Key Skills

Job Description

The Opportunity You’ve spent years leading teams, managing P&L, and creating value inside organisations built by others. You know what it takes to run a company and you’ve started to wonder what it would take to lead one that’s yours. WAD Capital’s CEO in Residence programme exists for exactly this moment. We partner with experienced operators to acquire and lead established European SMEs through ownership transitions, giving you a structured, capital-backed path from executive to entrepreneur. This is not a job posting. It is an invitation to build the next chapter of your career, and preserve the legacy of a business that deserves capable new leadership. If you are based in the Netherlands this opportunity is designed for operators who want to take the step from managing businesses to owning and leading one. Why WAD Capital WAD Capital is a private equity firm focused exclusively on SME succession across Europe, acquiring companies with €1–5M EBITDA in sectors like B2B services, energy transition, and healthcare. What makes the programme distinct is the infrastructure behind it. As a CIR, you gain access to Generative DealFlow™, WAD Capital’s proprietary deal sourcing technology that transforms months of manual research into focused, data-driven analysis. You work within a cohort of peers — accomplished operators pursuing the same goal — which means shared learning, accountability, and a network that compounds over time. WAD Capital provides full acquisition funding, a monthly stipend during the search, and a meaningful equity stake upon closing. You are not raising capital alone, navigating legal structures in isolation, or cold-calling brokers without a playbook. The firm’s operational team, advisory network, and investment committee work alongside you at every stage, compressing what traditionally takes years into a structured timeline of roughly nine to fifteen months. What You’ll Do Your journey begins with deep market research: identifying a target sector, mapping fragmented industries, and building conviction around a thesis. From there, you move into active outreach, sourcing acquisition targets, conducting diligence, leading negotiations, and building trust with retiring founders who want to know their business is in steady hands. Upon closing, you step into the CEO role. You will lead the company through its transition, implement operational improvements, and drive growth, supported by WAD Capital’s expertise in digitisation, governance, and scaling. This is end-to-end entrepreneurship with institutional support: you source it, you evaluate it, you acquire it, you lead it. Who You Are You have led teams and managed meaningful P&L responsibility in mid-to-senior roles. You’ve operated in complex environments and earned the trust of stakeholders through consistent, measurable results. You are commercially sharp, decisive under uncertainty, and collaborative by instinct, the kind of leader who listens carefully before acting, then acts with conviction. You bring sector expertise in areas such as B2B services, industrial technology, healthcare, energy, logistics, or professional services. You are fluent in at least two European languages, ideally including Dutch and English. You think like an owner, not a manager, and you are ready to invest your time, energy, and reputation in a business you believe in. WAD Capital actively welcomes candidates from all backgrounds. The private equity and search fund space has historically underrepresented women and other talented professionals, and we believe the best operators come from the widest talent pools. If you’ve been considering entrepreneurship through acquisition but haven’t seen a path that reflects your ambitions and values, we encourage you to apply. What WAD Capital Provides WAD Capital does not simply write a cheque and wish you well. The programme is designed to remove the structural barriers that make solo search funds slow, risky, and isolating. You receive full financial backing for your acquisition, a stipend during your search, and an equity stake in the company you acquire. Behind that capital sits a team: search analysts who provide operational and analytical support, a proprietary AI-powered Deal Intelligence platform for automated screening and target evaluation, and an investment committee with decades of experience across PE, venture capital, and corporate leadership. The firm’s CARE-PROFIT framework ensures that financial performance and ethical responsibility are treated as inseparable, not as trade-offs. You join a network backed by family offices, institutional investors, and international entrepreneurs who remain engaged well beyond the transaction. For candidates in the Netherlands, this also means access to one of Europe’s most practical cross-border platforms for building ownership careers without having to start from zero. Take the First Step If this reads less like a job description and more like the opportunity you’ve been building toward, we’d welcome a conversation. Submit your interest through WAD Capital’s application at https://wadcap.com/join. The form is straightforward, and every application is reviewed thoroughly by the team. There is no perfect time to make this move, only the right one. We look forward to hearing from you.

Core Responsibilities

Identify and acquire an established European SME through market research, outreach, and due diligence. Following the acquisition, lead the company as CEO to implement operational improvements and drive growth.

Requirements

Experienced operators with a track record of leading teams and managing P&L in mid-to-senior roles. Candidates must be fluent in at least two European languages (ideally Dutch and English) and possess sector expertise in B2B services, healthcare, energy, or logistics.

Benefits

• Full Acquisition Funding
• Monthly Stipend During Search
• Equity Stake