New to PE: Lee Carlin, CEO, London Drainage Facilities

I’m not new to private equity. I’ve worked alongside PE-backed businesses for much of my career. What I was new to, entirely new to, was stepping into a PE-backed business as CEO, and the distinction matters more than I expected.

Knowing PE from the outside is very different from living it from the inside. And the transition into LDF has been one of the most stretching, rewarding, and genuinely surprising experiences of my professional life.

By nature, I’m fast paced and decisive. I like to move quickly once the facts are in and the analysis is done. What I hadn’t fully appreciated before joining LDF was that a business which has grown substantially, organically, on its own terms, has usually developed its own rhythm, its own logic, and its own way of making decisions. That rhythm isn’t always immediately obvious to someone coming in from outside.

My honest advice? Before you make a single change, take the time to understand what made the business successful in the first place. The processes that look informal from the outside often have real purpose behind them. I wish I’d asked more questions earlier and assumed less.

One of the things I valued most in my early months was the time I spent with Danny and Lucie. Having the founders present during the handover period, available to talk through context, culture, and the thinking behind how things are done, was genuinely invaluable. You learn things in those conversations that simply don’t appear in any document.

Managing that transition well requires active effort. More communication than you think is necessary. More patience with the pace of change. More willingness to understand a different approach before you start questioning it. The businesses that handle founder transitions well tend to have one thing in common: they treat it as a change management process, not just a handover.

I came in with a clear-eyed view of what PE relationships can look like, and I’ll be honest, my experience of working with YFM has reset that benchmark considerably. Open, structured, values-driven, and genuinely focused on building something together rather than just monitoring performance. The business partnering approach they take, including introducing Stuart as Chairman, someone YFM brought in specifically to support the business at this stage of its growth, has been one of the most practically useful aspects of this journey. Having a proactive, challenging, and values-oriented sounding board available when you’re navigating big decisions is worth more than any formal process.

Beyond the day-to-day relationship, one thing I hadn’t anticipated was the breadth of the network that comes with YFM’s involvement. Whether that’s introductions to other portfolio businesses, access to sector expertise, or the wider value enhancement team they bring to bear, it goes well beyond what I’d experienced in other PE environments. My advice: make full use of it. The businesses that get the most from PE backing are usually the ones that treat it as a genuinely collaborative partnership, not a reporting relationship.

Understand the context before you challenge it. Build the relationship with your chairman early and invest in it properly, and if your investor has introduced that person, recognise that’s part of the value they’re bringing to the table. And don’t underestimate the change management work that comes with stepping into someone else’s business, even when it’s clearly the right move for everyone involved.

PE backing at this level is a genuine accelerant. But it works best when the incoming leader takes the time to earn trust, learn the business, and build on what’s already there rather than arriving with all the answers.

Over the next few weeks, Lee will be sharing two more pieces from his experience at LDF: Getting M&A ready: lessons from our first acquisition, looking at what the Blockbusters acquisition taught the team about integration, culture, and the realities of post-deal life — and What I’d tell any founder considering PE for the first time, an outward-facing piece for any founder weighing up whether PE backing is right for them.

No jargon. No theory. Just honest insight from someone who’s been through it.

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