Value Creation in Private Equity

The First 100 Days - From Investment Thesis to Integration

Club Financiero Génova, Madrid

Wednesday, 16 September 2026

Event language: Spanish

Why this evening

The plan is written. Then reality starts.

Every investment thesis is convincing in the investment committee. What decides the return is what happens after closing: who owns the value creation plan, which three things get done first, and how quickly the organisation stops waiting and starts executing.

That is what this evening is built around. No conference programme, no sponsor booths, no bag of brochures. This event brings together in Madrid the people who underwrite the thesis and the people who have to deliver it, and it opens with insights from three of the sharpest voices in Spanish private equity. From there it becomes a working conversation participants share how the same first hundred days played out on their own deals.

The evening is hosted jointly by mandaco, the independent platform behind M&A REVIEW and the German M&A community, and Fintalent.com, the talent and execution partner for private equity and corporate M&A. Together we bring two groups into the same room that rarely meet: the people who own the value creation plan, and the people who have to deliver it.

Who is in the room

Thirty people who own the first hundred days

Portfolio company leadership

CEOs, CFOs and transformation leads of private-equity-backed companies — the people who have to turn a value creation plan into results.

Operating Partners

Portfolio operations and value creation teams who set the agenda for the first hundred days — and stay accountable for it.

Corporate M&A

Heads of M&A, Corporate Development and post-merger integration from corporates buying in the region.

Private Equity

Partners and Investment Directors from local and pan-European funds — the people who underwrote the thesis.

The programme

How the evening runs

The evening moves from ideas to argument to your own questions. Three short talks each open up a different perspective of the first 100 days, then the speakers debate the points where they genuinely disagree. From there the floor becomes yours, and the reception carries the conversation on over food and drinks.

September 16, 2026
7:00 PM to 11:00 PM (CEST)
19:00
Arrival & Welcome Drinks

Take your time arriving, grab a drink, and settle in among familiar faces and new ones.

19:30
Opening Remarks

Ömer F. Güven (Founder, Fintalent) and Stefan Schneider (Founder, mandaco) will kick off the event with a welcome message and brief company introductions. Following the welcome, Olga Yanovskaya (Managing Partner, Fintalent Spain) will set the stage in Spanish, introducing the event's core focus and presenting our speaker lineup.

19:40
Market Perspective: Value Creation Is Moving to the Centre of the Investment Story

Cristian opens with an external view of what he is seeing across PE, M&A, and restructuring. He focuses on how funds are working to protect and improve valuations through operational change, integration, professionalisation, management, digitalisation, pricing, internationalisation, and buy-and-build. He also looks at where the original investment thesis and post-closing reality diverge, and what separates the value creation stories that work from the ones that struggle.

Cristian Reche, Editor at elEconomista

Cristian has been writing for the business section of elEconomista.es since 2022, focusing on private equity fund transactions and restructurings. He holds a degree in journalism and specialises in economics.

19:50
Fund Perspective: From Investment Thesis to the First 100 Days

Drawing on Suma Capital's SC Expansion experience partnering with profitable, founder-led SMEs, Pau shares how an investment thesis becomes a focused, actionable value creation agenda from day one. He looks at:

  • how investors, founders, and management teams align on priorities, governance, and decision-making
  • how they assess organisational capabilities and talent; how they sequence operational and commercial initiatives
  • how they refine the original thesis as deeper business insight emerges.

The session draws out Suma Capital's partnership-led approach to professionalisation and sustainable growth, one that preserves the entrepreneurial strengths of each company while building the capabilities its next stage requires.

Pau Bermúdez, Partner at Suma Capital

Pau co-leads SC Expansion, the firm's growth capital strategy. He has more than 20 years partnering with profitable SMEs on value creation. He previously worked at Baring Private Equity Partners and Oliver Wyman. He holds an MBA from Stanford and a degree from ESADE.

