PE M&A Activity ↑12.4%│ Industrial EBITDA Multiples 7.2×│ B2B Buyer Trust Index ↓31%│ SEO Click-Through Rate ↓44%│ LMM Deal Volume ↑8.1%│ Sales Hire Failure Rate 67%│ Organic Growth Gap 2.3× plan│ PE Dry Powder $2.59T│ PE M&A Activity ↑12.4%│ Industrial EBITDA Multiples 7.2×│ B2B Buyer Trust Index ↓31%│ SEO Click-Through Rate ↓44%│ LMM Deal Volume ↑8.1%│ Sales Hire Failure Rate 67%│ Organic Growth Gap 2.3× plan│ PE Dry Powder $2.59T│

Ed Marsh Consulting · Board Advisory

Independent Director and Board Advisor for Industrial Companies.

Ed serves on the boards of public and privately held industrial companies, and advises the boards not ready to add a seat. He arrives certified, prepared, and ready to fill the governance and growth gaps a skills matrix analysis exposes.

Board requirements have changed. Public boards face regulatory and investor demands. Private and PE backed boards carry real governance and value creation mandates. Ed brings the strategy, revenue, risk, and talent perspective those boards are short on.

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See the boardroom cases

"It used to be that CEO clones and buddies sat on boards to largely rubber-stamp decisions. Today an independent director plays a different role." Ed Marsh, Independent Director and Board Advisor

Ed Marsh, organic revenue growth consultant, in a navy blazer

Skills for Today's Board Demands

Whether the company is publicly traded or privately held, the independent director's job has moved from rubber stamp to real contribution.

Nomination and Governance Committees run a skills matrix to find what the board is missing. Ed is often the answer to more than one row.

Charcoal illustration of an industrial company boardroom with an independent director set apart from the group and a board skills matrix on the wall showing capability gaps

Public boards answer to regulators and investors. Private and PE backed boards answer to owners, lenders, and a value creation clock. In both, the independent director is expected to bring a perspective the inside team cannot, and to bring it with rigor.

Ed holds the Private Directors Association Certificate in Private Company Governance and the NACD Directorship Certification. He is also a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and the International Executive Resource Group (IERG).

As a consultant to industrial companies and their sponsors, he pairs those governance credentials with an operator's read on strategy, revenue growth, and risk. The result is a director who contributes on the issues that decide whether an industrial company grows, stalls, or gets caught by a shift it did not see coming.

Where Ed Contributes on Day One

The gaps a skills matrix analysis tends to expose, and where Ed arrives ready to add value.

Strategy. Thinks, writes, and advises on digital disruption, business model evolution, and revenue growth: IoT, Manufacturing 4.0, additive manufacturing, the sharing economy, and cloud based models.

Global experience. Export Advisor to American Express. Founded and owned a company in India. Partnered with a German manufacturer in the US, with market experience across regions.

Digital and social media. Advises businesses on leveraging digital tools and social platforms to build real business, not blabber.

Dynamic and passive risk. A read on lurking risks at the intersection of business activities, such as FCPA and social media, plus the competitive, disruptive, and opportunity cost risks of inaction.

Revenue growth strategy. Builds growth strategies and tactics matched to rapidly changing buyer expectations in complex industrial sales.

Value beyond EBITDA. Creates value through process IP, strategic data assets, and opportunities uncovered in disruption and business model evolution.

Talent management. A former Airborne Ranger and US Army infantry officer who understands the individual and organizational value of professional development and succession planning.

Also on the table. Industrial manufacturing, security and defense, and technology experience. A deep read on the evolving sales channel. Disciplined and prepared. A Service Disabled Veteran.

Boardroom Cases

Two cases Ed authored on how independent directors change outcomes in middle-market industrial manufacturing firms.

Written as boardroom scenarios, not testimonials. Each comes with a downloadable case you can read on your own or hand to your board.

Case One

Inertia, Tradition, and a Family Business Collide

You chair the board of a family dominated company. An outside director is providing exactly the perspective you hoped she would provide, and now that is a problem.

Robbins Industries, a privately held middle market machinery company, brought in an experienced executive to run it, on one condition: that the board add several critical skill sets through new independent directors. Now one of those directors is at loggerheads with long time executives. How does the chair resolve it?

Read the case

Case Two

Subscription Models Meet a Sales Team That Won't Budge

The strategy that got you here is decaying. And there is a new model that could destroy your business.

Sigma Industrial Technologies makes machinery for food processing. Rising generation buyers want Product as a Service solutions that combine machines, support, and data. Sigma's sales team resists subscription models and prefers traditional capital equipment sales. Now prime competitor FEI may be making the first move. Can the company change? Should it?

Read the case Listen to the discussion

Both cases were authored by Ed Marsh, an NACD Directorship Certified independent director, and presented with Board Options, a retained search firm for independent directors run by Larry Stybel and Maryanne Peabody.

Book Ed · No Pitch

Talk to Ed About Your Board

An honest read on the board seat, the skills gap, and whether Ed is the right addition. If he is not, he will tell you who is.

An honest read on the board seat.

No pitch and no proposal cycle. Ed asks sharp questions about the board's composition, the skills matrix gaps, and the governance and growth issues in front of you, and gives you an honest read on where an independent director can help.

Ed's read on the governance and growth gaps a skills matrix exposes
Whether an independent director or an advisory arrangement fits better
If Ed is not the right addition, he will tell you who is

Ed Marsh

Consultant · Director · Advisor · Author · Veteran

✉ Prefer to leave Ed a message instead? NACD Directorship Certified · PDA Certificate in Private Company Governance ▼

Ed reads every message personally and usually responds within 24 hours.