Executive Search Success Story: Building the Growth and Project Delivery Leadership for an Environmental Remediation and Consulting Firm

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed environmental remediation and consulting firm with the executive, business development, project delivery, and technical leadership required to capture infrastructure and remediation funding, expand into new service lines, and scale from a regional firm into a national platform.

The Challenge

A regional environmental remediation and consulting firm, recently acquired by a private equity sponsor, held strong technical credentials and client relationships in its home region but lacked the leadership to pursue national growth. Federal infrastructure and remediation funding, emerging contaminant regulations, and industrial client demand were creating significant opportunity that the firm was not positioned to capture. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the growth plan:

• A founder-led leadership model without the executive depth to scale nationally
• Business development dependent on individual relationships rather than a structured growth function
• Limited experience pursuing and delivering large federal programs
• Project delivery and utilization performance inconsistent across offices
• No recognized technical leadership in emerging contaminant treatment despite rising client demand
• Sponsor expectations for geographic expansion, service line growth, and acquisition integration

Recognizing that the growth plan required a complete leadership build, the founder and sponsor engaged JRG Partners to lead a confidential multi-role search for a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Growth Officer, VP Project Delivery & Operations, VP Federal Programs, and a Technical Director for emerging contaminants. The firm required an executive search partner with deep environmental services expertise and access to leaders who had scaled consulting and remediation firms into national platforms.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Environmental Services and Engineering Expertise

JRG Partners possesses deep recruiting expertise across environmental consulting, remediation, engineering, and water services organizations, including executive, business development, project delivery, and technical leadership. This domain knowledge ensured an immediate understanding of professional services economics, federal contracting, and emerging regulatory drivers.

Access to Proven Growth Leaders

Our team specializes in identifying executives who have scaled regional environmental firms into national platforms, built structured growth organizations, and won and delivered large federal and commercial programs.

Private Equity Growth Plan Alignment

JRG Partners has extensive experience serving private equity sponsors in professional and environmental services, with a clear understanding of growth milestones, acquisition integration, and the urgency of leadership placements tied to fund timelines.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Growth Plan & Leadership Review

Our consultants partnered directly with the founder, sponsor operating partners, and office leaders to evaluate growth opportunities, business development maturity, delivery performance, technical capability gaps, and the executive structure required to scale nationally.

Phase 2 — Industry Talent Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting executive, growth, delivery, federal program, and technical leaders at national environmental consulting and engineering firms, remediation contractors, water services companies, and federal program contractors. 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 scaling environmental services firms, building structured business development functions, winning federal programs, improving project delivery and utilization, and establishing recognized technical practices. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Final Selection

Finalists presented national growth and delivery plans to the founder and sponsor, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified growth, program, and delivery outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 390+ environmental consulting, remediation, engineering, and federal program executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning chief executive, growth, project delivery, federal programs, and technical practice leadership.
• Completed a confidential founder-to-CEO transition within 75 days with a structured advisory role for the founder.
• Increased qualified pipeline by more than 150% and secured first multi-year federal contract vehicles.
• Raised utilization and project margins across all offices through standardized delivery leadership.
• Scaled from a regional firm to a national platform with three new regions and two integrated acquisitions.