Simon Gray
Founder and Managing Partner
Executive search and fractional leadership for private equity backed software businesses, large cap sponsors and public market leaders in regulated industries.
Focus
- Large Cap Private Equity & Public Markets
- Value Creation, Platform Builds, Integration & Exit Readiness
- Functional Leadership: Product, Engineering, Security, Data & Go To Market
- Highly Discreet, Sponsor Aligned Delivery
Your Partner for Board-Ready Leadership Hiring
KSG supports sponsors, boards and portfolio leadership teams when the mandate is business critical. The work sits at the intersection of strategy and execution, appointing leaders who can drive transformation, scale and durable value creation.
Before founding KSG, Simon led executive talent acquisition globally for high growth enterprise software, including Celonis, where he helped scale leadership through rapid international expansion. This operator lens shapes how KSG assesses leadership fit, speed to impact and team design.
Typical Mandates
- Chief Product Officer & Product Leadership
- Chief Technology Officer & Engineering Leadership
- Chief Information Security Officer
- Chief Revenue Officer & GTM Leadership
- General Manager & Business Unit Leadership
How We Work
- Clear sponsor aligned brief and success profile
- High conviction market mapping and targeted outreach
- Assessment calibrated to value creation priorities
- Shortlists built for pace, quality and cultural fit
- Support through close, onboarding and first ninety days
Investor Snapshot
- Focus: Large-Cap Private Equity & Public Markets
- Sectors: Regulated Enterprise Software across the Public Sector, Healthcare & Financial Services
- Mandates: CTO, CPO, CPTO, CISO, CIO & CDO
- Geography: US, EMEAR, APJC & Emerging Markets
- Engagements: Retained Search, Talent Mapping, Succession Planning & Fractional Leadership
- Large Cap: Typically EV ~$1B+ With EBITDA Of ~$100M
Engagements are conducted with discretion, conflict awareness & sponsor-grade governance
The following representative mandates show how this focus is applied across complex, regulated environments.
Representative Mandates
A selection of recent, anonymised leadership mandates aligned to transformation, scale and exit readiness.
- CTO: Security-Adjacent SaaS, Global, Platform Modernisation
- CPO: Vertical Market Software, Global, Product-Led GTM Repositioning
- CISO: Regulated Financial Services Platform, EMEAR, Risk & Transformation
- GM: Enterprise Platform Business Unit, EMEAR, Performance Turnaround
- CRO: PE-Backed Healthcare SaaS, US/EMEA, Scale phase
Typically engaged on high-impact, confidential leadership appointments requiring discretion and rigour.
Selected Advisory & Operating Experience
Recent senior advisory and operating roles across regulated, private equity-backed and complex enterprise environments.
Advisory work spanning private equity sponsors, portfolio boards, CEOs and executive leadership teams.
A 21+ year track record placing senior Product, Data and Technology leaders for Private Equity-backed and publicly listed B2B enterprise software companies, with deep expertise in AI, security, cloud and regulated industries.
True Search
Partner, Private Equity & Public Markets (Product, Data & Technology)
Jan 2025 – Dec 2025
- Executive search partner to boards, investors and management teams for Director+ to C‑level technology leadership within B2B enterprise SaaS.
- Focus: large-cap Private Equity (EV ~$1B+, EBITDA ~$100M+) and public companies in regulated industries (Public Sector, Healthcare, Financial Services).
- Specialisms: CTO/CPO appointments; Generative AI, Security and Quantum computing.
Riviera Partners
Partner, Private Equity (Product & Engineering)
Oct 2023 – Dec 2024
- Generated ~US$1M first-year revenue; ~50% from self-originated client relationships.
- Placed senior Product and Engineering leaders for large-cap PE-backed and public enterprise SaaS vendors globally.
- Built new relationships with technology innovators, venture capital and private equity investors across international markets.
Celonis
Global Head, Executive Talent Acquisition
Jun 2020 – Sep 2023
- Reported to Chief People Officer; created and executed global executive search strategy across EMEA, Americas and APJC.
- Built and led a team of 6 executive recruiters with cross-functional oversight of 25+ team members.
- Delivered 167 Director+ hires, offsetting ~$14M in agency spend; achieved 32% gender-diverse hiring across 103 leadership appointments.
Infoblox
Head of International Recruiting
Jan 2020 – Jun 2020
- Led talent acquisition for EMEA & APJ; recruiting business partner to SVP International, EMEA President and leadership team.
- Owned international hiring strategy across early career, professional and executive-level roles.
- Advised senior leadership on enterprise customer requirements across regulated and global markets.
Cisco
Executive Recruitment Lead, EMEAR, APJC & CX AMER
Feb 2015 – Dec 2019
- Responsible for VP+ appointments across EMEAR and APJC; partner to regional SVPs, HR VPs and senior leadership teams.
- Managed confidential executive searches including EMEAR CFO, Global VP Digitization and VP Southern Europe.
- Supplier management across tier-1 retained search partners and specialist boutiques; delivered diversity-impact hires across markets.
Salesforce
Divisional Recruitment Lead EMEA - Enterprise Sales
May 2013 – Jan 2015
- Divisional lead for EMEA enterprise sales recruitment; managed 25+ VP-level stakeholders up to EVP.
- Recognized for setting recruiting standards across EMEA; highest performing recruiter in Q2 2014.
- Worked cross-functionally with sales and product leaders to support complex enterprise engagements.