DAY 1 - Navigating Macro Headwinds, Harnessing Technology and Finding the Levers That Deliver
- Political disruption isn't behind us. How are operating partners across the market dealing with it?
- Instability is the new normal - what does a resilient portfolio that can weather macro and geopolitical storms look like in practice?
- Five years of compounding disruption has changed how entrepreneurs think about risk. How should that change how you buy and build companies?
- Which sectors are most exposed to geopolitical risk right now, and what are the smartest operators already doing about it?
- When the macro refuses to cooperate, how do you keep the value creation plan on track?
- Financial engineering alone is no longer suffice, multiple expansion is unreliable and leverage is expensive. Which operational levers are delivering the strongest returns across mid-market portfolios right now?
- What does a differentiated value creation model look like in 2026 and which funds are already operating it?
- Hands-on or hands-off - what does an effective operating partnership look like in practice, and how do you build a model that delivers it consistently?
- Is the way funds hire, deploy and incentivise operating partners built for what modern value creation requires?
Speaker: Laurits Bach Sørensen, Senior Partner and Co-Founder, Nordic Alpha Partners
- The conventional PE model is under pressure, how do you manage turbulence without paralysing the business or breaking governance?
- Geopolitics, hyper-transformation and the commoditisation of capital - What are the variables every operating partner needs to be navigating right now?
- Quality assets are harder to find and harder to win. How do you build a value creation model that gives you an edge in origination, sourcing quality assets, and making the right companies want you as their partner, not just their capital provider?
- Value Creation 2.0 - What does the next generation of PE operating models look like, and how do you build the trust, integration and operational capability to extract more value from every asset in your portfolio?
- Average hold periods are now exceeding six years. How do you keep management teams energised, focused and incentivised when the original plan has long since been overtaken by events?
- MIP structures were designed for a four-year hold. How do you reset incentives mid-journey without demotivating the people you need most?
- At what point does continued investment stop generating returns, and how do you make the call to double down versus prepare for exit?
- When a competitor is closing in and the market hasn't moved as fast as you expected, what does a credible value creation reset look like?
RT1: Pre-acquisition What does rigorous value creation planning look like before you own the asset, and how do you stress-test it before you sign? Hosted by: Annalisa Amadio, Director of Value Creation, Triple Private Equity | RT2: The first 100 days Practical tools and strategies for scale-up readiness; systematic growth acceleration, de-risking, and value extraction. Hosted by: Marco Visser, Managing Director, Operating Partner, Aurelius
| RT3: Growth Which commercial, operational and talent levers are delivering real returns across mid-market portfolios? Hosted by: Gideon Shmuel, Operating Partner, Foresight Group | RT4: Carve-Outs Why Activity Is Picking Up, Why Disentanglement Is Getting Harder, and What Operating Partners Need to Get Right Hosted by: 8Advisory
| RT5: Exit Readiness With holding periods extended, windows unpredictable, and buyer expectations higher than ever; how do you build and maintain a compelling equity story? Hosted by: Laurits Bach Sørensen, Senior Partner and Co-Founder, Nordic Alpha Partners
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- What does an AI-ready operating model look like; across processes, organisational design, technology, data and skills?
- CEOs know AI matters. Why is implementation still so hard, and how do operating partners move them from understanding to action?
- Which functions are being rebuilt from the ground up, and where are mid-market portfolios seeing real, measurable efficiency gains?
- The gap between businesses that have embraced AI and those still exploring it is widening fast. How do you close it before it becomes a valuation problem?
Three funds. Three problems. Three honest accounts of how AI was deployed, what happened, and how it led to improved results
- 1. How we deployed AI to redesign board reporting and drive better strategic decisions across our portfolio with Gavin Chadwick, Portfolio Director, YFM Equity Partners
- 2. TBC Jessica Morgan, Portfolio Growth and Value Creation, Tenzing
- 3. How AI Has Reshaped Our Way of Working, and the decisions we make because of it, with Tommy O’Sullivan, Managing Partner, Beach Equity
RT1: AI inside the fund What tools and methods are making your team more efficient, and what's just AI noise? Hosted by: Walid Fakhry, Managing Partner, Soho Square Capital | RT2: AI inside the portco How do you identify where AI can genuinely add value, and how do you tell the difference between transformation and glorified automation? Hosted by: TBC | RT4: AI and the commercial engine How are funds using AI to improve pricing, sales performance and customer insight in their portfolio companies, and what's moving revenue? Hosted by: James Craig, Portfolio Growth Director, Growth Capital Partners (GCP)
| RT4: AI and talent How do you balance human capital with AI to build the most efficient and cost-effective teams across your portfolio? Hosted by: TBC | RT5: Putting Claude to Work A practical guide to using AI & Claude in your day-to-day Hosted by: Gilad Amir, Digital Operating Partner, Pollen Street
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Masterclass 1 - Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience: Protecting Portfolio Value in an Increasingly Hostile Environment Hosted by: S-RM
A hands-on session for operating partners. Participants work through the key decisions in building a proportionate and effective cybersecurity posture across a mid-market portfolio, from acquisition assessment through to incident response.
