About Us

Vannin Chief of Staff has been retained by BDT & MSD Partners, a distinguished merchant bank headquartered in New York, NY, to identify a Vice President, Regional Development – East.

BDT & MSD Partners is a merchant bank with an advisory and investment platform built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors. The firm is distinguished by its decades of experience advising at the intersection of founders, families, and businesses, as well as by its differentiated capital base and culture of aligned investing. Its funds are managed by its affiliated investment advisors, BDT Capital Partners and MSD Partners. For more information, visit www.bdtmsd.com.

Vice President, Regional Development – East

BDT & MSD Partners is investing in the growth of its East Region franchise, with New York as its anchor and meaningful runway to expand the firm’s presence across the region. The firm is seeking an entrepreneurial, commercially sharp Vice President, Regional Development to help build out this network from the ground up, partnering with the Head of the East Region to originate new relationships, establish the firm’s presence with priority clients and prospects, and lay the groundwork for a durable regional footprint. New York is now the firm’s largest office, yet its merchant banking relationships in the region are an open and largely untapped opportunity. This role is part of a core team being assembled to change that.

Reporting to the Head of the East Region, this person partners closely with regional leadership and coverage professionals to shape relationship strategy, strengthen high-touch client engagement, and drive cross-firm collaboration. The role blends entrepreneurial, big-picture thinking with disciplined execution in a long-term, relationship-oriented organization. It is not a traditional business development or sales role; it is not primarily client-facing or event-driven. It is designed for a commercially minded, operationally rigorous builder who is energized by building something that does not yet exist and who understands that their highest-value contribution is keeping the engine running when the senior relationship owner is in seven meetings.

This position offers a rare opportunity to join a firm at a defining moment for a region. The East is the firm’s largest office and its most underpenetrated market. The VP will help design and execute the East Region’s relationship strategy from scratch, identifying and prioritizing new targets, designing engagement approaches, building the tracking and accountability infrastructure, and ensuring the right internal and external stakeholders are connected at the right moments. Success in this role requires intellectual curiosity, exceptional judgment, the discipline to build and hold process, and the emotional intelligence to operate with and around one of the most pedigreed and fast-moving regional leadership teams in the firm.

This is a full-time, exempt position based onsite in New York, NY, with periodic travel throughout the East Region.

Responsibilities

Regional Relationship Strategy & Partnership:

• Coordinate and drive the build-out and implementation of the East Region commercial strategy in partnership with Regional Leadership.

• Identify new priority client targets and collaborate with regional leadership and coverage professionals to design and execute an engagement roadmap from the ground up.

• Partner with East Region coverage professionals and leadership to optimize the firm’s integrated relationship coverage model, clarifying coverage, priorities, and next steps across shared clients and prospects.

• Develop a holistic understanding of the firm’s relationships in the region and identify and coordinate opportunities for cross-platform collaboration and partnership.

• Strategize and support the execution of high-value engagement opportunities with the firm’s client base, coordinating between coverage professionals and strategies to deliver the whole platform.

• Proactively identify challenges and opportunities, looking around corners to anticipate issues before they arise.

• Collaborate with peers in other regions to share best practices, connect insights, and enhance overall regional development.

Firm Operations:

• Support East Region coverage professionals’ business development efforts across client management and internal operations to ensure seamless execution.

• In partnership with regional leadership, design and develop actionable relationship and business development plans, including clear metrics and KPIs, to evaluate success; utilize this work for regional and firm-level reporting.

• Partner with coverage professionals to support and drive achievement of KPIs.

• Manage East Region DealCloud operations in partnership with Coverage Professionals and Business Development, ensuring accurate relationship mapping, pipeline tracking, and reporting.

• Leverage the firm’s existing systems and tools to ensure consistent follow-up and touchpoints with priority relationships.

• Support the continued evolution of the firm’s client relationship management systems and tools, including the thoughtful adoption of AI-enabled workflows.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Client Engagement:

• Serve as a central connector across the business, helping translate vision into coordinated action across commercial and functional teams.

• Build and sustain strong, trust-based relationships across commercial, operational, and functional teams; act as a unifying force that drives alignment and shared accountability across the region.

• Draft bespoke client communications that reflect the firm’s high-touch approach to relationship management, drawing on appropriate firm resources and expertise.

