To launch MuzzOsphère, Antoine Gigomas, CEO of Muzzo, welcomes Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson, partner and operating partner at Siparex, to shed light on a role that is still little known yet central to value creation: the operating partner.
Often seen as a behind-the-scenes player, the operating partner is in fact a strategic sparring partner, at the crossroads of strategy, execution and people. Aligned with the shareholder's interests, they support leaders and teams throughout the investment cycle to secure execution, accelerate transformation and prepare the next stages of growth.
A concrete conversation about a pivotal role, at once strategist, facilitator and coach, in the service of lasting, measurable value creation.
operating partner: definition and role in private equity
Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson uses France Invest's definition: an operating partner is an employee of an investment fund dedicated exclusively to the operational support of the companies in which the fund is a shareholder. He describes the role as a hybrid conductor, neither a strategy consultant (because the operating partner speaks on behalf of the shareholder and has access to 100% of the information and management indicators) nor an interim manager (because the operating partner stays for the entire investment period, and never steps in to do the teams' job).
We don't drive: the driver is the leader and their team. But we can push the car up the hills, lift the bonnet and change the carburettor to accelerate the companies we are shareholders in.
This stance is reflected even in compensation, part of which is directly indexed to the value creation actually achieved. As Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson points out in the episode, Siparex is a European growth-support platform that manages €4 billion in assets and has more than 200 portfolio companies, from start-ups to mid-sized companies, financed through equity or senior debt. The typical horizon for a private equity fund: 5 to 7 years, with the ambition of doubling the size of the companies (or more) in four to five years.
the scope of the role: from tech to HR governance
At Siparex, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson focuses his work on three areas. The first, and the most time-consuming, covers digital transformation, AI, data and IT: structuring the information system and rolling out CRM, ERP, finance or HR tools to prepare a company that is set to double or triple in size. The second is sales effectiveness: visibility with prospects, acquisition, conversion, retention and churn reduction, all the way to post-merger integration projects after an acquisition.
The third area, which he explicitly links to Muzzo, is HR governance: hiring executives (CEOs, sales directors, HR directors, CDOs) and strengthening the strategic committee with independent directors who bring proven operational expertise, in line with the exit equity story.
To multiply their impact, the operating partner pulls two levers. First, four toolkits (AI, data and tech; sales performance; HR and employer brand; ESG and decarbonisation) made available to leadership teams. Second, the network effect: with more than 150 SMEs and mid-sized companies in the portfolio, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson points to nearly 1,000 brains that can be mobilised, brought together through four clubs of decision-makers (CEOs, CFOs, CTOs and AI/data leads, ESG) that meet regularly, run by members, for members.
the sparring partner stance: persuading without imposing
The term sparring partner is overused, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson warns, but it covers a precise reality: combining a pragmatic view (the reality of a €10 million SME has nothing to do with that of a €1 billion mid-sized company) with the ability to challenge teams constructively. For SMEs under €100 million, this means structuring roadmaps: taking the time to formalise, the way an architect draws up plans before building, to mitigate the operational risk of execution. Value, he insists, is not created in committees but on the ground.
The common thread stays the same: winning buy-in rather than imposing. Naturally inclined to push, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson has learned that pull works better.
What works is when the suggestion becomes the strategic priority of the leader and their team. You have to motivate and support without imposing.
This situational intelligence (being there when it is relevant, coming back three or six months later when the leader is receptive) goes hand in hand with two requirements: curiosity, liking people and showing empathy; and absolute confidentiality. From the very first year, with Bertrand Rambaud, chairman of Siparex, the choice was clear: accelerate the companies that want it rather than support those that don't, especially since the service is not billed to the companies but paid for by the fund.
AI and value creation in SMEs and mid-sized companies
On AI, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson is categorical: this time, it is no longer the big eating the small, but “the fast who will eat the slow”. Good news for agile SMEs, mid-sized companies and start-ups, better placed than large groups to adapt, provided they have grasped what AI changes in their industry, their organisation and their processes. He illustrates this with a quantified use case at one of his portfolio companies: €200,000 of investment, 6 months of development and testing, €2 million of impact on EBITDA, from optimising logistics routes. What surprises him compared with previous waves of technology: no three-year ROI, no colossal budget.
The flip side is a deflationary risk for some service models: in consulting, deliverables that used to be billed are now produced by AI with almost equivalent reliability. In his own work, Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson estimates he gains about 30% in productivity (due diligence analyses, preparing workshops and meetings, benchmarks), with tool reliability of between 70 and 80%, which means everything has to be reread and checked. His conviction for the years ahead: the operating partner will become the conductor of measurable value creation, equipped with data, with their own configured AI, and with a stronger role for the human side (coaching, skills transfer, execution follow-up). He cites the American example of a fund that indexes the operating partner's annual bonus to operating results, and that of a16z, where more than 80% of the workforce are operating partners.
the guest: Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson
Nicolas Réquillart-Jeanson is a partner and operating partner at Siparex, a European platform supporting business growth, and a co-founder of France Invest's Club des operating partners. A former entrepreneur who also worked in consulting for listed groups, he has held this role in private markets for seven years, supporting leaders and teams at SMEs and mid-sized companies on digital transformation, sales effectiveness and HR governance. As a partner, he is himself a shareholder in Siparex, with compensation partly indexed to the value returned to the fund's investors.
key takeaways
- The operating partner is a fund employee dedicated to operational support, neither a consultant nor an interim manager.
- They accelerate and protect value throughout the investment period, without ever stepping in for the teams.
- Success comes down to one rule: win buy-in rather than impose, and at the right time.
- At Siparex, the network effect (more than 150 portfolio companies, four clubs of decision-makers) multiplies the impact of one-to-one support.
- With AI, “the fast eat the slow”: the agility of SMEs and mid-sized companies becomes a competitive advantage.
