Value creation plans only work if the right people are executing them. Christian Trumpler of Partners Group makes the case that talent selection failures in private equity almost always trace back to the same root cause: a lack of clarity on what a role actually needs to deliver — before the assessment process even begins.

In conversation with Hein Knaapen of CEO.works, the discussion covers psychometric tools, the critical intelligence of the offer stage, how to structure genuinely prioritised strategic initiatives, and why frontline managers remain the most underleveraged lever in portfolio performance.