Fractional Operating Partner
When a business reaches the level of complexity where a board or ownership group is asking more of the CEO than the CEO can deliver alone, something breaks down in the space between governance and execution. Decisions stall. Strategic priorities get lost in day-to-day operations. The board loses confidence. The operator loses clarity. And the business pays for both.
The Fractional Operating Partner engagement exists to close that gap. Pat serves as the structured connection between the board and the C-suite — translating strategic intent into operational execution, ensuring the CEO and leadership team are aligned with ownership’s priorities, and providing the consistent presence that neither a board nor a busy CEO can provide on their own.
Pat has lived this role from the inside. Following the acquisition of USA Insulation by The Riverside Company, he served as the operating partner connecting private equity ownership to the CEO and leadership teams across multiple portfolio brands within the Threshold Brands platform. He understands both sides of the table — what boards need to see, and what operators need to hear — because he has sat in both chairs.
Who This Engagement Is For
The Fractional Operating Partner engagement is designed for businesses in the home services, home improvement, residential trades, and commercial services sectors that have moved beyond founder-only leadership and now operate with a board or ownership group, a CEO or President in seat, and at least one layer of leadership beneath them. These are typically businesses approaching or operating around $10M in revenue — complex enough to require governance infrastructure, but not yet at the scale where a full-time operating partner is financially justified.
This engagement is also well suited for private equity firms, family offices, or investor groups that have acquired a business in these sectors and need an experienced operating presence between their investment committee and the management team they inherited or installed.
What This Engagement Addresses
The board and the CEO are not fully aligned.
Ownership has a clear view of where the business needs to go. The CEO and leadership team are working hard. But strategic priorities are not consistently translating into operational action, and the gap between what the board expects and what the business delivers is widening rather than closing.
The CEO is capable but under-supported.
The President or CEO has the skills to run the business but lacks a structured operating partner to help prioritize, translate board direction into quarterly and weekly execution, and hold the leadership team accountable to results. The CEO ends up reactive rather than proactive — managing up to the board and managing down to the team simultaneously, without adequate support for either.
Operating discipline is inconsistent across the leadership team.
The business has functional leaders in place, but they operate in silos, lack a shared operating rhythm, and are not consistently held accountable to the metrics and milestones that matter most to ownership. The business is running on effort rather than on systems.
Board reporting lacks operational depth.
Ownership receives financial summaries but lacks a clear operational narrative — the story behind the numbers that explains what is working, what is not, and what is being done about it. Decisions get made at the board level without adequate operational context, and the CEO spends more time preparing for board meetings than running the business.
What Working with PJP Looks Like
Pat works at the intersection of ownership and operations — present enough with the leadership team to understand what is actually happening inside the business, and credible enough with the board to translate that reality into the language of governance, strategy, and value creation.
In practice, this means structured cadence on both sides. Pat attends or prepares for board meetings, ensuring ownership has the operational context required to make good decisions. He works directly with the CEO and leadership team on a regular basis — typically weekly or biweekly — establishing the operating rhythm, tracking performance against priorities, and closing the feedback loop between what was agreed in the boardroom and what is being executed in the business.
He is not a board member and not a full-time executive. He is the experienced operating presence that makes both work better — a role that Pat has filled from the inside at scale, and now brings to businesses that need it without the cost or commitment of a permanent hire.
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Areas of Involvement
Board and Ownership Liaison
Translating board priorities and ownership expectations into clear operational direction for the CEO and leadership team. Preparing board reporting that goes beyond financial summaries to provide genuine operational context — what is working, what is not, and what corrective action is underway.
CEO and Leadership Team Support
Working directly alongside the CEO to establish operating priorities, install accountability frameworks, and develop the leadership team’s capability to execute against board-level objectives. This includes structured leadership meetings, quarterly goal-setting and review, and direct coaching of C-suite and VP-level leaders.
Operating Cadence and Accountability
Installing the weekly and quarterly operating rhythm that keeps the leadership team focused and aligned — defined goals with deadlines, named owners for every priority, and a consistent cadence of check-ins that builds momentum and prevents drift. Whether the framework is EOS, Scaling Up, or a model built for the specific business, the discipline is the same: a system that runs the business rather than a CEO who carries it alone.
KPI Development and Performance Management
Establishing the KPI dashboard that gives both the board and the leadership team a shared, real-time view of business performance. Ensuring that metrics are meaningful, consistently tracked, and directly connected to the strategic priorities that ownership cares about most.
Value Creation and Strategic Execution
Helping ownership and the CEO identify and execute against the operational levers that drive enterprise value — margin improvement, revenue infrastructure, organizational design, and the systems that make the business less dependent on any single individual. For businesses working toward a future transaction or franchise expansion, this includes building the operational documentation and leadership depth that sophisticated buyers and partners require.
What Success Looks Like
The board and the CEO are aligned and confident.
Ownership has genuine visibility into operational performance. The CEO has clear direction and structured support. The feedback loop between governance and execution is closed, and both sides trust what is being communicated.
The leadership team executes with discipline.
The C-suite and VP-level leaders are operating within a clear accountability structure, against shared metrics, with a consistent cadence that keeps the business moving toward ownership’s stated priorities — week after week, quarter after quarter.
The business performs at the level ownership invested in.
Revenue, margin, and operational KPIs are tracking toward the targets that justified ownership’s capital commitment. The gap between what the board expects and what the business delivers is closed — not by lowering expectations, but by raising execution.
The operating infrastructure outlasts the engagement.
The systems, cadence, and accountability structures installed during the engagement continue to function after Pat steps back. The CEO is stronger. The leadership team is more capable. And the board has the visibility and confidence to govern effectively without a permanent operating partner on staff. That is the standard every engagement is held to.
Ready to take action?
If there is a gap between what your board expects and what your business is delivering — and you need an experienced operator to close it — the conversation starts here.