Operating VP/Director – Venture – Paris

Calmon Partners has been retained by a leading European investment firm to assist in the recruitment of an Operating VP/ Director – Venture, based in Paris.

 

Team’s presentation

Venture team :

• A team of 25+ professionals in Paris, Singapore, Berlin and London
• Focused on seed and serie A tech investment, mainly in Europe
• Managing €3.0b AUM, invested in more than 200 companies
• Investing €5-€30m equity tickets mainly in 4 sectors : Digital / Smart City / LifeScience
• Always with a minority share (around 15%) and a board seat

The Retail & mandate Team:

• 5 people dedicated to this activity (4 Managing Directors, 1 Manager and 1 Analyst)
• Fully embedded in the 25+ people team

Key roles and responsibilities

Following the investment decision, you will monitor the performance of a dedicated portfolio:

o During the post-investment phase, you will act as board member or co-board (in this case with a other Managing director). Your role will be focus on:

• Representing the Fund’s interest and ensuring that the company strategy is align with The Fund’s interest
• Contributing to the strategic governance (validation of strategic decisions, budget, performance monitoring, key executives’ oversights)
• Providing operational support by leveraging your experience, group experience and any external experts
• And most importantly, the exit plan guidance: this need to be your main concerns (cf “exit phase).

o During exit phase: prepare the company in the best way

• Working with Management and other board member to align interest around a strategy to get the company to be sold at right moment and the best price
• Assess in the market, who could be a potential buyer and linked the company strategy and KPIs to match with this buyer target
• Finds the best advisor, considering the sector and the maturity of the company, to help during the M&A process
• Looking for secondary exit opportunity at every stage

o In case of follow-on investment: organize a due-diligence to assess the business model potential, risks and upsides, and convince the investment committee to refinance or not the company or contribution or not to a new round financing

Key requirements

Professional characteristics

• The position will be based in Paris. The integration of the candidate with the existing teams is a key issue in the mission.
• 8 years of minimum experience on positions related to consultancy firm, operating manager in a PE firm and/or M&A/strategy operational positions in a tech company
• Good knowledge of the tech industry, especially M&A/strategy practice
• Experience in structuring and modernizing a department, particularly on the tools, indicators and data aspects will be sought
• International experience (excellent level of English) and potential to grow with the growth of the Group

Personal qualities

• Solid capacity to embark team and work on more operational topics with the portfolio companies
• Authentic interest in tech and business operations
• Maturity, presence, strong organization and verbal communication skills
• Team player, self-starter, and ability to thrive in an unstructured environment with significant ambiguity
• Broad exposure to several sectors
• Highly ambitious, want to back the most visionary founders in Europe and are willing to work hard for it.
• Value integrity and prioritize the success of the “team win.”
• Have an ability to structure your thoughts and think strategically out of ambiguity.
• Exhibit excellent communication skills, with the ability to be both persuasive and empathetic.
• Fluent English and French.

Your contact :

Claude Calmon

claude@clamonpartners.com

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