Learning Communities for Private Equity Ops Professionals
So PE Firms realize the value of their investment and Operating Professionals are equipped to succeed
PE Ops is rewarding and impactful but also complex and difficult. We help you succeed
We help operating professionals succeed and private equity firms feel confident in the value of their ops team.
When I first started at American Securities back in 2003, there weren’t very many operating professionals working in private equity and very few private equity firms had anyone on payroll that wasn’t an investment professional or part of the administrative staff.
Today our industry has grown substantially. There are thousands of us and almost all PE firms have embraced the idea that post-close value-add is critical and requires expertise.
Most operating professionals are highly talented, very experienced professionals who typically come from either consulting or industry. They come to PE for the excitement of sharing their expertise with multiple portfolio companies, and getting paid for the value they create.
And then they join the PE firm and find out that the PE Ops role is meaningfully different than their prior role. It can be hard to figure out what to work on, and even to know how to get work. They are asked to be experts on everything in their area, and to also understand the complexity of PE. Even when they are engaged in a project, it is often difficult to prove value in an industry that is famously quantitative and metrics driven.
And PE firms trying to create new groups will often have failures where they hire a person or a team and after a year or two they decide it isn’t working and try again.
All of these are failures in our industry and they are solvable with targeted training.
I founded The OP Academy to help Ops Professionals and in the process help them succeed and private equity firms better manage their resources to create the most value for their investors.
Lee Dranikoff
FOUNDER & CEO, THE OP ACADEMYCommunities
PE Human Capital Learning Community
The PE Human Capital Learning Community is a community of PE Ops professionals who focus their time on human capital topics for portfolio companies and, in some cases, for the PE firm. Members of the community learn from third parties and each other.
PE AI and Technology Learning Community
The PE AI and Technology Learning Community is a community of PE Ops professionals who focus their time on AI and technology topics for portfolio companies and, in some cases, for the PE firm. Members of the community learn from third parties and each other.
Our Team
Lee Dranikoff
FOUNDER & CEO, THE OP ACADEMYAfter spending six years at McKinsey & Co. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lee moved to private equity where he helped pioneer the functional based private equity operating group. Lee helped build and lead the American Securities Resources Group, one of the most known and respected PE operating teams in the U.S. At American Securities, Lee hired, trained and helped lead a group of over 50 outstanding operating professionals. Most of them remained at American Securities and some left to join or lead their own operating groups at other private equity firms.
During his time in private equity, Lee was fortunate to collaborate with other leaders from other private equity operating groups, learning from them how they succeeded.
Since leaving American Securities, Lee founded the Operating Academy to bring this knowledge to a broader group of operating professionals.
In addition to his work with the Op Academy, Lee is member of the Board of Hillel International and a Board member of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. He is also a proud father of three (nearly) grown children.
Prior to McKinsey, Lee was an attorney at Weil in New York City. Lee graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. and M.A. in Economics and graduated with a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Lauren Letizia
Lauren spent four years supporting the Resources Group at American Securities, where she helped manage talent-acquisition systems and developed tools to track and report on executive-search processes across more than 20 portfolio companies. She also held roles in academic administration and research support at Princeton and Rutgers universities and served as a grant-writing consultant for New York-area nonprofits. Lauren currently serves as Borough Council President in Westwood, New Jersey, where her work centers on municipal long-term planning, communications, and cross-functional coordination.
Advisors
The OP Academy is pleased to have a group of outstanding private equity operating professionals serve as advisors and guest faculty.
Cory A. Eaves
Mike Leamer
Beth Neumann
Jon Weber
Nicole Pollack
Doron Grosman
David Cohen
Advisor Bios:
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David joined Kelso in 2019 as a Partner and Managing Director leading Human Capital work. He is focused on applying talent and human resources best practices to drive success in the firm’s investment process, portfolio companies and Kelso Specialist Network. He spent the preceding nine years at American Securities in a similar role in support of their middle market portfolio.
Prior to his time in private equity, he worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb for more than eight years where he held various executive HR leadership positions including three and a half years based in Singapore as their Asia Pacific business HR leader. Prior to joining BMS in 2001, David spent nine years with General Electric where he held various HR leadership positions in their Healthcare, Industrial Systems and Plastics businesses. Over the course of his 40-year business career, David has worked outside the United States three times and has extensive experience starting and developing businesses in India, China, Southeast Asia and Japan. Finally, he began his career as the general manager of a small rural based development organization in Botswana, Africa as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer.
David has a B.A. in Economics and an MBA in General Management from the University of Michigan.
