Consultant, Corporate Strategy, Management

The Management Due Diligence (MDD) team at ECB STAR focuses on delivering forensic, evidence‑based assessments of senior leadership teams during mergers, acquisitions, and private equity investments.

MDD is a critical component of human capital diligence, designed to identify execution risk, leadership gaps, cultural misalignment, and people‑related deal risks that do not surface through financial or operational diligence alone.

This role evaluates how leaders actually operate — their decision‑making, influence, resilience, and ability to execute under pressure — and advises investors on whether a management team can realistically deliver the future value‑creation plan.

As part of ECB STAR’s rapidly growing Pre‑Deal platform, the role plays a central part in helping sponsors make better investment decisions, shape post‑close priorities, and de‑risk the most important variable in any deal: leadership.

• Conduct in‑depth, structured interviews with CEOs, CFOs, and senior functional leaders to assess:
• leadership style and judgment
• strategic thinking vs. execution capability
• ability to scale, professionalise, and lead change
• performance under ambiguity, pace, and investor scrutiny
• Evaluate individuals and leadership teams against the investment thesis and future business plan, not just historical results.
• Operate with confidence and discretion in high‑stakes, time‑compressed deal environments.
• Lead rigorous, discreet, and highly structured referencing exercises, engaging former colleagues, board members, investors, and senior stakeholders.
• Go beyond surface validation to assess:
• leadership behaviours and decision patterns
• internal reputation and influence
• consistency of performance over time
• recurring risk factors and development themes
• Explicitly test “fans vs critics” perspectives, reconcile conflicting views, and triangulate insights using judgment and evidence.

• Assess executives against a defined PE‑relevant leadership capability framework, including:
• Acting Strategically
• Driving Results
• Leading Change
• Leading People
• Building Talent
• Identify capability gaps, succession risk, key‑person dependency, and execution constraints that may impair value creation.
• growth vs. turnaround leaders

• Assess the cultural alignment between the management team and the investor or acquirer.
• Evaluate readiness for PE ownership, including:
• governance expectations
• pace of change
• transparency and accountability
• ability to partner with boards and investors
• Surface potential post‑close integration or execution risks related to leadership and culture.

• Produce clear, concise, evidence‑based MDD reports that:
• separate fact, pattern, and interpretation
• articulate leadership strengths, weaknesses, and material risks
• highlight potential “deal breakers” and upside opportunities
• provide pragmatic recommendations (team upgrades, role changes, coaching, succession actions)
• Present findings to investment committees, deal partners, and operating teams with confidence, independence, and clarity.
• Deliver balanced insight — neither advocacy nor obstruction — grounded in evidence and judgment.

• Contribute to the development and scaling of ECB STAR’s MDD capability, including:
• interview and referencing frameworks
• report templates and quality standards
• Support proposal development and integration of MDD into broader pre‑deal, search, and advisory engagements.
• Help establish MDD as a core, differentiated ECB STAR offering globally.

• Experience in executive search, management consulting, organizational psychology, or PE‑focused advisory.
• Direct exposure to senior leadership assessment in high‑stakes or transactional environments strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with private equity, portfolio companies, or investor‑led contexts is highly advantageous.
• Exceptional listening, probing, and interviewing skills, with the ability to build trust quickly with senior executives.
• Strong analytical judgment, synthesising qualitative data into clear, decision‑relevant insight.
• Outstanding written communication, producing investor‑grade reports with clarity and precision.
• Absolute integrity, discretion, and professionalism when handling sensitive and confidential information.
• Proven ability to operate effectively under tight timelines and deal pressure.
• Confidence delivering clear, sometimes uncomfortable messages to senior stakeholders.