◆ FULCRUM • OPERATING PARTNERS • SPONSOR-TRACK ADVISORY
◆ FULCRUM • OPERATING PARTNERS • SPONSOR-TRACK ADVISORY
Fulcrum Operating Partners is a private equity operating advisory firm. We embed inside portfolio companies to turn the value creation plan into real results, and we stay until the improvement holds.
Co-Founder & Managing Principal
Jacqueline co-founded Fulcrum Operating Partners on a single observation drawn from her own engagements: operating chaos inside a company is almost always a symptom of a constraint one layer up. Her work sits at that layer, in the decision-rights and accountability architecture that determines whether an operating intervention compounds or decays after the engagement ends.
She is typically brought in when a company has outgrown the operating model that got it here. Post-close, when the value creation plan meets an organization that was never built to deliver it. Mid-hold, when the bridge slips against model quarter after quarter with no single line anyone can point to. Or inside a founder-led business where growth has stalled and the leadership team agrees with the plan in the room and does not move on it afterward.
Seventeen years across business development, organizational strategy, and leadership recalibration, including Fortune 100 strategic planning engagements. At Fulcrum she leads the Performance Recalibration and Leadership Alignment practices and authored the Frame phase of the firm’s Portfolio Value Architecture methodology.
Co-Founder & Managing Principal
Faten Bazzi is a Co-Founder and Operating Partner at Fulcrum Operating Partners, the embedded operator who builds operating machinery that runs without her. Where a value creation plan meets the daily reality of running a company, she installs the rhythm that carries it, the cadence, ownership, and follow-through that decide whether an intervention holds or fades once she’s gone. Her conviction is simple: a plan is only as good as the machine built to run it, and the mark of the work is that the machine keeps running after she steps out.
The companies she works with usually have no shortage of strategy. What they lack is an engine. A capable management team moving in every direction except the one the thesis requires. An improvement that shows up for a quarter and slips back the moment attention moves elsewhere. A leadership group that knows exactly what to do and has no shared cadence to turn intent into motion. Faten builds that engine, then hands the company a version of it that outlasts the engagement.
Twelve years of embedded operator practice across operations, organizational execution, and team performance. At Fulcrum she leads the Operating Infrastructure and Execution practices and authored the Floor and Focus phases of the firm’s Portfolio Value Architecture methodology.
Operating Partner
Iliena Hernandez is an Operating Partner at Fulcrum Operating Partners, where she helps private equity portfolio companies and founder-led businesses build the organizational infrastructure required to scale with confidence. Her expertise lies in strengthening the operating systems behind leadership, people, governance, and execution.
She partners with executive teams to solve the organizational challenges that surface during rapid growth, restructuring, leadership transitions, and business transformation. Drawing on experience advising leadership on enterprise risk, workforce strategy, organizational design, compliance, and operational governance, she helps organizations reduce friction, improve accountability, and build the leadership capacity that long-term growth requires.
She has led initiatives across organizational expansion, multi-site operations, executive workforce planning, litigation and personnel strategy, technology implementation, and enterprise-wide improvement. Her ability to align people, processes, and leadership makes her a trusted advisor during periods of change. At Fulcrum, Iliena works alongside private equity firms, portfolio company executives, and founder-led organizations at $10 million or more in revenue to strengthen performance, reduce operational risk, and build businesses capable of sustaining long-term enterprise value.
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