Navigating the Transition to Private Equity Ownership

In 2023, Stuart moved from being fully owned by Geopost to private equity investors. This triggered a fundamental shift in strategy: moving away from “growth at all costs” towards cash flow, profitability, and focus.

Cornelia highlighted how this required a complete re-evaluation of priorities, tighter internal communication, and new fundraising approaches. For leaders, these transitions are intense but also clarifying, forcing sharper decisions and alignment.

Takeaway: Ownership changes often reset the playbook. CEOs need to be ready to adapt strategy, communication, and leadership style quickly.

Leadership and Adaptability in Practice

Cornelia emphasised the importance of curiosity and continuous learning. Even as CEO, she makes a deliberate effort to understand every business function, without needing to be the expert in all of them.

She also spoke about adapting leadership style to context. While she prefers a democratic, coaching approach, moments of crisis required her to step into a more directive mode. The ability to flex, without losing sight of vision and values, proved critical in guiding the company through turbulence.

Takeaway: Effective CEOs are not rigid in their leadership style; they flex between coaching and directing depending on what the situation demands.

General Manager vs CEO: What Really Changes

Reflecting on her time as General Manager at TaskRabbit versus her CEO role at Stuart, Cornelia drew clear distinctions.

As GM, she focused mainly on growth and expansion, while support functions like HR, finance, and legal were largely handled by the parent company. As CEO, however, every function becomes your responsibility, including culture. The scope is wider, the stakes higher, and resilience more critical.

Takeaway: The CEO role expands your accountability beyond business metrics to the full ecosystem: people, culture, finance, and compliance.

Building Resilience and Well-being

To sustain herself, Cornelia relies on simple, restorative routines. Walking with an audiobook and gardening, especially tending roses, provide space for creative thinking and recovery. She also credits professional coaching with helping her gain objectivity and better support her team.

Richard noted the science-backed benefits of gardening: instant results, physical movement, and creativity, all proven to improve wellbeing.

Takeaway: Resilience comes not only from grit at work but also from intentional recovery routines and external support such as coaching.

Essential CEO Qualities and Career Advice

For Cornelia, three qualities stand out as essential to success in the CEO role:

• Comfort with decision-making
  
  
• Grit
  
  
• Building high-performing teams
  
  

She compared her leadership philosophy to sports: the CEO’s role is to ensure every team member can play at their best.

Her advice to her younger self? Distinguish between being busy and having impact. True progress often comes from tackling the hardest “hot potatoes” in a company, the critical issues at the core of the business. Those who solve them earn trust and accelerate their careers.

Takeaway: Impactful leadership comes from making tough decisions, building resilient teams, and choosing the hardest problems to solve.

Final Reflections

Cornelia Raportaru’s journey shows that the path to the C-suite is about aligning strengths to context, leading with adaptability, and sustaining resilience. For those aspiring to senior leadership, her reflections serve as a reminder that success is as much about where and how you lead as it is about what you achieve.