From Corporate Comfort to PE Reality
Transitioning from a corporate-owned environment to a private-equity-backed business is rarely a clean break. For Aevi, it created a period of tension in which the company served two masters: a legacy parent and a PE investor with very different priorities. “Those views don’t necessarily align; or in our case, hardly ever aligned.” Decisions were slowed down, stakeholder management increased, and momentum often became trapped between competing expectations.
Only once Aevi moved fully under PE ownership did the organisation gain speed and clarity. But getting there took longer and demanded far more emotional and operational energy than expected. As Mike put it, “The grass is always greener... and it is greener… but the transition takes much longer than you expect.”
Becoming a CEO: What Changes
In founding Aevi, Mike didn’t initially plan to become CEO. The role emerged gradually as external candidates struggled with Aevi’s complex transitional identity, and eventually shareholders recognised the answer was already in the building.
Personal Expectations
Despite his deep understanding of the product, teams and customers, stepping into the CEO role came with unexpected emotional shifts. The biggest surprise was not operational pressure but human behaviour. “I didn’t expect so many changes… people all of a sudden start to work their agendas.” Conversations changed, even with people he’d known for years, the more people recognised him as CEO and not just Mike.
Decision Making
Mike had to learn to slow down instead of stepping in. What made him effective in commercial and product roles (fast problem-solving and hands-on leadership) became counterproductive. “If I knee-jerk react… what would I break on the other side?”
Conversations At Board Level
Board meetings were initially “nerve-wracking,” but over time, they became a space where structure, transparency and trust were established. The role reshaped Mike, and in turn, he reshaped the organisation.
Culture as Aevi’s Operating System
One of the strongest themes running through Mike’s story is how deeply he values culture as a performance driver. For him, culture dictates speed, resilience and ownership across his business. And it is created not through slogans but through decisions: who stays, who goes, what gets prioritised and what gets ignored.
Aevi’s culture strengthened not in easy moments, but in difficult ones. Mike describes a recent project that had his teams working late, not because they were pressured, but because they believed in the mission. “The team was still busy at 4am on a Saturday… we didn’t ask them. They wanted to.” And protecting that culture meant addressing misalignment quickly. “If you don’t take action, the first people you lose are the good ones.”
To get the culture to this place, Mike’s philosophy is simple: treat people like adults, give them context and trust, and set standards that matter. When people feel valued, equipped and believed in, they elevate each other.
Reflections After a Decade of Transformation
As Mike reflects, his best decision was investing in his own development: coaching, reading, learning and taking time to reflect. Moreover, his greatest regret is not doing it earlier. “You don’t know what you don’t know… I wish I’d had that knowledge sooner.”
As advice to his younger self is deceptively simple: act sooner. Don’t delay fixing something you know isn’t right. Don’t postpone investing in yourself. Don’t put aside the important-but-not-urgent work that ultimately shapes who you are as a leader. “Do the things you know you should do. Just do them.”
A successful career as a CEO never boils down to just one moment. It is a series of decisions, often difficult, that compound over time. Aevi’s story, and Mike's own leadership journey, shows that resilience is built consistently, through choices made long before the results are visible.
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