Vision Ridge Partners appoints head of portfolio talent

Vision Ridge Partners has appointed Jason O’Briant as head of Portfolio Talent, creating a new role focused on strengthening leadership and organisational capabilities across the sustainable real assets investor’s portfolio companies.

O’Briant will work alongside Vision Ridge’s investment team, portfolio company boards and management teams on senior executive assessment and recruitment, succession planning and organisational design as businesses enter new phases of growth.

He brings more than three decades of experience spanning corporate human resources, private equity and advisory work. O’Briant spent more than 20 years in senior HR and organisational effectiveness positions at large operating companies, including almost 16 years at Pfizer, before moving into the private equity sector.

At Blackstone, where he was managing director of Human Resources, O’Briant worked on talent strategy, organisational design and compensation across new and existing business units. Most recently, he founded O’Briant Advisory, advising private equity-backed companies on senior leadership effectiveness and organisational structure.

At Vision Ridge, he will work closely with PJ Jannuzzi, managing director and head of Asset Management, who joined the firm in 2025.

Justin Goerke, founding partner at Vision Ridge, said the appointment would bring together human capital expertise, private equity experience and operational knowledge to support the firm’s growing portfolio.

O’Briant said he was attracted to Vision Ridge’s focus on building strong management teams as a driver of business performance, adding that he would work with portfolio companies to develop the leadership structures required as they scale.

The appointment comes as private equity firms increasingly expand dedicated portfolio-operations and talent teams, using specialist expertise in areas such as executive recruitment, organisational design and succession planning to drive operational improvements and support value creation beyond the initial investment.

Vision Ridge, which focuses on sustainable real assets, will use the newly created function to embed talent and organisational strategy more closely into its portfolio-management approach.