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For sponsors and the companies they back

The value creation plan isn’t the hard part. Running it is.

I’m a former founder and CEO who embeds with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies to actually deliver the plan — carrying operating responsibility from diligence through exit, with technology and AI as the lever that moves margin fastest.

30
Years running and advising businesses at the CEO and COO level
2008–2018
Built and ran Conscientia Corporation for a decade, sold to a publicly traded company
100+
M&A, integration, and value-creation programs led across product and services businesses
P&L
Every engagement tied to a line on the income statement, not a roadmap

Where I work

Four points in the deal where execution decides the return.

The thesis is settled — operations, not leverage, produce the return now. The staffing isn’t. Most sponsors don’t need another findings deck; they need someone who will own the plan, sit in the weekly review, and stay until the number moves. That’s the work I do, and technology and AI are where I do it faster than a generalist can.

Pre-deal
Underwrite

Technology & AI Due Diligence

Know what you’re buying — and whether this team can deliver it. I pressure-test the technology foundation and AI exposure of a target so the IC sees real risk, real cost to fix, and real upside. Then I answer the question the platforms can’t: can this management team actually execute the plan you’re underwriting?

  • IC-ready findings
  • Remediation cost view
  • AI risk and margin upside
  • Management execution readiness
Post-close
Execute

Value Creation & the 100-Day Plan

Convert the thesis into earnings. I build the sequenced value-creation plan and then run it — owner by owner, week by week — so Year 1 is execution rather than discovery. Technology and AI get deployed where they touch margin, not where they demo well.

  • Sequenced 100-day plan
  • Owner-level accountability
  • Early margin wins
  • Leadership alignment
Hold period
Operate

Operating Partner & Fractional COO / CTO

Operator capacity through the hold, at the seat the asset actually needs. I take real operating responsibility across one company or the portfolio — running the commercial cadence, AI enablement, and modernization work that lifts margin, builds the management bench, and de-risks the asset before a buyer ever sees it.

  • Fractional COO / CTO / CIO
  • Operating cadence and KPIs
  • AI in production, not pilots
  • Management team build
Pre-exit
Prove

Exit Readiness & Equity Story

Sell the value you actually built. I get the operating proof, the data, and the technology narrative into exit-ready shape so the equity story survives buyer diligence — including the AI questions buyers now walk away over — and defends the multiple.

  • Defensible equity story
  • Diligence dry run
  • Data room readiness
  • Management prep

What I move

Technology is the method. These are the results.

Most of AI’s value sits in the core of the business — commercial operations, supply chain, service delivery — not in the IT function. So I work the P&L lines directly and use technology to get there.

Gross margin
Service delivery and fulfillment redesigned around automation that holds up in production
Cost to serve
Support, onboarding, and back-office work reduced per unit without breaking the customer experience
SG&A leverage
Growth absorbed without proportional headcount, so the operating line expands with scale
Pricing operations
Data and discipline behind pricing decisions that currently run on habit and negotiation
Working capital
Billing, collections, and inventory cycles tightened where the cash is quietly trapped
Team productivity
Adoption that actually sticks — the reason most value creation plans miss, and the part I don’t outsource

Who I work with

The sponsor is the door. The portfolio company is the work.

Three buyers, three different moments — and often the same asset. Whoever brings me in, the measure is the same: did the number move.

Fund side

Deal teams & investment partners

You’re evaluating a target and need a technology and AI read you can defend to the IC — including the harder question of whether this management team can deliver the case you’re underwriting.

Fund side

Operating partners & portfolio ops

You’ve committed more value creation to your LPs than you have operator capacity to deliver. I extend your bench across one asset or several, without adding permanent headcount to the fund.

Company side

Portfolio company CEOs & CFOs

You own the number. I sit alongside your team in the weekly cadence and run the operating and technology work that gets you there — as a partner to management, not a monitor for the fund.

Also independent sponsors, family offices investing directly, private credit funds holding equity positions, and search funds post-acquisition — same buying logic, and rarely an in-house operating bench to draw on.

Start here

Deal Strategy Intensive

Not ready for a full engagement? Bring one live question — a target you’re circling, a portfolio company that has stalled, an exit eighteen months out — and we work it in a focused session. You leave with a written point of view you can take to your partners.

Book a discovery call

Typical questions

  • Is this target’s technology a risk or a lever?
  • Why hasn’t the 100-day plan moved?
  • Where does AI actually touch our margin?
  • Can this management team deliver the case?

About

I ran a company for real before I advised anyone on how to run one — and I sold it.

I founded Conscientia Corporation in 2008, ran it for a decade, and sold it to a publicly traded company in 2018. I started this advisory practice in 2016 and ran both at once for two years — which turned out to be its own kind of operating lesson. Across thirty years I’ve carried a P&L, made the payroll call, decided what not to build, cut what wasn’t working, and lived through a sale process from the other side of the table. I’ve led more than a hundred M&A, integration, and value-creation programs across product and services businesses.

Technology and AI are where I’m deepest, and that depth is real — but it’s a lever, not the job. The job is running the plan. Most value creation plans don’t fail on the technology; they fail because the management team can’t absorb the change fast enough. As a certified executive coach and team-dynamics specialist, I work both sides of that at once. That’s what separates me from advisors who hand over findings and leave, and from consultancies that staff a team of analysts who’ve never held the seat.

A $25M EBITDA portfolio company doesn’t need a brand-name consultancy. It needs an embedded operator who will sit in the weekly commercial review for nine months. That’s the work I’m built for — and if your situation calls for something else, I’ll tell you.

Operator
Founded and ran Conscientia Corporation 2008–2018, sold to a publicly traded company
Advisory
Independent practice since 2016, serving PE sponsors and portfolio companies
Deal experience
100+ M&A, integration, and value-creation programs across product and services businesses
Leadership
Certified executive coach, team-dynamics specialist, and published author

Next step

Bring me the plan that isn’t moving.

A short call is usually enough to tell whether I’m the right operator for the situation — and if I’m not, I’ll say so and point you somewhere better.

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