Executive Leadership, Private Equity and the Food & Beverage Sector in 2025
Why 2025 Mattered More Than Most Years
If 2024 was a year of recalibration, 2025 became the year in which leadership capability was tested in real terms.
Capital remained available, but it was deployed with far greater discipline. Growth was still expected, but it was no longer underwritten by optimism or cheap money. For Private Equity-backed food and beverage businesses, this created a more demanding environment — one where leadership quality, decision-making and execution speed were exposed very quickly.
At Harper Search, 2025 was defined by sharper briefs, less tolerance for ambiguity, and an unmistakable shift in what clients considered “strong leadership”. The year forced a fundamental question across portfolios and boards alike:
Do we have the right leadership to create value in this environment?
The 2025 Operating Environment: Context for Leadership Decisions
Capital Became More Disciplined
Private Equity investment did not slow in 2025 — it became more precise. Sponsors focused relentlessly on value creation plans, margin improvement and exit readiness. Leadership teams were expected to translate strategy into measurable outcomes, often within compressed timeframes.
This changed the nature of executive hiring. Appointments were no longer driven by long-term potential alone, but by immediate contribution to commercial performance.
Food & Beverage Faced Dual Pressure
Food and beverage businesses operated under simultaneous pressure from multiple directions:
Input cost volatility and supply chain disruption
Heightened ESG and sustainability scrutiny
Shifting consumer behaviour around health, value and convenience
Increased competition from challenger brands and private labels
As a result, boards and investors increasingly sought leaders who could balance commercial realism with strategic ambition, rather than pursuing growth at any cost.
How Executive Briefs Changed in 2025
From Visionary Leaders to Value Operators
One of the clearest shifts we observed was a move away from abstract leadership narratives toward hard operational credibility.
Across CEO, CFO and COO searches, clients increasingly prioritised:
Demonstrable EBITDA improvement
Experience navigating complexity, not just growth
A track record of operating successfully within PE ownership structures
The phrase “has done this before” became non-negotiable in many briefs. Leadership presence and strategic vision still mattered, but they were no longer sufficient on their own.
Functional Depth Over Generalism
While leadership breadth remained important, 2025 favoured executives with deep functional expertise, particularly in roles critical to value creation.
Demand increased for:
CFOs with transaction experience, cash discipline and refinancing capability
COOs with hands-on manufacturing, supply chain and operational transformation backgrounds
Commercial leaders able to convert brand strategy into sustainable margin performance
In short, execution outweighed generalism.
The Rise — and Maturity — of Interim and Fractional Leadership
Interim and fractional leadership models were not new in 2025, but the way they were deployed evolved significantly.
Targeted Deployment, Not Gap-Filling
Rather than acting as placeholders, interim executives were increasingly engaged to:
Deliver specific transformation milestones
Stabilise performance during periods of transition
Prepare businesses for transaction or exit
Fractional leadership gained traction in specialist areas such as finance, digital transformation and ESG governance, where full-time appointments were not always immediately required.
Lessons Learned
The most successful interim and fractional engagements shared three consistent characteristics:
Clearly defined scope and success metrics
Strong board-level sponsorship
A planned transition into permanent leadership structures
Where these elements were absent, businesses often struggled to capture full value from interim appointments.
Board Composition: Governance Became a Growth Lever
2025 marked a noticeable shift in how Private Equity sponsors approached boards and governance structures.
The Evolution of the Non-Executive Role
Non-Executive Directors were increasingly selected for their ability to add tangible value, rather than provide passive oversight. Demand grew for NEDs with:
Direct sector-specific operational experience
Exit-cycle and transaction knowledge
The confidence to challenge management constructively
Boards became more active, more commercial and more closely aligned with value creation plans.
Chairs Under Greater Scrutiny
The role of the Chair became critical in 2025. Effective Chairs played a central role in:
Aligning PE sponsors and management teams
Managing performance expectations
Supporting leadership teams through periods of change
In several cases, Chair appointments preceded executive change, reinforcing the importance of governance in driving performance.
Cultural Fit: From “Soft” Consideration to Strategic Imperative
One of the most expensive lessons of 2025 was the cost of cultural misalignment.
Under Private Equity ownership, leadership shortcomings are amplified. Misalignment between leadership style, organisational culture and investor expectations manifested quickly — often through execution delays, disengaged teams or board friction.
As a result, assessment processes became more rigorous, with greater emphasis placed on:
Decision-making under pressure
Stakeholder management and communication style
Comfort with accountability and challenge
Cultural fit moved decisively from a “nice-to-have” to a core commercial consideration.
What 2025 Taught Us About Executive Search
Reactive Hiring Fell Behind the Market
By mid-2025, many organisations recognised that waiting for vacancies to arise was no longer viable. The most successful businesses:
Invested in proactive talent mapping
Maintained relationships with high-calibre leaders ahead of need
Treated executive search as a strategic partnership, not a transactional service
Speed and Precision Outperformed Scale
Longlists became shorter. Interview processes became more focused. Clients valued judgement, access and insight over volume.
Search firms were judged less on how many candidates they could present, and more on how precisely they could identify the right ones.
Implications for 2026 and Beyond
Based on the patterns observed in 2025, several themes are likely to shape executive hiring going forward:
Operators with transformation experience will remain in high demand
Interim and fractional leadership models will persist, but with stronger governance
Boards will play a more active role in leadership strategy and succession planning
Cultural alignment will be assessed with the same rigour as technical competence
For Private Equity investors and portfolio leaders, the message is clear:
Leadership is no longer a downstream decision. It is a primary driver of value creation.
2025 reinforced a simple truth: in constrained, high-expectation environments, leadership quality becomes visible very quickly.
For Harper Search, the year reaffirmed the importance of deep sector expertise, rigorous assessment and true partnership with clients. As we move into 2026, executive search will continue to evolve — but the fundamentals remain unchanged:
hire leaders who can execute, adapt and deliver value under pressure.
