Mandates & roles

How I work with private equity funds and family offices

I work with sponsors, families, and their portfolio companies where capital, operations, and behaviour must move together. That can be as a senior operator inside a company, as a mandate-style partner around direct deals, or as a structured capital architect supporting existing teams.

Typical scope: portfolio companies with meaningful revenue · platforms and direct deals from c. $10m+ · principals who think in multi-year value creation, not quarters.

Engagement archetypes

Portfolio company mandate

I work inside a company as an extended operating partner, often in a role similar to interim CEO, CFO, COO, or Head of Structured Capital.

6–18 month horizon with clearly defined remit.
Focus on cash, working capital, pricing, capital stack, and operating cadence.
Useful where the business is real, but the current engine is not good enough.

Principal-side deal partner

I help principals originate, shape, and filter direct deals and co-investments that fit their mandate and risk appetite.

Combines commercial judgement, structured-finance tools, and operator intuition.
Focus on real-economy businesses, platforms, and income-generating assets.
Can extend into light-touch monitoring and board / committee work.

Capital & funding architecture

I design capital stacks and funding engines around the underlying economics of a business or platform.

Equity, preferred, and private credit used as tools—not products in search of a story.
From first facilities and notes to more repeatable programmes.
Emphasis on structures operators can live with and investors can underwrite.

Roles I actually take

Language varies by fund and family, but most of my work fits into one of these shapes.

Inside portfolio companies

Interim / mandate-style CEO or MD.
Interim / mandate-style CFO or COO.
Head of Structured Capital / Funding for platforms with complex funding needs.
Special situations lead around liquidity, covenants, or stakeholder complexity.

On the principal / fund side

Principal-side advisor for families on direct deals and income sleeves.
Mandate-style partner for funds building a thematic sleeve (e.g. real-economy credit, platforms).
Operating-partner-style role for a defined set of companies or a specific thesis.

When this works – and when it does not

A good fit

Portfolio companies with real revenue and assets, not pre-product experiments.
Principals who want clear, sometimes uncomfortable, views on what will and will not work.
Situations where both capital and operations need to change, not just a slide deck.
Funds and families prepared to define a mandate and let someone own it for a period.

Not a good fit

Pure advisory roles where no one inside is accountable for execution.
Early-stage idea validation without capital or a realistic path to customers.
“Spray and pray” deal pipelines with no willingness to narrow focus.
Mandates designed primarily for marketing rather than long-term compounding of capital.

Economics & process

I prefer simple structures that align everyone around value creation. The blend between retainers, success fees, and participation depends on the mandate, but the principles are consistent:

• Clear remit and measurement before we start, including what “success” looks like.
• Transparent base economics for my time and team, with upside linked to outcomes you actually care about.
• No incentive structures that encourage short-term optics over long-term value.

For search firms, I am happy to work within your standard frameworks, provided the underlying mandate is concrete and sponsor-backed.

Next step

If you have a specific mandate or role in mind, email troels@ndersen.xyz with a short description of:

• The situation or company.
• Your role (fund, family, principal, search firm).
• Time horizon and what “good” would look like.

Private room — search firms & principals

A private room contains detailed transaction lists, mandate summaries, references, and example reporting. Access is available for serious search assignments and principal-side mandates.

Request / enter private room