Private equity exits are often treated as the finish line, but value is created in the years leading to a transaction close. A finance leader with experience across carve-outs and global finance roles emphasizes disciplines that are practiced consistently and adapted to context. The CFO role is framed as value architecture rather than scorekeeping, with finance positioned as a co-architect of the investment thesis. In demanding PE timelines, limiting finance to financial reporting leaves value unrealized. Finance leaders are expected to participate in operational discussions and translate investment goals into financial structures that support performance and investor expectations.
"In private equity, the exit is often treated as the finish line. Bankers run their processes, advisors polish their decks, and dealmakers celebrate when proceeds are distributed. But for the finance leaders who live through these journeys, who build the financial architecture that makes those outcomes possible, the real story is what happens in the years before the transaction closes."
"What emerges from McGaghey's track record is not a formula, but a set of disciplines, practised consistently and adapted intelligently, that explain why the businesses he has led have consistently delivered for their investors."
"The traditional view of the CFO in a PE-backed business positions the finance function as the organisational conscience: the team that tracks results, flags variances and keeps the board honest. McGaghey operates from a fundamentally different premise."
"In a PE context, where investor expectations are demanding and the timeline to exit is finite, the CFO who limits themselves to financial reporting is leaving value on the table. McGaghey's approach has consistently been to position finance as a genuine co-architect of the investment thesis, present in the operational conversation, fluent in the comme"
Read at London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
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