Lane McDonald is currently a Managing Director at OMERS. Previously, she has completed a couple terms as a C-level exec of both small and multi-billion dollar firms and early-career academy training in strategy and operations at Bain & Co, American Express, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways.
You’ve led large-scale transformation programs at some of the world’s most complex businesses. How has that experience informed your approach to driving value creation within the OMERS portfolio?
Learning the consulting playbook at Bain and Company early on was extremely valuable – that experience taught me how business works, but perhaps more importantly, how to break down business problems really quickly. That helped me to build pattern recognition which I still build on today: understanding the drivers of what’s really going on and therefore being able to quickly pinpoint the key changes that will move the needle.
My next career step was to work in-house at different large companies. While I loved that the responsibility there was to solve problems and enjoyed the relative (compared to consulting!) permanence of working with the same folks for longer than a one-to-six month sprint, the companies were huge and change happened slowly. So, when I got a headhunter call about private equity operations, I felt like it mixed the best of both worlds: the speed and challenge of consulting, plus the responsibility for execution of working in-house. In the world of PE ops, success is simply whether the team was able to move the needle from an EBITDA perspective with pace, or not.
So, long story long, I have found that those two sets of training set me up really beautifully for what I do today, but an important third leg of the stool is having sat in the seat as a C-level executive. I can very much empathize with management teams that their name is on the door and it’s ultimately their job to get stuff done, and my experience in that seat can help me know where to lean in to offer support and, perhaps equally importantly, when to lean out. Those three pieces make up this job I do as an operating partner supporting management teams. But, like anything else – net net – this role is really just about people: helping leaders execute quickly and well or helping drive change if growth has stalled.
At what point in the investment lifecycle do you typically engage most actively with portfolio companies? And how, if at all, has that evolved in response to market conditions?
Having done this a couple times at a couple places, the short answer is: I’m engaged the whole time. Once our firm seems pretty serious about an investment, our team gets involved in diligence, especially on the commercial side: what does this industry look like, where does this company sit and are we the right – or wrong – owner for this business?
My busiest, most engaged period time-wise is often onboarding, during late due diligence and the first nine months of our partnership. That sets the tone for the entire investment: a ton of time with management, building trust, collectively deciding on the go-forward plan and priorities, then working backwards to identify the foundational things we must achieve in a particular year to hit our collective targets. That involves defining relationship expectations and communication norms, KPIs and meeting cadences, where we can lean in to accelerate timing, where we can lean out to get out of the way… all essentially setting the ground rules that become how you work with the business going forward. Doing this well pays perpetual dividends.
Beyond onboarding, my team can be highly involved in any transitions a business might undergo – strategy adjustments or management changes – and, increasingly, preparing for exit. Today, there’s a lot more emphasis on being tightly buttoned-up well before you’re ready to go to market: building a data lake to quickly answer thousands of investor questions and communicating a clear, data-backed narrative that shows there’s “gas left in the tank” for both the next owner and the one after that. This level of exit preparation hasn’t always been the standard, but it’s become more critical in today’s market and I think it will continue to be going forward.
After you initially build rapport with leadership teams, do you then have a set cadence with the top team or do you primarily see them quarterly during board meetings?
It is definitely helpful to set a regular cadence – the middle market companies we tend to invest behind are “speedboats”, meaning things can change so fast – if I were to only talk to the team once a month or at quarterly board meetings, then there’s a lot we can miss. Financial results are lagging indicators and by the time they’re complete, it can be too late to make change to affect a current month or quarter.
We divide and conquer across our small ops and deal teams: each of us connects with specific parts of the management team on a consistent basis. If there’s nothing to discuss, give the time back, but communication and information expectations must be set up front. While I appreciate it can be time consuming and it can take a beat for management teams to get used to, I don’t apologize for it. We’re stewards of our pensioners’ money. The folks we’re investing for have literally saved lives and run into burning buildings for a living – the work they do is incredibly important – so the least I can do is ensure the investments we’re making on their behalf are going according to plan – and if not, why not? Having worked in this industry for a few different shops, I can say that we at OMERS PE take our responsibility to our pensioners extremely seriously and keep it top of mind – it changes the way we invest.
How do you balance speed and scale when executing transformation strategies under the compressed timelines of a typical PE hold period?
Speed versus scale is a big theme. Speed is vitally important: as I said, these businesses are speedboats, and putting points on the board quickly builds momentum. Getting stuck in an “analysis paralysis” – waiting for 200 pages of perfect detail – means you’ll miss the market. To quote a good friend and former colleague, often “suck it and see” is the best approach, meaning execute, review what went well and poorly, learn and iterate. That builds the muscles of action, reporting, learning and resilience that are foundational in any environment with pace, especially PE.
What attributes in CFOs or leadership teams unlock outsized post-investment value?
This brings up the evolution we’re seeing with private equity CFOs: it’s a similar evolution to what happened with CHROs ten years ago. The best CFOs are themselves and building their teams to be strategic partners embedded with each division to help drive progress in the business. Yes, they must get the basics right – timely, accurate numbers, passing audits – of course. But the standout CFOs there are on the front foot: they surface leading indicators, track data that foreshadows EBITDA impact and advise their partners in operations on where to lean in or pivot. That proactive role, combining financial rigor with strategic insight, is now essential.
What’s in your playbook for building trust quickly with finance teams, particularly during inflection points or crisis moments?
Trust really comes from speaking the same language. Unlike CEOs or COOs, CFOs inherently share the vocabulary of private equity – KPIs, data transparency, on time and accurate deliverables. That “vocab advantage” accelerates credibility.
Our best CFOs are strategic and transparent, especially with bad news. In partnership with their ELTs, they report problems and solutions early and often. In rocky times where there might be issues – nothing ever goes perfectly smoothly – openness and proactive communication build trust fastest.
How do you structure the final 18 month sprint to ensure exit readiness, what levers do you prioritize and how far in advance do you start prepping?
Exit prep begins in diligence: envisioning what the company could be under our ownership and who the natural next owner might be. But table stakes really kick in by 18 months out. At that stage, provided the management team is set, strategy is set and progress is humming along, we then ensure the data lake is clean and built to answer any buyer question instantly. Second, make sure your past and future growth story is clean, clear and the numbers back it up – green shoots of what we’re building right now must be evident. You’re trying to establish a foundation of “promises made, promises kept” with a new owner, to quote one of our CEOs, so a clear, data-backed narrative that a buyer can vet in detail, will boost credibility for the future story. Barring an insane event like COVID, that groundwork is what drives a smooth process.
As private equity leans further into operational value creation, how do you think the operating partner model will evolve over the next five years, and what do funds need to get right from a talent perspective?
I started as an operating partner in 2008, so I’ve seen a couple of iterations of the model. No two operating teams look alike – it’s 1,000 flavors – but at its core, I view an operating partner’s role to act as “jet fuel”: accelerants for management teams. We shouldn’t have to take the wheel (if we do, something has gone terribly wrong!); we should support, spar and sometimes jump in shoulder-to-shoulder when necessary. That core shouldn’t change because it works.
What is evolving is the addition of functional specialists: digital/AI experts, cybersecurity leads and so on. Besides one excellent new leader on our team who has a digital spike first, generalist spike second, broadly we are generalists with a spike in a key function, so we can support across the portfolio. It is incumbent on us to stay curious and continue to learn what works, what doesn’t, why and what’s new. How else can we stay useful? The pace of change in AI is a particularly exciting trend for mid-market PE – both inward cost-facing and revenue-facing – so, as always, this industry keeps you on your toes.
Monika Dowal (SVP at Finatal) interviewed Lane McDonald in July 2025.