• Craft presentations and content for meetings with target companies, founders, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals that demonstrate an understanding of their unique needs and the firm’s history with them.

• Play a key role in communicating regional progress and status, and serving as the “connective tissue” across the firm (Merchant Bank, Credit, and Real Estate) with high emotional intelligence and a commitment to positive culture building.

• Coordinate with professionals across the firm to ensure regional clients benefit from the full suite of BDT & MSD’s capabilities, bringing the right internal and external participants into conversations and events.

• Plan and prepare to maximize the effectiveness of Partners and coverage professionals visiting different East Region geographies with key clients and stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7–9 years of experience, ideally in financial services or management consulting.

• 5+ years of project and change management expertise with at least 3+ years of client relationship management or leadership experience.

• Proven experience at a high-growth or entrepreneurial organization in a strategic, business-building, or operational leadership role.

• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to simplify complex concepts for a wide range of audiences.

• Exceptional research and analytical capabilities paired with the strategic thinking required to break down complex problems into actionable frameworks.

• Appetite and aptitude to consistently up-level productivity by utilizing technology and improving processes.

• Discretion and maturity to handle sensitive company information while maintaining strict confidentiality.

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with strong attention to detail and a polished professional presence.

• Advanced proficiency in G Suite and Microsoft Office Suite.

• Fluency with AI tools and a demonstrated interest in applying them to relationship management, research, and workflow improvement.

Preferred Skills & Attributes

• True builder’s mentality: energized by the challenge of creating something new, comfortable operating without a clear playbook, and finds meaning in establishing process and infrastructure where none exists.

• Intellectually curious with strong pattern recognition skills; thrives managing diverse content across multiple industries, clients, and priorities simultaneously, and genuinely wants to understand how businesses and people work.

• Demonstrates a “no job too small” mentality – willing to influence high-level strategy and roll up sleeves for tactical execution, including event logistics and materials preparation.

• High-utility team player excited to help further build a world-class East Region presence for a distinguished platform; does not need to be the frontline relationship owner to find the work meaningful.

• Proven ability to both develop strategy and act as a proxy on behalf of Partners and coverage professionals with other leadership team members and clients.

• Brings a listen-first framework and seeks to deeply understand objectives, with the judgment to know when to drive something independently and when to consult senior leaders.

• Embodies the firm’s guiding principles: client-first, confidentiality, integrity, excellence, teamwork, honesty, and passion; a personal desire to find solutions that help clients attain their objectives.

Compensation: $250,000–$400,000 USD total annual compensation (salary + bonus), commensurate with experience

What are the Benefits of Joining BDT & MSD Partners?

BDT & MSD Partners offers a competitive total compensation package including a performance-based bonus, comprehensive health and wellness benefits, and the opportunity to join a firm that invests meaningfully in career development. This is a rare opportunity to join a growing regional practice at the precise moment it is being built – with the scope to help define what success looks like, alongside one of the most experienced and intellectually driven regional leaders the firm has brought on. The firm is committed to providing employees with the tools, resources, and mentorship needed to thrive in a high-performance, collaborative environment.

What to Expect from Our Selection Process:

We are seeking a trusted partner who can move seamlessly between strategy and execution, with the commercial instincts and relational intelligence to thrive in a world-class merchant banking environment. Our process is designed to assess the whole candidate and find a mutual match. The process includes:

1. Vannin Chief of Staff Predictive Index Assessment*

2. Vannin Chief of Staff Screening: 15-minute phone interview & 30-minute video interview

3. First Conversation: Firm Introduction with BDT & MSD Talent Partner

4. Second and Third Conversations: Meetings with Head of East Region

5. Take-Home Case Study

6. Case Study Presentation

7. In-Person Super Day: New York office with Partners, coverage professionals, and senior stakeholders

8. Final Conversations: CHRO and additional firm leaders as appropriate
   

*Note: Vannin Chief of Staff partners with The Predictive Index to align work styles with the role. All applicants complete this quick, two-question, five-minute assessment—no right or wrong answers—and receive a profile readout.

--> Please take the assessment here as you complete your application.

BDT & MSD Partners is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace where our employees can thrive and be themselves! We welcome all persons into our community. We embrace the diversity of gender, gender identity or expression, race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, physical and mental disabilities, medical condition, genetic characteristic, sexual orientation, marital status, family care or medical leave status, military or veteran status, or perceived membership in any of these groups.