Chair at Portman Dental Care

Our client:

Founded in 2009 by Sam Waley-Cohen, a high-growth privately-led dental group. Livingbridge invested in Portman in 2014, with Sam remaining as CEO, and the Waley-Cohen family retaining a significant stake in Portman. The fund needed to balance their interests and the need for professionalisation and scale-up of infrastructure with respect for the family’s control; any Talent advisory had to be delivered with sensitivity and judgement.

The challenge:

Supporting Livingbridge at the earliest stages of the deal with the introduction of relevant Chair candidates from across the breadth of PE-backed B2G and B2C multisite healthcare deals referencing candidates extensively with sponsors and management teams to ensure they had the right balance of guidance and support, without smothering a confident and hands-on leadership team.

How our approach made a difference:

Placed Richard Connell, Chair of Dignity and CVS. Business grew from 27 to 75 sites, £20m revenue and c £5m EBITDA to well over £120m and c £30m EBITDA during Livingbridge’s tenure, establishing Portman Dental Care as the fastest growing, privately focussed dental group in the UK, and achieving successful exit to Core Equity in under four years. Rehired within six months to find a COO, and then BD Director and M&A Director hires in its next turn under Core.