Most private equity firms acquire a company and then figure out who should run it. Reeve Waud does it the other way around.
At Waud Capital Partners, the executive hire often precedes the acquisition. The firm identifies a sector, recruits an operator with deep experience in that space, and then works alongside that person to source, evaluate, and ultimately lead the platform company. That sequence flips how most buyout shops operate. And it has produced some of WCP’s strongest outcomes.
Executive Partners as Deal Architects
WCP calls them Executive Partners. They’re seasoned operators who join the firm before a deal closes, sometimes months before a target company has even been found. Brad Staley, who was named Executive Chairman of Mopec Group when Waud Capital acquired the pathology equipment company in January 2025, fits the profile precisely. Staley brought more than 25 years of healthcare and technology operating experience, including a previous role as CEO of Advancing Eyecare.
Kyle Lattner, a Partner at Waud Capital, described the Mopec deal as part of a “dedicated Medical Device & Supply Services campaign we launched in partnership with Brad Staley.” Staley didn’t parachute in after the closing. He helped shape the investment thesis that led to it.
The iOFFICE Proof Point
The same operator-first model produced one of Waud Capital Partners’ fastest turnarounds. When WCP acquired iOFFICE, a workplace management software business, in 2018, the firm installed a new CEO through its executive partner network. Over the next two and a half years, that leadership change, combined with three tuck-in acquisitions and a professionalized sales operation, quintupled the company’s revenues. Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software-focused buyout firms, purchased iOFFICE in 2021.
Revenue doesn’t grow fivefold in 30 months by accident. You need an operator who knows the industry and can recruit, integrate, and execute from day one.
Why the Sequence Matters
“Human capital is at the heart of everything we do at WCP,”Reeve Waud has said. The firm backs that claim with infrastructure: a five-person in-house human capital team and a proprietary database covering 2.2 million companies. WCP uses it to map subsectors before committing capital. Since 1993, Waud Capital has completed more than 460 acquisitions across healthcare and software. Across those deals, the consistent bet is that the right operator, placed early enough, compounds growth in ways that financial engineering alone cannot.
