Leadership Assessment
Diligence prices the market and the model. It rarely prices the people.
Every investment thesis assumes the management team can execute it. That assumption usually rests on a few interviews, a management presentation, and reference calls with people the CEO chose. Most PE-backed companies replace the CEO within two years of the deal. Each change costs time in the hold, a search fee, and a year of lost momentum. Almost none of it was priced at close.
The pattern is familiar. A leader who reads well on paper but has never run the kind of plan the thesis needs. Roles that don't match the accountabilities that matter. A culture that quietly slows everything down. None of it shows up in a QoE report.
A clear read on each leader, tied to the plan.
We assess the people the thesis depends on and tell you what the evidence says. Pre-hire candidates, the incumbent team, or both.
An assessment of each leader against what the value creation plan actually requires of them, not a generic competency model.
Role scorecards that define the accountabilities and outcomes for every critical seat, so the board and the CEO agree on what good looks like.
An organisational read: the structural and cultural factors that will speed up or slow down execution.
A board-ready written report per leader. Strengths, risks, and a clear recommendation: back, support, restructure, or replace.
Candid feedback to each leader, a development plan where it's warranted, and a succession view for the roles where a gap would hurt most.
We don't run search. We don't take placement fees. We have no interest in the answer beyond getting it right.
Days, not weeks. Built for deal windows.
Each assessment draws on more than one source. A structured interview that walks the leader's full career: what they were hired to do, what they delivered, and why they left. References we choose, not just the ones offered. Psychometrics where they add signal. And the operating data Claymore already pulls, so the leadership read and the commercial read line up. One to five leaders typically takes days. A full management team can run inside a diligence window. One advisor runs the work across the portfolio. No team rotations, no handoffs.
Assessed by someone who has done this for the largest investors in the market.
Maxwell Salazar leads the work. A business psychologist and the former Head of Executive Assessment at AlixPartners, he has assessed C-suite leaders for PE-backed companies, hedge funds, and investment banks from $100M to multibillion in revenue. He writes on middle-market leadership talent for Harvard Business Review. The same rigour the largest investors pay for, priced for the middle market.
The people read and the engine read, together.
Leadership assessment runs on its own or alongside the rest of Claymore's work. In Due Diligence it becomes the eighth domain, next to data, tech stack, and pipeline. In a Revenue Blueprint it answers who owns the number. Ahead of exit it gives the buyer a management story that holds up under their own diligence.
What this looks like in a live deal.
A representative example, with details changed. A sponsor is two weeks from signing on a $120M industrial services platform. The thesis is a buy-and-build: six add-ons in three years. The CEO built the business from nothing and interviews well. The deal team wants to know whether he can run an integration machine.
Five leaders are assessed inside the diligence window. The CEO scores as a strong founder-operator and a weak integrator, with a CFO who has never closed an acquisition. The report recommends backing the CEO, adding a Chief Integration Officer as a day-one hire, and upgrading finance before the first add-on. The sponsor prices the two hires into the deal, signs on schedule, and walks in with a plan instead of a surprise.
The questions investors ask first.
How long does it take?
A single leader takes a few days from first interview to written report. A full management team of five to eight can be completed inside a typical diligence window.
What does it cover?
A structured career interview, references we select, psychometrics where useful, and the operating data behind the leader's results. Every leader is measured against the specific outcomes the plan requires of their role.
Is this executive search?
No. We assess. We don't place, and we take no placement fees. If the finding is that a seat needs a new leader, we'll define the role and help you judge the candidates.
When in the deal cycle does this work?
Pre-close, between sign and close, in the first 100 days, and at any point in the hold where the board has a question about the team. Also before exit, when the buyer will ask the same questions.
Who does the work?
Maxwell Salazar, personally. One advisor across the portfolio.
