REASON FOR THE SEARCH

The Private Equity firm, Afinum, had started to expand and needed to look for a new Associate to join them to support the business.

THE PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM

Afinum was established in 2000 and invests in small to medium-sized companies. They are a down-to-earth, casual firm with a very good track record of deals and high deal frequency. The founders have an active involvement in the firm, and they have offices located in Munich, Zurich, Vienna, and Hong Kong. They have a current headcount of 20 employees and have acquired 20 portfolio companies.

THE SEARCH REQUIREMENTS

• German speaker
• University educated
• Have a banking or consulting background
• Strong modeling skills
• The ability and understanding of how to define strategies

WHY RAW SELECTION

Afinum was on the lookout for a new associate to join their team and wanted to find someone who not only fit the search requirements but was also a good cultural fit and had the capacity to develop and move up the business. Therefore, they turned to Raw Selection, proven in completing difficult searches across Europe and North America.

The main challenge during this search for an Associate was that Munich is very competitive in terms of Private Equity firms, and Afinum doesn't have the biggest reputation in the market. It was therefore more difficult to attract top candidates to Afinum rather than another PE firm.

THE PROCESS

To secure the candidate, Raw Selection followed their extensive 15-step process to ensure a great match was found for the vacancy.

Raw Selection went above and beyond for this search for an Associate by going through wider competitors and conducting similar company searches on LinkedIn and Google Maps. Overall, Raw Selection completed a very successful search within 21 days. Afinum now has an Associate to drive the business forward and bring it to new heights.

Raw Selection commences every search by discussing and understanding the full search requirement and brief. Managing Partner Alex Rawlings led the search, working with Executive Search Consultant Lukasz Franka and cooperating with Kerstin Diebenbusch, hiring manager at Afinum. Together, they built out a full picture of the company, the employees, the culture, and exactly the type of profile needed to succeed in the position.

Raw Selection identified an exceptional individual, Janine Shaefer, who was subsequently hired for the role. They followed their extensive 15-step search process, identifying 15 potential profiles, fully evaluating them, and then narrowing the list down to a shortlist of 6, all of whom had been fully interviewed and measured for cultural fit.

THE RESULTS

Raw Selection successfully placed a candidate who matched 100% of the criteria within 21 days.

THE CANDIDATE

As soon as I spoke to Janine, her experience in management consulting working with Private Equity firms on commercial due diligence on both the buy-side and sell-side impressed me. I knew from the start of the search with Afinum that these criteria were a great fit. More importantly, the cultural fit was key. From my discussions with Janine, it became clear that she exceeded the cultural requirements of a low-ego, down-to-earth, team-oriented individual. I was confident she would be a huge success at Afinum.
– Alex Rawlings, Founder of Raw Selection

OUR THOUGHTS ON THE SEARCH

This was an incredibly successful search for both myself at Raw Selection and for Afinum. Germany is a very competitive market in terms of Private Equity firms, and I had never had the opportunity to work with a German firm before. This was our first placement in a competitive German market. Afinum also secured a profile that 100% matched their requirements, and they have settled into the close-knit team nicely.
– Lukasz Franka, Associate at Raw Selection