How Have PE Firms "Investment Theses" Changed?

Private equity's theses for CPA+ platforms is increasingly nuanced and increasingly linked to the believability of a firm's organic growth prospects. In this session, Stuart Ferguson explores what today's Investment Committees (ICs) actually underwrite: commercially led organic growth, the maturity of commercial excellence, and—critically—the scalability of the talent engine. He will also frame the portfolio opportunities and risks created by AI and outline an inorganic strategy that moves beyond CPA consolidation into adjacencies where a platform has a defensible "right to win."