What PE-Backed BH Operators Get Wrong About Executive Search

We work with a lot of PE sponsors. Most of them make the same three mistakes when they hire behavioral health leadership. All three are avoidable.

Mistake 1: Assuming healthcare experience transfers

A CFO who scaled a physical therapy platform is not the same as a CFO who has run behavioral health P&L. Payer mix, revenue cycle, clinical documentation, licensing, JCAHO surveys, prior auth, level-of-care determinations — behavioral health has its own operating grammar. We routinely see sponsors get seduced by pedigree that does not translate, then spend twelve months teaching the CFO the business before they are additive.

Mistake 2: Under-investing in the number two

Sponsors fixate on the CEO seat, then hand the operational execution to whichever internal person seems most senior. That works about a third of the time. The other two thirds, the CEO burns out running two jobs, or the platform stalls because the ops muscle is not there. Hire the COO or Chief Clinical Officer with the same rigor you use for the CEO — sometimes before the CEO.

Mistake 3: Treating clinical leaders as interchangeable

A Chief Clinical Officer who ran a residential SUD platform is not going to seamlessly step into an MSO overseeing outpatient mental health, or vice versa. Clinical culture, staffing models, and payer dynamics differ meaningfully by vertical. When we run a CCO search, matching sub-specialty and setting is often the difference between a two-year win and a nine-month exit.

What to do instead

Retain a search partner who lives inside behavioral health, is willing to push back on pedigree-chasing, and can help you calibrate the number two seat with the same discipline as the number one. That is the whole thesis of Spartan. Talk with us →