Carlyle Group Case:
It ended where it began - at the source.

Industry:      Financial Real Estate Investment Group

Client:           A financial services leader specializing in structured financing solutions to middle market companies.

Search:         Director, Construction Loan Administrator

Client Situation:
The client was looking for a “needle in a haystack”. They wanted someone with hands-on, “down and dirty” construction experience—someone who understood the business from the ground up. The person they needed would know everything from how to read soil samples to how to tell when a developer was not being candid. And they had to understand the risks associated with a project before construction began. A person like this must have logged sufficient time in the field—book knowledge and peripheral experience were not enough.

But they also wanted someone with substantial banking experience—someone with fifteen or more years managing construction risk for a financial institution. This was a big job with national scope. Was it possible to find a person who had made the transition from building to banking? It wasn’t easy…and the search would turn out to have a surprise ending.

Carlyle Group, with our extensive network of professional contacts, tapped into our research department and our database. We spoke with people in banking, architecture, engineering, finance, urban planning and construction management. We even found an informal, ad hoc group that met periodically to discuss issues dealing with construction risks. We spoke with people on both coasts and everywhere in-between. Every time we described what we were looking for, people referred us to one particular industry guru, a woman in Texas, who “knew everything and everyone” but didn’t want to relocate.  We went back to her again and again for leads.

It was through these multiple discussions that we realized that she was exactly what we were looking for and that the position would be perfect for her. She had done due diligence reviews for an environmental agency, managed staff, and negotiated with vendors. She had been a national construction loan manager, a construction loan administrator on a regional and national level, and a senior construction risk analyst. And, in addition to her increasingly responsible financial positions, she had worked for a home builder, had a degree in building construction management, and was very confident and comfortable in her own shoes. Most of all, she was used to talking with site inspectors, architects, construction supervisors and contractors. She could tell when they were being straight with her …and when they were not.

The more we talked, the more each of us realized that this was a “perfect match.” Our “go to” source for leads became our “go to” candidate. The client was thrilled. Our candidate now uses her diverse and hard-to-come-by experience to keep construction costs in check, eliminate financial over runs, and insure that our client makes wise real estate investments.