Become a CEO after your MBA: that's the promise some private equity firms are using to recruit top operating talent.
This promise propels the best and brightest into top executive roles without requiring them to climb the corporate ladder, underpinned by the belief that cultivating talent is a better bet than making semi-blind bets on external hires.
Alpine Investors and Shore Capital Partners have each built separate pipelines to funnel operational talent, aiming to equip executives to take charge of their portfolio companies.
Lower-middle-market buyout firm Shore Capital Partners runs what it calls its CXO program, a two-year training scheme that places early- to mid-career talent and recent MBA grads into C-suite-adjacent roles at its portfolio companies—typically chief of staff or vice president of business operations or strategic initiatives.
Top-performing CXO graduates then have the chance to be promoted to C-level positions. So far, Shore has produced four CEOs from the CXO program. This includes Mark Larsen, who has been CEO of medical software business Connexure since 2024.
#Companies
This promise propels the best and brightest into top executive roles without requiring them to climb the corporate ladder, underpinned by the belief that cultivating talent is a better bet than making semi-blind bets on external hires.
Alpine Investors and Shore Capital Partners have each built separate pipelines to funnel operational talent, aiming to equip executives to take charge of their portfolio companies.
Lower-middle-market buyout firm Shore Capital Partners runs what it calls its CXO program, a two-year training scheme that places early- to mid-career talent and recent MBA grads into C-suite-adjacent roles at its portfolio companies—typically chief of staff or vice president of business operations or strategic initiatives.
Top-performing CXO graduates then have the chance to be promoted to C-level positions. So far, Shore has produced four CEOs from the CXO program. This includes Mark Larsen, who has been CEO of medical software business Connexure since 2024.
#Companies
2 months ago