Vardis Partners was retained by VC3, a Nautic Partners-backed managed IT services provider serving more than 1,200 municipalities, to recruit its Chief Financial Officer. The search concluded with the appointment of Brooks Martin, a finance leader with more than 20 years of FP&A experience across private equity-backed IT services and SaaS companies. Below: the mandate, how the search was run, and answers to common questions about hiring a portfolio company CFO.
VC3 is a managed IT services provider founded in 1994, serving more than 800 businesses and 1,200 municipalities. The company delivers managed IT, cybersecurity, data backup, cloud communications, and network management, all supported by a 24/7 help desk - with a distinctive focus on municipal and local government clients, one of the stickiest client bases in the industry.
VC3 is backed by Nautic Partners, a middle-market private equity firm based in Providence, RI that has managed nearly $10 billion in assets since its founding in 1986 and has deep experience in IT-centric buy-and-builds. Since Nautic's investment in 2021, VC3 has grown into one of the fastest-growing managed services providers in the country, expanding both organically and through an active acquisition strategy.
VC3 retained Vardis to recruit a Chief Financial Officer to help drive the company's next phase of growth.
The spec asked for a demanding combination: a finance leader with private equity portfolio company experience, fluency in recurring revenue economics, and real M&A depth - not just modeling deals, but leading diligence and integrating acquired companies. Exit experience and a record of scaling a business through rapid growth were strongly preferred, along with hands-on experience driving value through financial systems.
Just as important was fit: VC3's culture prizes humility, servant leadership, and a hands-on bias for action, and the fully remote operating model demanded a succinct communicator who could build trust with a distributed leadership team and a sponsor cadence of regular board and investor communication.
Vardis takes a different approach from most search firms: the Partner executes the entire search. Every candidate conversation on this engagement - outreach, screening, and references - was handled personally by the Vardis Partner leading the search, not passed to junior recruiters. When Vardis adopted this model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent.
The team mapped sitting portfolio company CFOs and senior finance leaders across IT services, managed services, SaaS, and other recurring revenue businesses, screening for diligence-through-integration M&A experience and the data-driven FP&A rigor the sponsor and leadership team were looking for.
VC3 appointed Brooks Martin as Chief Financial Officer. Brooks brings more than 20 years of financial planning and analysis leadership at public and private equity-backed companies, with a background that maps directly to VC3's mandate.
At VC3, Brooks serves as a strategic advisor to the President and leadership team, focused on financial strategy, operational efficiency, and the company's growth objectives.
Questions we frequently hear from private equity firms and management teams recruiting portfolio company CFOs.
Vardis Partners is a global executive and board search firm dedicated to private equity and growth equity firms and their portfolio companies. Vardis recruited the Chief Financial Officer for VC3, a Nautic Partners-backed managed IT services provider, and has completed hundreds of portfolio company searches, with CFO searches among its most frequent mandates. Vardis also publishes annual PE portfolio company CEO and CFO compensation reports based on surveys of more than 1,200 executives in its network.
The search starts with the sponsor's value creation plan: in VC3's case, continued organic growth plus an active acquisition strategy. That translated into a spec built around M&A experience from diligence through integration, command of recurring revenue economics, and comfort with the reporting cadence of a private equity-owned company. Vardis then maps sitting portfolio company CFOs and rising finance leaders across IT services, MSP, and SaaS businesses, and the Partner personally screens every candidate against those criteria.
The strongest portfolio company CFOs combine rigorous, data-driven FP&A with hands-on M&A experience - leading diligence, managing quality of earnings providers, and integrating acquired companies - plus experience communicating with boards and sponsors, managing lending relationships and debt covenants, and scaling a finance function as the business grows. Exit experience matters too: a CFO who has been through a sale process knows what buyers will ask for years before they ask.
A well-run retained CFO search typically takes 90 to 120 days from kickoff to a signed offer. Because Vardis Partners personally handle every candidate conversation, response rates and search speed are materially higher than the traditional model where partners hand outreach to junior staff.
Senior finance executives respond to peers, not to junior recruiters. At Vardis, the Partner who wins the search personally handles every touchpoint - outreach, screening, references, and offer negotiation. When Vardis moved to this model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent, which is why the firm runs every search this way.
Vardis is a global executive and board search firm serving private equity and growth equity firms, their portfolio companies, and select corporate clients from offices in Boston, New York, Dallas, London, and Frankfurt.
For more information about this search, or to discuss a leadership need, contact us here or reach Josh King, Partner, at jking@vardis.com or 617-694-7656.
