Who We Are

Pendra partners with private equity firms and PE-backed management teams on talent and organization strategy. We help our clients know the knowable faster by building a shared understanding of what the company and leadership team will need in order to successfully execute on the value creation plan.

We understand what matters when it comes to talent. Without clarity on the talent and roles needed to execute your strategy, performance becomes elusive. We have worked with thousands of PE executives during diligence and the hold period, allowing us to bring precision and experience to identifying, aligning, and accelerating leadership impact.

We exclusively serve private equity. Our team brings direct experience working in PE, hiring in PE, serving on PE boards, and leading PE-backed companies. We have seen what it takes to have a successful PE partnership, the leadership profile needed in this environment, and hidden pitfalls that often get overlooked.

We know that context (not just competence) drives outcomes. We’ve seen great talent fail when not matched with the right resources or operating context. We can spot the dynamics that limit even the strongest executives (e.g., organizational context, sponsor dynamics, or role design) and work as a true partner to management teams to ensure leaders are positioned to execute.

What We Do

Pendra advises private equity firms and management teams on the leadership and organizational levers that drive value creation.

Our work often begins during diligence or shortly after an investment; many clients choose to engage us for further support throughout the investment lifecycle.

  • Engage with management during due diligence to better understand talent and organizational fit to the investment thesis, partnership expectations and executive team.

  • Management-led insights gathered immediately post close or at a key inflection point to identify areas for talent & organization investment and ensure the team and partnership is set up for success.

  • Targeted assessments to evaluate executive candidates, develop current leaders, and build succession plans.

  • Actively partner with management to understand how the company and leadership team are positioned in the run up to exit.

Our Team

  • As a founding partner of Pendra, Danie works closely with private equity CEOs, investors, boards, and executive teams to improve company performance through data-backed talent strategies.

    As both a practitioner and “system builder”, Danie has developed and delivered best practice approaches in human capital due diligence; assessment, selection, and development of top talent; and operationalizing the value creation plan through smart talent strategy. She has assessed hundreds of C-Suite executives during pre-close human capital due diligence and partners with investment teams and portfolio companies around the world post-close.

    Prior to Pendra, Danie was a Principal and founding member of the Portfolio Talent team at The Carlyle Group. Prior to Carlyle, she worked with leadership teams on their most pressing strategic priorities at Boston Consulting Group and Goldman Sachs. She earned her MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and BA from Tufts University

  • Mary Winn Miller is an experienced leadership consultant, talent operator and assessor. She partners with Private Equity investors, boards, and management teams to accelerate business performance through: executive interviewing, leadership development, top team effectiveness, organizational dynamics, and culture building. Mary Winn’s approach relies on her prior operational experiences as both a C-suite strategy leader and a talent operator. She also incorporates her experience from being in-house on the executive leadership team at a Fortune 500 global bank and a scale-up startup.

    Prior to her work with Pendra, Mary Winn was a Senior Principal at ghSMART where she built global experience working with leaders and investors across North America, Europe, and Asia. Mary Winn also previously led talent operations at a high-growth agricultural company, Indigo, where she implemented large-scale talent growth and development initiatives and helped the business scale from 150 to 1000+ employees.

    Earlier in her career she led strategy efforts for the alternatives business at State Street (a Fortune 500 bank), was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and was a product leader at a human capital technology company, where she was a co-inventor of multiple technology patents related to skills assessment.

    Mary Winn holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is based in London.

  • Chris is an experienced leadership consultant, P&L owner and strategist. He is a founding partner of Pendra and works with Private Equity firms, portfolio companies and executives to support value creation through the optimization of talent and organizational health. Leveraging his experience as an operating executive and P&L owner, he brings a practical results focused approach to leadership development.  An experienced assessor, leadership advisor and coach, he has conducted 1,000+ executive assessments and coached numerous leaders working on their own professional development, including CEO-onboarding, CEO coaching, navigating board dynamics, and helping leaders build on their own strengths

    Chris was previously a Partner at ghSMART where he co-led the firm’s Organizational Effectiveness practice and regularly advised senior executives across Private Equity, large Fortune 500 corporations and Hedge funds on executive assessment, coaching, CEO Succession and Organizational Effectiveness.  Chris was previously the President of Ancos, a Private Equity owned company in the polymer industry, where he drove meaningful growth while investing in the re-building of the leadership team.  Earlier in his career he led strategy efforts at WestRock, a Fortune 500 paper and packaging company and was a consultant at McKinsey & Company

    In addition to his work with Pendra, Chris is engaged in developing scalable technology products that can help organizations drive value creation through talent and organizational health.

  • Chris brings deep expertise in strategy and talent development to his role as a founding partner of Pendra. Previously, Chris was Head of Portfolio Talent at Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm that has raised over $26 billion in capital since its inception in 1992. He continues to serve as an operating executive for the firm.

    Prior to Pendra and MDP, Chris was a partner at ghSMART, advising investors, CEOs, and boards on critical talent issues including CEO succession, talent assessment, and team effectiveness. He also was Vice President of Operations at Tallwave, a leading venture-backed accelerator based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Before Tallwave, Chris was a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Earlier in his career, Chris worked in Washington, DC in law and public policy.

    Chris holds a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and a BA in Political Science from Brigham Young University. He currently serves as an independent director on the boards of Money Gram and Great Gray Group.

We’d love to connect with you.

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