By Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE, Guide Collection, Décideurs
ACTIVITIES
Recruitment by direct approach executives and experts at France and à International :
- Legal and compliance managers, senior staff
- Senior advisors
- Directors
- Chief compliance officers, compliance officers, auditors, investigators, compliance and CSR
- Risk managers
- General Secretaries
- Financial Communication and IR
- Human resources managers
- Partners and senior associates
Human strategy consulting
Organisational tasks
OFFICES
IN FRANCE :
- PARIS
- LYON
ABROAD :
- A privileged network of experts in France and abroad, notably in London, Geneva, Singapore and China.
POSITIONING
Thanks to the experience of its founder in IPOs and corporate actions, BCP Executive Search advises and assists management companies and their holdings in recruiting "strategic protection" functions: legal directors, risk managers and directors.
The firm works for investment funds, financial institutions, law firms, international and French groups, CAC 40, SBF 120, ETI and other listed and unlisted companies.
The team is led by Blandine Cordier-Palasse (ESCP, Doctor of Law), who has threefold international operational experience as a lawyer, then legal director and secretary to the board of listed groups (Parfinance - Gemplus (IPO/TPG), management companies (Siparex) and as a partner in an American executive search firm (Boyden).
Blandine Cordier-Palasse is also a company director.
She is also co-founder and vice-president of the Cercle de la Compliance.
Following the example of Angélique Budin, a partner in the firm and former lawyer, the team of six professionals has a background in law or headhunting, enabling them to bring high added value to the search for the best profiles.
Cultivate excellence and the spirit company
Because this is the key to our responsiveness and motivation, we run the firm like a start-up. As a trend-setter, the firm is particularly flexible and responsive in its assignments, and operates with complete transparency, confidentiality, ethics and deontology. The team's experience is also an asset when it comes to defining the precise profile of the strategic candidate we are looking for.
True to the firm's motto of "Thinking out of the box", the consultants provide :
- Global vision
- Operational experience of businesses and sectors
- Network strength
The general counsel is rarely the first person recruited for an LBO. Is it really necessary?
No one familiar with private equity today would question the fact that an investor should strengthen his stake with a quality financial director, accustomed to the structures and requirements of an LBO. However, in order to complete the organisational chart, it would be necessary - and this is currently far too rarely the case - for this investor to understand the full value of optimising a company's organisational chart with a financial director. quality legal director. The issue is not whether this is an additional expense for the shareholder, but rather that he realises that this recruitment is indeed an investment. One of the value creation factors within a holding is theimproved governance. The legal director will help to structure it, optimise it for the characteristics of the company, and make it perfectly adaptable to the company's needs. compatible with the investor's requirements. It is not a question of signing the UNPRI or the EC20 charter.
Then they have to be applied, and this can sometimes cause problems with managers. The legal director is already familiar with these issues. He is therefore the logical and effective link between the fund and the management team of the investment. Further down the line, when the sale of the company is on the agenda, the added value of a good legal director will be confirmed, whether it is a sale to another fund, to a manufacturer or as part of an IPO. As he considers his options further, it is also likely that he will realise what a legal director could bring to the management company, both in terms of investor relations than from the point of view of management of the acquisition or sales process.
Investment funds generally use law firms. What would be their interest in bringing this function in-house?
A fund is often identified by its modus operandi, by its investment philosophy. The legal director is in the best position to ensure that there is perfect consistency from one transaction to the next in terms of monitoring and the quality of due diligence. He or she can coordinate the various law firms involved in the deal more effectively, develop synergiesThese in-house skills provide a high level of expertise in the field. These in-house skills provide a high degree of professionalism and security in the execution of the private equity business. In a context where responsiveness is the order of the day, all of which translates into real time and cost savings.efficiency. Not to mention the rationalising expenditure due to better use of advice.
What is the added value of BCP Executive Search in this area?
Our customers benefit from our operational experience. I myself was on the management committee of Parfinance before joining Gemplus as Corporate Legal Director. This experience enabled me to manage the acquisition of an equity stake by a fund such as TPG, as well as preparing the group's IPO. I then became head of the legal department at Siparex. Each of these steps is useful to me today when it comes to understanding needs of my customersidentify the best profiles according to specific characteristics of companies and their managers.
Given this experience, what would be the profile of the ideal legal director?
A good legal director is not only an expert, but also a good communicator. dealmaker. Our assignments lead us to look for professionals with a proven track record in entrepreneurial spiritimmediately operational. We also expect them to be excellent communicators, educators and creative. Finally, it goes without saying that these legal directors need to have a good dose of courage.
Courage?
A good legal director is not there to please, but to ensure that the company's development takes place in a spirit of mutual respect. assessing the risk. It is important to integrate it into the management bodies to enable it tolistening and alerting if necessary. The fact that business is being penalised is a fact, and it is in the investor's interest to ensure that all risks are properly taken into account, particularly when it comes to build-up abroad. If you don't have a good grasp of them, the consequences can be extremely serious. Hence the importance of calling on specialists to identify the best profile for your company.