About Kelso
Kelso is a founding firm in the private equity industry with a unique history and legacy, having been founded by the inventor of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (or “ESOP”) more than 55 years ago. The principles of partnership and alignment of interest serve as the foundation of the firm’s culture and investment philosophy. Kelso is focused on North American mid-market buyout transactions within four core sectors. Since 1980, Kelso has invested through 11 funds with over $15 billion of equity capital across 135+ investments. Kelso benefits from a successful investment track record, industry-leading GP alignment, deep sector expertise, a long-tenured investing team, and a reputation as a preferred partner to management teams and corporates. The firm is based in New York, NY.on
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As a Partner and Head of Portfolio Operations at BayPine, Mr. Eaves leads the digital transformation and portfolio operations team, where his primary focus is on driving digital transformation initiatives within the firm and its portfolio companies. Prior to BayPine, Mr. Eaves was one of the first Operating Partners at General Atlantic, where he helped build and scale their portfolio value-add capability for nearly 15 years.
Before joining General Atlantic, he was Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Information Officer at Misys plc, a global provider of software and services to the healthcare and financial services industries.
Mr. Eaves serves on the boards of the Marfan Foundation, where he was also a previous Chairman, and NetHope. Mr. Eaves holds a BSEE from the University of Iowa and an MBA, cum laude, from Babson College. -
Doron is the CEO of Smart Start, a global leader in alcohol monitoring technologies. With a distinguished career in executive leadership, Doron brings a proven track record of driving significant revenue and EBITDA growth across both private and public sectors. Doron served as CEO and President of GCT Global Container Terminals, where he successfully doubled the company's EBITDA and enhanced its profitability. Doron has also held senior leadership roles at Court Square Capital Partners, Hexcel Corporation, Trane, General Electric, and Bain, where he was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives and operational improvements.
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Mike is a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Portfolio Operations at H.I.G. Capital. He is responsible for portfolio value-creation across the firm’s U.S. private equity funds. Mike has portfolio operations experience across a range of industries and strategies. Prior to joining H.I.G., Mike was a Managing Director in the Resources Group at American Securities LLC and a Managing Director in Asset Management at Hudson Advisors LP. Earlier in his career, he worked in consulting at McKinsey & Company and in investment banking at Lazard. Mike earned a B.A. in economics degree from Occidental College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
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Beth is currently a Partner, Portfolio Operations for Kelso and was formerly was as a senior member of the portfolio operations team at Sun Capital Partners. She also previously served as President and CEO of Starboard Cruise Services, a global retailer owned by LVMH. Prior to Starboard, Beth was an executive at Avon, Atkins Nutritionals, Kraft Foods, and Andersen Consulting. Beth received an Engineering degree from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.n goes here
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Jon created and led operating partner groups for over 20 years at institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Icahn Enterprises, and Elliott Investment Management. He has impacted dozens of portfolio companies in a broad range of industries through operational engagement, talent management, and effective oversight in partnership with management driving change as a board member, senior executive, and board-level advisor for companies in the Americas and Europe. Jon earned a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and B.S. and M.B.A., magna cum laude, from Babson College.
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Nicole Pollack is the Chief Operating Officer of Marcus & Pollack, a real estate tax certiorari law firm, where she leads strategy and operations.
Previously, Nicole served as the Chief Growth Officer at LMC, a mid-sized accounting firm backed by Ascend and Alpine Investors. In this role, she developed and executed the growth strategy that successfully doubled the company’s revenue in one year.
Nicole is passionate about helping companies achieve ambitious financial goals through accountability, data-driven analytics, and a positive mindset. Before joining LMC, she was a Strategy Associate at American Securities, where she partnered with portfolio companies on value creation planning and execution. Earlier in her career, she held strategy and finance roles at Harry’s and Oliver Wyman.
Nicole earned her bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Frequently Asked Questions
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YES every group is different but the issues people face are similar. Our community members come from firms of different sizes, strategies, and geographies, but are all able to learn from each other and from our broader offering.on text goes here
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We have a variety of ways for members to participate in our community and there is no fee to join
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We have a variety of formats for sharing and learning. In some cases we have third party experts teach but we also organize time to allow our members to learn from each other?
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Yes! You will significantly accelerate your learning curve by joining our community
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Many of our members are highly experienced PE Ops Professionals. We structure cohorts to make sure everyone has the right set of experiences. We also find that our more experienced members enjoy helping others who are starting their PE careers?
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We cover any and all topics that are of interest to our community. By example, in our human capital learning community we have covered dozens of topics ranging from, hiring local recruiting firms to implementing AI in your portfolio. We cover comp and benefits, ER, human capital in distressed situations, etc. We also cover PE basics for those who want a grounding in how PE works.
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Everyone in PE Ops is time constrained. We create many opportunities to learn and interact with the group but all of our sessions are optional.
