Pitch Best Young PE Manager: Katherine de Kruiff – Torqx Capital Partners

De genomineerden maken dit jaar kans op de M&A Award voor Best Young PE Manager 2023.

 

Name: Katherine de Kruiff
Company: Torqx Capital Partners
Job Description: Analyst
Age: 25

What are the specialties of this talent?
Katherine is quite amazing. The thing that makes her so special is that fact that she is making impact beyond what can be expected from her tenure across the board. To make our case – let us highlight three specific talents. Firstly, Katherine has already proven to be very adept at lead generation and deal sourcing. Already as an intern (!) at Torqx she managed to bring Torqx into contact with an entrepreneur leading to very advanced deal discussions in which Katherine was a key deal ‘partner’. Even though the deal did not work out, this clearly showed her capabilities and charm in sourcing and conversion far beyond what is typical at her tenure. Second, both within the portfolio as well as in transaction processes, Katherine shows very strong leadership skills and remarkable maturity. She is not afraid to make decisions, is considered as a true peer by people with far longer tenures and significantly more experience. Thirdly, she has shown a knack for distinguishing key levers from minor items, allowing her to focus on what is truly important in driving value both during the transaction as well as in portfolio management.

How does the talent distinguish itself from its peers?
The keywords are composure, overview and charisma. From the very beginning Katherine has demonstrated that she understands how the private equity game works and what is needed to create value and drive superior returns. Her understanding of the bigger picture allows her to maintain a helicopter view over multiple (complex) situations at the same time, allowing her to drive more deals (transaction) and value creation projects (portfolio) compared to her peers. Complexity is often the ‘name of the game’ for the typical Torqx deal, and Katherine is very adept at breaking this down into manageable pieces. Even if she does have doubts with respect to key decisions or is (at least inwardly) feeling she is having difficulties to bring things together; she manages to keep full composure, distinguish the important from the more trivial, and involve others where needed. This is evidenced for example by the key role that she has played in the P2P effort on Beter Bed as well as the exit of Sonic, in which Katherine has been an instrumental part of the deal team. In addition, Katherine is very charismatic and likeable, driving conversion in deals by strengthening partnerships and clearly contributing to the likability factor of Torqx as a deal partner (e.g. on the Nexio Projects transaction).

What impact does the talent have within the organization?
In short – Katherine is making Torqx a better and more fun place to work! To start she is a driving force behind on- and off calendar team activities. For example, she has taken the initiative to set up the weekly Torqx-team-run which has become a huge success within the office throughout the ranks from intern to partner. Besides this regular activity she is also instrumental in the organization of more incidental activities including team outings, portfolio days (more on that later!), and alumni events. The latter brings us to the next point, as Katherine has raised the bar on the Torqx recruiting effort. Shortly after joining Torqx she has taken over the analyst and intern recruiting ‘quarterback’ function with great success. She has forged new recruitment partnerships and has given another impetus on the ability of Torqx to attract the best talent. She also keeps up that network by organizing regular alumni drinks where former Torqx interns, former Torqx portfolio interns (TYBAP’ers – more on that later as well), and the Torqx team meet and catch-up.

What impact does the talent have outside the organization?
Besides making a strong and positive impact on each company she works within our portfolio (where we can confidently say that this impact is above and beyond that of her peers), there are two topics that further make Katherine exceptional in driving impact outside of Torqx. First is her relentless drive to make our companies more sustainable, challenging her own portfolio companies to take the next step in their sustainability agendas and truly championing the Torqx ESG policy. Leading our investment on Nexio Projects (our portfolio company active in ESG implementation services), she has immediately taken the opportunity to gather the full portfolio during the ‘Torqx Sustainability Day’ – where executives from across the portfolio received a training on making impact and upcoming CSRD regulation, as well as had the opportunity to engage in sharing challenges and best practices in the sustainability field. Katherine spearheads the Torqx effort in transitioning our portfolio from compliance to impact. Secondly, Katherine has shown to be a true matchmaker, linking her own (student) network to the Torqx portfolio companies. Since 2020 Torqx has developed the TYBAP program (Torqx Young Business Accelerator Program) which matches high performing students to the Torqx portfolio for specific value creation projects. Over the past three years we have completed 40 projects with the TYBAP program, of which a tremendous amount of 10 out of 40 of these students have been sourced directly from Katherine’s network – advancing both the student’s careers as well as the portfolio company’s success.

To what extent does the talent makes the difference to clients?
We have no clients, only partners. That mindset is embodied by Katherine. She has been instrumental in creating a partnership-mindset on Torqx’ Nexio Projects deal, combining a down-to-earth mentality, razor-sharp analytics, charm and charisma, and strong emphatics to effectively work with management teams and entrepreneurs to further build their business. That is what has helped converting this entrepreneurial partnership deal for Torqx. Asking the people that she has worked with across the portfolio “would you take Katherine on your company ski trip” would undoubtedly result in a YES – that is how well she manages to combine the decisive, no-nonsense and demanding nature of a hands-on shareholder such as Torqx with the interpersonal aspect of the job. On top of the ’soft’ there is also the hard skills side – where Katherine already during her internship started to drive superior insight for portfolio companies (e.g. margin improvement at Cable Connectivity Group and internationalization of Sonic), based on her ability to break downand solve complex problems into clear and actionable solutions supported by weekly follow ups driving progress and swift improvement.

Why does the talent deserves this nomination?
Katherine makes Torqx proud – that is why she deserves this nomination. She outperforms on every single aspect of the job, making us forget that she is only several years into her career. Value creation and problem solving, deal making and conversion, leadership and impact – Katherine spikes on everything it takes to be a great investor. She is a PE professional with a very bright future, making her deserve not only the nomination, but also the ultimate win.


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