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Tochau Nguyen concedes that it takes a CFO with “a certain personality type” to succeed in a business backed by private equity investors.
“In comparison to other private companies, I would say the biggest difference when you’re backed by private equity is the pressure for outperformance,” says Nguyen, who joined construction equipment provider Buildsafe as CFO in 2022, the year after private equity firm Colinton Capital Partners took a controlling stake. “If the company is doing well, the private equity firm will want more, and the second you’re even slightly under budget, the pressure dials up,” she says. “And from a reporting perspective, it’s almost like you’re listed in terms of the volume of requirements, with intense scrutiny over your reporting, as there should be. You’ve got to really be open to that, open to feedback and to be quite resilient.” Lucky for Nguyen, it’s an environment in which she thrives. “At the end of the day, it’s making me better at the job and it’s making the company better,” says the Brisbane-based finance professional who has previously held senior finance positions with the likes of technology company HTG Solutions, QSuper and KPMG. “It also gives me access to these very intelligent, highly skilled, experienced people in the PE firm, in addition to our internal teams,” she says. “If there’s something I’m struggling with, I can ask, ‘What’s your experience with this? Do you reckon this is the right data set to use?’ They are all very approachable and happy to share their insights and there’s a team of analysts who we can also tap into if we need nitty gritty details or templates, or just to bounce ideas around. It’s rare to have access to that and it’s wonderful for my team.” Nailing knowhow Despite having very little knowledge of the construction industry, Nguyen says she was attracted to the role at Buildsafe after meeting the founders – Peter Horton, Milton Young and Grant Edwards who have remained involved with the business – and the CEO since 2022, Joe Potter. For the full story, head to CFO Magazine. Comments are closed.
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