PCB Partners

When Ben Doltis sold his executive search firm, to ManpowerGroup aged just 31, he realised that there was a gap in the market for a very different kind of M&A Advisory firm. One that used the principles of executive search to find the very best businesses for its clients to buy and to help other tech founders reach the right profile of exit.

In the same way a skilled headhunter finds candidates who hadn't even considered a new job, Ben's Advisory M&A firm, PCB Partners, finds its clients off-market assets that just aren't available to the traditional buyer as the owners hadn't previously even considered a sale.

Ben founded PCB Partners with one-time LDC Managing Director, Tim Farazmand in 2018, bringing together private equity, corporate finance and consulting expertise. They have built a world class team of 20 people, from diverse backgrounds. In order to achieve their objectives, it was important for PCB to hire outside of traditional M&A staff and attract entrepreneurs who had first-hand experience of buying and selling their own companies. These included Brett Newland (ex-Accenture Security COO), Peter Jacobs (former PwC senior partner) and Andrew Bloch (Founder of Frank PR) in the UK, Ramone Param (ex-Equiteq Director and M&A Advisor Emerging Leader), Tim Breene, (Founder and CEO of Accenture Interactive) in the US, Animesh Parihar (ex-Head of Global Delivery at Finastra) in India, Matthew Melhuish (Founder of BMF and former Enero CEO) in Australia and former PwC lead Sunni De Grow based in Shanghai.

They have also added four offices and expanded their services from buy-side M&A to a range of corporate finance advisory services.

In a short space of time Ben's unique vision for a new kind of M&A Advisory Firm was recognised by several high-profile corporates, and they received mandates from companies who had previously only carried out buy side activity in-house.

The likes of Accenture, Publicis Groupe, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Reply realised PCB Partners' unique offering had never been more important than in the current climate of extremely high M&A activity, where finding the right assets to fit their specific needs was becoming increasingly challenging and the price of in-demand companies was often unrealistically high.

With many of the team having gone through their own liquidity events, PCB Partners engages with entrepreneurs in a way no other advisory firm can. They add real value for their clients by finding hidden gems over and over again, because of their in-depth market knowledge and the fact that they understand selling a business is far more than merely a financial experience, so they can also emotionally guide and support entrepreneurs through the whole process.

PCB also invested in a dedicated research team, and has developed strong relationships with academia and industry associations. It gives back to its local communities with involvement in the Prince's Trust, which helps vulnerable young people, and the World Relief global humanitarian organization, offering clean-up events in underserved NYC communities.

The team also contributes speaking and assistance on industry-focused M&A topics for Harvard University DCE's Management Consulting course.