| Masterclass 2- Value Creation Performance Management: How Do You Know If Your Operating Model Is Delivering? Hosted by: 8Advisory A hands-on session for operating partners and value creation leads. Participants work through the frameworks, metrics and governance structures that the best mid-market funds are using to track, measure and attribute the impact of their value creation activity. Practitioner-led, Chatham House Rule.
| Masterclass 3 - Strategic Write-Off vs. Restructuring: Making the Right Call Before It's Too Late Hosted by: TBC
A closed-door, practitioner-led session for operating partners dealing with underperforming assets. Participants work through the key decisions; when to restructure, when to cut losses, and how to manage the process without destroying relationships or residual value. Real scenarios, honest conversation, Chatham House Rule.
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DAY 2 - The Operating Partner Advantage: People, Structure and Building a Function That Lasts
- What does building for exit from day one mean in practice and how does it change the decisions you make in the first 100 days?
- Which proof points matter most to buyers in today's market and how do you build them systematically rather than scrambling eighteen months before a sale?
- Where did the plan fall short of what the exit process demanded and what would you do differently if you were starting again?
- What did the exit process reveal about what buyers value and how has it changed the way you approach value creation on your current assets?
- How do you build a rigorous approach to assessing a management team at acquisition and diagnose the gap between the team you inherited and the team you need to deliver the value creation plan?
- Hiring C-level managers, realising they are not right, and replacing them is one of the most common and costly patterns in mid-market PE. How do you get the assessment right the first time; what tools, frameworks and instincts are reliable?
- Making a leadership change without derailing momentum- How do you know when you’ve reached the point of no return, and how do you execute a change that protects the business and the relationship?
- The CFO challenge- How do you upgrade financial leadership in a business that has never needed it before, and how do you do it in a way the founder accepts?
RT1: Commercial Excellence What does a best-in-class revenue engine look like in a mid-market portfolio company — and how do you build one? Hosted by: Jawad Bhatti, Operating Partner, AnaCap
| RT2: The Finance Function How do you transform financial reporting, forecasting and controls from a back-office function into a strategic driver of value? Hosted by: Timothy Spillane, Operating Partner, Three Hills
| RT3: ESG and Sustainability How do you build ESG credentials that actually affect your exit valuation and buyer appetite? Hosted by: Helena Hausen, Senior Operational Advisor and Head of ESG, Beyond Capital Partners | RT4: Digital and Technology How do you assess, prioritise and upgrade the technology stack in businesses that have historically underinvested? Hosted by: Marieke Christmann, Portfolio Partner, Gresham House
| RT5: Supply Chain Resilience Building a Vendor Strategy That Can Withstand Geopolitical Shocks
Hosted by: Jan Diederichsen, Senior Operating Partner, H.I.G. Capital
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Speakers:
Moderator: Anjana Haines, Editor, Real Deals Media
Liam Symington, Operations Director, Marlin Equity Partners
Dr. Annick Desmecht, Private Equity Value Creation Specialist and Affiliate Faculty, London Business School
Ines Delgado, Operating Partner, iCapital
Four motions. Two sides. Five minutes each. The room votes after before every motion, and votes again at the end to see who changed their mind. No panels, no presentations, no consensus. Just the most important questions facing the operating partner community, argued out loud by the people who work on the front lines of value creation.
- Motion 1: This House Believes AI Will Make the Operating Partner Role Redundant Within a Decade
- Motion 2: This House Believes the Role of the Generalist Operating Partner Is Finished
- Motion 3: This House Believes Longer Hold Periods Are Good for Operating Partners
- Motion 4: This House Believes the Next Decade of Value Creation Will Be Won by Technology, Not People
Boardroom 1 -The VC Partner Network: How to Build, Manage and Get the Most from Your External Specialists
Hosted by: Juan Lopez-Valcarcel, Value Creation Advisor, Tech, AI and Operations, EQT Group A practical session for operating partners looking to build or strengthen their network of trusted external advisors and specialists. Participants share what works, what doesn't, and leave with a framework for building a partner network that genuinely adds value across the portfolio.
| Boardroom 2 - Board Construction: Building a Board That Drives Growth Rather Than Just Governs It Hosted by: TBC A hands-on session for operating partners. Participants work through the key decisions in board construction; composition, recruitment, structure, the entrepreneur dynamic, and knowing when to make a change. Participants leave with a practical framework they can apply to their next board appointment.
| Boardroom 3 - Managing Stakeholders in a PE-Backed Business: A Practical Framework Hosted by: Lizzie Meadowcroft, VCP Director, Operations, Carve Out and Integration, LDC In a PE-backed business, the stakeholder map is more complex than in almost any other ownership structure. This boardroom moves beyond theory where participants work through real scenarios, share live challenges from their own portfolios, and leave with a practical framework they can apply within their firms:
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