Technology Operating Partner to Private Equity · Fractional CIO for Mid-Market Companies
Stop Making Technology Decisions
Without a CIO in the Room.
Technology due diligence, post-close IT leadership, and fractional CIO retainers for private equity sponsors — and the mid-market companies they back — who need executive judgment without a full-time hire.
See a sample diligence deliverable →
25+ Years of Technology Leadership · Financial Services Operator
When Vertex CIO Gets Called
Sponsors and management teams engage Vertex CIO when:
- An acquisition moves to LOI and technology risk isn’t understood yet.
- A portfolio company just closed and needs leadership through the first 100 days.
- A platform is preparing for exit and technology needs to be a value story, not a red flag.
- An MSP is billing every month but not delivering strategic value.
- A company has outgrown its IT manager but isn’t ready for a full-time CIO.
- A sponsor needs an independent read because the incumbent vendor grades its own homework.
The Investment Lifecycle
One operator, from diligence through exit.
Vertex CIO covers technology across the full hold. The four engagements below map onto the phases where sponsors and management teams need executive judgment most.
Pre-Close
Diligence
Structured technology assessment before the deal closes.
Post-Close
First 100 Days
Stabilize, sequence the fixes, own the outcomes.
Hold
Fractional CIO
Executive technology leadership on retainer.
Exit / Portfolio
Oversight
Semiannual health checks across the portfolio.
Four Core Engagements
How sponsors and management teams engage Vertex CIO.
Executive-level technology work, priced on the productized engagements and scoped on the strategic ones.
Pre-Close
Technology Due Diligence
Structured assessment of infrastructure, cybersecurity posture, vendor contracts, and IT risk, translated into a prioritized post-close investment plan.
$25K–$45K · 3–4 weeks
Larger and multi-entity deals scoped individually.
Post-Close
Post-Close Technology Leadership
Hands-on leadership through the first 100 days: stabilize, sequence the fixes, own the outcomes.
Fixed fee
Optional retainer to continue.
Hold
Fractional CIO
Board-level technology leadership on retainer: accountability for strategy, major decisions, vendor oversight, and security posture.
$10K–$15K/month
2–3 days per week.
Portfolio-Level
Portfolio Technology Oversight
Semiannual health checks and standing guidance across a sponsor’s portfolio.
Scoped per engagement
Inside every engagement: cybersecurity oversight, MSP oversight, vendor selection, technology roadmap, and IT budget planning. These aren’t separate products — they’re what executive accountability looks like in practice.
Why Vertex CIO
Executive judgment, not a deliverable.
Operator-led, not analysts on a deal
You get one experienced technology operator who sits on management’s side of the table — not a junior team learning your business on your dime.
Both sides of the MSP table
Tom has run managed-services businesses, not just bought from them. That’s the read most advisors can’t give you. Full detail in About Tom below.
Independent — and we mean it literally
Vertex CIO takes no vendor or MSP referral fees, ever. Our only incentive is your outcome. Independence cuts both ways: if the deal has a technology problem you don’t want to hear about, you’ll hear about it from us first.
Tom owns an MSP — 48 Technologies — and it is categorically excluded from every client and portfolio environment Vertex touches. No referral fees, no placement fees, no exceptions. When an MSP decision comes up, you choose from a vendor-neutral shortlist that never includes a firm Tom has an interest in.
Continuity you can count on
One senior operator leads every engagement — no analyst dilution — backed by continuity partners under standing arrangement who can step in and hold your deal timeline if Tom is ever unavailable. Introductions available on request.
25+ years, enterprise to mid-market
Fluent with boards and sponsors, at home in the server room. Global investment banking, managed-services ownership, and executive advisory.
Same framework every engagement
A standard risk register, a 100-day plan, and sponsor-ready reporting — consistent, documented output you can put in front of a board.
Representative Outcomes
The kind of work Vertex CIO has actually done.
Anonymized examples from 25+ years of technology leadership. Named engagements and quantified outcomes added as Vertex-branded work completes.
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Technology diligence — lower-middle-market acquisition
Identified deferred infrastructure investment, unsupported systems, cyber-insurance gaps, and vendor-concentration risk before close; translated the findings into a prioritized post-close investment plan.
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Portfolio company — MSP reset
Evaluated the incumbent provider, contracts, tooling, service levels, and security responsibilities; established executive governance and a remediation sequence.
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Mid-market operator — technology roadmap
Built an 18–36 month capital and operating plan spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud, vendors, and leadership needs.
Want to see what a Vertex CIO deliverable actually looks like?
See a sample diligence deliverable →About Tom
Operator profile.
Vertex CIO is led by Tom Cloud — 25+ years running technology, not advising on it from the outside.
Tom founded 48 Technologies in 2012 and built it into a Dallas–Fort Worth managed services firm serving mid-market clients across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, and SaaS. Before that, he spent 15+ years leading technology inside global investment banks — starting at Lehman Brothers in New York in 1999, then across the Asia-Pacific region from Tokyo, Sydney, and Hong Kong. In Sydney, he led the year-long integration of Grange Securities — an Australian broker-dealer Lehman acquired in 2007 — into the firm’s global infrastructure. He then ran the regional technology transition through the Lehman bankruptcy in September 2008 and the Nomura acquisition of Lehman’s Asia-Pacific franchise that followed.
Vertex CIO Advisory is the natural next step: an operator’s read on technology risk, brought to the deals and portfolio companies where that read pays for itself.
Vertex CIO has been on both sides of the table.
Most advisors have only ever been the buyer or the outside consultant. Tom has also owned and operated the service provider — so when Vertex CIO looks at a portfolio company’s technology budget, it asks the questions an insider knows to ask:
- Is this MSP actually staffed to deliver, or coasting on the contract?
- Are they overselling security you don’t need?
- Are you paying twice for overlapping tools?
- Are the SLAs meaningful, or theater?
- Is internal IT the real problem — or is it the vendor?
- Should the MSP be replaced, or does management just need someone capable of managing it?
That’s unusually practical diligence — and it’s the read most advisory firms can’t give you.
Every engagement runs on the same documented framework, start to finish.
An independent technology executive, on the hook through execution.
Vertex CIO gives sponsors and management teams an independent technology executive who identifies risk before it’s priced in, holds vendors accountable, sets priorities, and stays on the hook through execution.
Book a 30-minute intro call.
The first conversation is always free.
Typical response within 24 hours.