“Getting a NED position in a PE-backed business”. This was the theme up for debate last week at the most recent NED Lunch for WACL members (Women in Advertising & Communications London), and Filipa Moreira – Directorbank’s Head of Consumer Practice – was invited to share her insight with guests alongside Stevie Spring, Chair of the Inspired Thinking Group and BBC Children in Need.

 Around 20 highly influential women from the UK Communications industry attended the event looking for guidance and advice on finding and positioning themselves for their first NED role.

Greater female participation at board level is a hugely topical issue and countless studies have concluded that diversified boards with experienced voices do achieve better results. Yet, there is still an obvious gender imbalance across PE-backed businesses.

For such businesses, the ability to deliver quick impact is top of mind when seeking a NED. Can this person truly hit the ground running, drive growth and deliver value? The successful candidate is the one with the right combination of industry experience, skills and characteristics. Male or female, the decision is merit-driven.

As Filipa told guests: “The main barrier to talented women securing a NED role is visibility. Often women don’t move in the same circles as men, and this lack of familiarity can mean they are overlooked. To overcome this, targeted networking across the right channels is essential – with specialist head-hunters like Directorbank, PE investment firms and personal networks. Successful and ambitious women need to create awareness that they’re in the market and promote the specific experience and specialisms they can bring to the table.”

As one of the leading recruiters of board level talent to PE-backed businesses, Directorbank has an important role to play in discovering rising female stars and promoting their capabilities to the PE world. Our market leading network of board level candidates and industry experts includes many leading female directors and, over the years, we have seen an increase in the number of highly skilled women approaching us for advice on initial or further board directorships.

For more information contact Filipa at f.moreira@directorbank.com or call 020 7255 7940.

Filipa Moreira has more than 8 year’s international experience in executive search and is fluent in 3 languages. She heads up Directorbank’s Consumer Practice supporting a large number of private equity professionals across the investment cycle with executive search solutions for portfolio companies and pre-deal recruitment requirements including due diligence support, market intelligence and strategic advice.

Directorbank is pleased to announce a significant appointment within the business. Matt Venning joins the team as a Director with a particular focus on the Business Services and Financial Services sectors.

Matt has 14 years’ executive search experience in private equity and has developed an extensive UK and international network of entrepreneurial directors within both PE and corporate markets. He began his career as a corporate lawyer, advising entrepreneurial SMEs, before joining a leading private equity recruitment firm in 2001. Since then, he has built teams throughout EMEA and Asia for investors, advisors and global banks, and has spent several years working in Hong Kong.

George Heppenstall, Director, comments: “This is a strong hire for the Directorbank team. Matt brings a wealth of search experience to the business and a high calibre network of entrepreneurial candidates. He adds weight to our services offering and will deliver value to our PE clients through his knowledge, expertise and reach.”

Directorbank adds value to the private equity sector with executive search solutions, pre-deal recruitment support and networking events. The business also specialises in board and senior level search assignments for privately-owned and AIM listed businesses.

Directorbank has placed Justin Stead as Chairman of Sofa.com following the recent sale of the business to CBPE Capital.

Sofa.com, the market leading omni-channel furniture retailer, was founded in 2005 by Rohan Blacker and the late Pat Reeves after they sold their successful food delivery business, Deliverance, to Active Private Equity for around £5.5m.

Over recent years, the business has been through significant growth and transition. Aside from strengthening its operational management team, it opened its first showroom outside London, in Bath, as well as a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Poland. In the year ending Feb 2014, sales rose 20% to £21.8m and EBITDA increased 48% to £5.3m.

Aware that Sofa.com was in the market for a new owner to help fund its expansion plans, Directorbank introduced Justin Stead – the former CEO of luxury jewellery group Aurum Holdings – to Anne Hoffmann, an experienced investor in the consumer space at CBPE Capital. With an impressive track record in retail and a wealth of knowledge in building successful consumer brands, Justin possessed the necessary skill set to add valuable expertise to the investment process.

Following CBPE’s investment in Sofa.com, Justin is now Chairman of the business and will lead the existing management team in growing the brand across the UK. During his time at Aurum Holdings, which owns Mappin & Webb, Watches of Switzerland and Goldsmiths, he transformed the business into one of the most dynamic, influential and powerful players in the industry, delivering consistent double digit top line sales growth and quadrupling profits.

Anne Hoffmann states: “We are highly impressed by Directorbank’s sector understanding and reach. Their network is first class. Simon’s contribution to the process – the introduction of Justin – has been instrumental in achieving a successful outcome. Sofa.com is a fantastic business and we are looking forward to supporting its management team through the next phase of growth”.

For more information on Directorbank’s executive search and pre-deal recruitment services, please contact us on 020 7255 7940.

Directorbank congratulates Lyceum Capital, along with their management team, on the recent sale of Access Technology Group – the business management software company – to TA Associates in a deal valued at more than £225m. We are proud to have played a part in this market-busting success by placing the Chairman of Access in 2011, at the time of investment.

Lyceum Capital approached Directorbank to source a strong Chairman to guide the Access team through a bold acquisition and integration strategy. We placed Gareth Denley in the role and, since then, Access has more than doubled revenues to over £65m, tripled EBITDA and made 18 strategic add-on acquisitions to expand its product offering and grow its customer base.

This placement demonstrates our strong expertise in the PE market and our ability to place highly successful candidates on behalf of our clients. To view our TMT track record click here.

For more information of our executive search and pre-deal recruitment services, please contact James Searby on 020 7255 7940 or at j.searby@directorbank.com