Background
AAB provides Audit, Accounting, Tax, Payroll, HR and Advisory solutions to clients across the United Kingdom, Ireland and international markets.
The firm’s trajectory accelerated in 2021, when August Equity acquired its first stake and AAB embarked on a period of rapid expansion that saw the business triple in size, complete sixteen acquisitions, broaden its UK and Ireland footprint and scale beyond 1,000 staff.
In July 2025, Goldman Sachs Alternatives agreed to acquire AAB from August Equity, opening a new chapter underpinned by a clear strategic intent to support continued momentum through deeper investment in technology, AI, automation and further M&A.
The challenge
Professional Services firms entering their next phase of PE-backed growth face a familiar inflection point, where the levers that drove the previous chapter of expansion give way to a new set of demands centred on operational excellence, technology-enabled differentiation and the structured integration of acquired businesses. For AAB, that meant identifying a leader capable of demonstrating the value that technology can bring to enterprise value creation, while simultaneously taking ownership of the operational disciplines that underpin scalable growth.
The role was initially scoped as a Chief Technology Officer with the potential to evolve into a Chief Operating Officer remit over time, reflecting the leadership team’s view that the right candidate would need to marry technology depth with the commercial fluency to drive revenue expansion, structure M&A integration, and embed operational efficiency at pace.
The appointment carried significant weight in shaping both employee and client experiences and, as such, AAB sought a leader who could bring seamless, data-enabled service delivery to life while remaining commercially minded, technically literate, and credible at board level.
Solution
La Fosse Executive led a targeted search focused on leaders with proven experience in PE-backed environments and a track record of supporting successful exits, prioritising candidates whose backgrounds blended CIO and COO remits to ensure both technical depth and commercial acumen.
Sector coverage spanned Accounting, Consulting and Advisory, Law, Insurance, Wealth Management and the wider Financial and Business Services markets, with recent deal tracking across the Professional Services landscape prioritising organisations of comparable size, scale and complexity.
Result
AAB appointed Jon Grainger, who joined from DWF, a PE-backed Legal Services business, and whose blend of commercial acumen, familiarity with PE-backed Professional Services environments and focus on AI as a driver of business value set him apart throughout the process.
As a result of the rigorous Executive Search and assessment process, combined with Jon’s breadth of experience, Emma Lancaster, AAB’s Chief Executive Officer, appointed him directly as Chief Operating Officer, with a remit spanning both technology and business operations, focusing on translating the firm’s growth ambitions into a scalable delivery roadmap and measurable performance.
Jon joined the business in April 2026 and is already leading cross-functional initiatives across operational excellence, workforce planning, governance, organisational design, AI and automation acceleration, and transformation delivery.
The search was completed in 68 days from briefing to offer acceptance, and the breadth of the appointment reflects both the calibre of the candidate identified and the value of remaining open to flexing the brief when an exceptional leader emerges beyond the original specification.
