sell potential, attrition, and the exit timeline, defining five executive profiles sequenced to the sale preparation.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting integration, finance, service delivery, sales, and people executives at managed services providers, technology services consolidators, and private-equity-backed platforms who had led documented roll-up unifications and exits. Over 390 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of consolidating brands and service desks, migrating customers onto common tooling without churn, building recurring revenue reporting to buyer standards, driving cross-sell across acquired customer bases, and retaining engineers through integration. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented integration and exit-readiness plans to the sponsor and CEO, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified integration, margin, retention, and exit outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 390+ technology services, integration, and private equity portfolio executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning integration, finance, service delivery, sales, and people within seven months.
• Consolidated 22 brands and service desks into one within fourteen months.
• Migrated all customers onto one tool stack with churn below 4%.
• Raised revenue per customer by 28% and improved EBITDA margin by 600 basis points.
• Sold the platform above underwriting as a single integrated company.