20:00
Portfolio Company Perspective: Executing Value Creation Through Integration

Ignacio brings the operating perspective from SABSEG, where acquisition and integration are recurring parts of the growth model. He focuses on what needs to happen in the days right after an acquisition:

  • how to integrate without destroying the value you just bought
  • what to standardise and what to preserve
  • how talent and client relationships are protected through the change, and
  • how the integration approach itself evolves once you've done it many times over
Ignacio Quesada Ruiz, Head of M&A at SABSEG Group

Ignacio has more than 16 years of M&A experience, with a focus on financial services and insurance. He began his career at KPMG and later AXA International New Markets. Since 2022 he has led M&A at Sabseg, where he has completed 28 acquisitions. In 2024 he was named one of the top 40 under 40 in Spain's insurance sector.

20:10
Moderated Discussion

The same 100 days look different depending on where you sit. Christian, Pau, and Ignacio work through a few questions that are on everyone's mind, challenging each other's perspectives.

  • Where is value creation genuinely happening today?
  • Which parts of the plan need to be clear before closing, and what changes during the first 100 days?
  • Who really owns the value creation plan?
  • When does professionalisation create value, and when can it become disruptive?
  • How much integration is too much integration?
20:30
Audience Discussion

This is the open part of the evening. Bring your own questions, push back on what you heard earlier, or put a situation on the table: a first 100-day call you had to make, a thesis that changed once the deal closed, an integration that went well or badly and why, the moment talent or management turned out to be the thing that mattered. Whatever's actually on your mind about the first 100 days, this is where it gets discussed.

21:00
Networking

The evening stays open for drinks and conversations. Trade the things you can't say from a stage, follow up on a point someone made, and meet the people you'd like to stay in touch with.

Your Hosts

Two networks. One room.

Stefan Schneider, Managing Director, mandaco

Stefan runs mandaco, the platform behind M&A REVIEW, the M&A Excellence Days and the German M&A association BMA. After ten years in consulting and fifteen at Siemens he acquired M&A REVIEW, and is now building it into a European platform - including M&A REVIEW UK.

Ömer F. Güven, CFA, Founder & Managing Director, Fintalent

Ömer founded Fintalent to solve a problem every dealmaker knows: finding the right person for a transaction, fast. Fintalent.com connects private equity funds and corporates with senior M&A and operating talent across Europe and the US.

Olga Yanovskaya, Managing Partner, Fintalent Spain

Olga works with companies and investors on M&A, post-merger integration, business development and strategic growth. With over 20 years of international experience, she has worked across Europe, LATAM and Asia and is based in Madrid, Spain.

About mandaco & Fintalent

 

 

 

mandaco is an independent platform for knowledge, exchange and visibility in the European M&A market. It publishes M&A REVIEW — founded in 1990 at the University of St. Gallen — and LEBENSWERK, runs the M&A Excellence Days and the M&A Award, and hosts the office of the German M&A association (BMA) with more than 400 members. mandaco is operated by M&A Media Services GmbH, Pullach, Germany.

 

 

 

Fintalent.com connects private equity funds, corporates and advisors to a global network of 5,000+ vetted M&A, Integration, Transformation, and Strategic Finance professionals across 52 countries and 20+ industries within 48 hours or less. Fintalent is operated by Fintalent Limited, London, United Kingdom.

Request an invitation

Every seat is confirmed personally.

Tell us who you are and why the first hundred days are on your desk — we will come back to you within three working days. Places are limited to thirty. Attendance is free of charge.

Please note: The event will be conducted entirely in Spanish.

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Good to know

FAQ

Is there a fee?

No. Attendance is free of charge. The evening is hosted by mandaco and fintalent.

Why do I have to apply?

We keep the evening to thirty guests and balance the room between portfolio company leadership, operating partners, corporate M&A and investors. That only works if we look at every request individually.

Can I bring a colleague?

Please ask them to submit their own request — we would rather confirm two people than turn one away at the door.

What is the dress code?

Business attire.

Will there be presentations?

Two short inputs of roughly 25 minutes each, standing. The rest of the evening is yours.

What happens after I request an invitation?

Your request is registered immediately and you receive an automatic confirmation by email. Within three working days we come back to you personally to confirm your seat.

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