We're a new kind of search firm
We built value creation teams inside leading PE firms. Now we help you design and build yours.
Meet our Team
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Our TEAM
John Zink
Before Taurean
Marlin Equity Partners
Vista Equity Partners
Deloitte
Education
University of Texas, McCombs School of Business, MBA
Indiana University, Kelly School of Business, BS
My career has been about fixing what’s broken and helping colleagues and clients perform at their best. I’ve led teams of 25+ inside PE operating groups at Vista and Marlin, building playbooks and driving change across dozens of companies. The pattern was clear: firms demand clarity from their portfolio companies, but often lack it internally.
Misaligned ops roles and a copy-paste hiring model led to churn and missed potential. I started Taurean to fix that—to elevate how PE operates, by designing roles with purpose and ensuring success beyond the hire.
Ed Richards
Before Taurean
Marlin Equity Partners
EY
Axon Group
Education
Columbia Business School, MBA with Distinction
University of Bristol, BSc
I’ve spent my career building and leading businesses where people are the product. I started in consulting, then helped launch my firm’s U.S. operations, scaling it from startup to $250M and a successful exit. At EY, I grew the private equity operations practice, advising some of the world’s largest firms and their portfolio companies. At Marlin Equity Partners, I led the global portfolio operations team, evolving the operating model and partnering on dozens of portfolio company transformations and leadership transitions.
Along the way, I saw that PE demands performance from its portfolio, but internally it often struggles to build the teams and management systems to deliver it. That is not a failure of intent. Most PE leaders are not born as operators, and few get the guidance or support they need as their firms scale. I started Taurean to solve that problem, helping PE firms build the teams, roles, and ways of working that unlock the firm’s full potential.
Abby Spare
Before Taurean
The Barton Partnership
Hedley May
Centaur Fund Services
Education
Princeton University – B.A., English
Literature
My career has been about placing the talented candidates to roles that enable Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies to perform at their best. I have spent the last few years with The Barton Partnership as their US Portfolio Operations Lead, responsible for executing over 30 searches for firms ranging in size from $4.5B AUM to $450B AUM as they established and developed this function. Through all of those searches, I have seen how critically vital it is that both candidates and clients have a deep understanding of the role and responsibilities in order to accomplish meaningful change.
Long before ever becoming a recruiter, I started my career acting professionally in plays and musicals across the US. After graduating, I moved into a role as an outsourced fund administrator for Private Equity firms and Hedge Funds, where I first developed my real interest in alternative investment funds. While I entered recruiting focusing on senior legal, regulatory, and risk talent for corporates and financial institutions, I quickly pivoted to my current focus and am looking forward to continuing to develop
Contact us
if you’re serious
about...
Increasing the value of your firm
Hiring people you'll never want to lose
Building the firm they'll never want to leave
Because that's what Performance Architects do, and that's who we are