Nicola McQuaid is a leading figure in Yorkshire private equity, with more than 15 years of experience across private equity and corporate finance. Much of her career has focused on working alongside portfolio businesses and management teams, first at NorthEdge and now at YFM Equity Partners.

Nicola joined YFM in April 2025. Since then, YFM has entered another significant chapter, completing its management buyout in early 2026 and setting out ambitious plans for further growth.

But job titles and transaction statistics only tell part of the story.

Nicola brings a rare combination of experience, curiosity and infectious enthusiasm. She talks about businesses, management teams and colleagues with genuine affection and has one of the most positive mindsets in our network. Whether the subject is private equity, leadership, books, AI or the importance of listening properly, the conversation rarely stands still for long.

Every meeting we have with Nicola leaves us feeling positive, energised and better informed. She was a natural choice for our CFO Network interview series.

We talked about what good private equity looks like, what makes businesses and people investable, the critical role of the Chair and why the human element remains at the centre of successful investment.

You joined YFM in April 2025. How would you describe your first year with the business?

The biggest reassurance has been discovering that YFM is exactly the business I thought I was joining.

Jamie Roberts, Managing Partner at YFM, still teases me about the amount of due diligence I did before I joined! The ambition and plans for the business were exciting, but the people and the culture mattered most to me.

I spent a lot of time with the team and spoke to Chairs who had worked with YFM. The feedback was open and balanced rather than simply positive, which gave me confidence. I met a lot of YFMers before joining and wanted the process to work both ways. This was a significant move, and both sides needed to know that it was right.

“After about three months, I felt like I had been there forever.”

That feeling has only deepened. The people at YFM are absolutely marvellous, but they are certainly not clones. There are lots of different personalities and styles, underpinned by a common sense of purpose and drive.

We also went through a ‘Start With Why’ discovery process, drawing on Simon Sinek’s thinking and looking back at the moments when YFM had been at its best. It helped us articulate what it means to be a “YFMer”.

The MBO at the start of this year has created another level of energy. There is a relentless desire to learn, improve and do better, while protecting the qualities that made the business successful in the first place.

My own role has evolved too. I have moved into a portfolio leadership role alongside three colleagues, which has stretched me in new ways.

I love that.

“It would be awful for me to be in a role where you are not stretching yourself, learning new things and sometimes feeling right on the edge of your comfort zone.”

What gives YFM an edge in the current competitive world of private equity?

Partnership.

It is something every private equity firm talks about, but I genuinely believe YFM excels at it.

We collaborate well and are relentless in finding ways through challenges. Opportunities in our segment of the market are rarely perfectly formed. The story is rarely completely polished. You need curiosity and tenacity to look beyond that and understand why there might be a gem underneath.

That requires a genuine relationship with the management team.

We can move quickly when required, but we will also take the time to understand a business properly. It remains management’s plan. Our role is to back them to deliver it while bringing challenge, support and experience.

“We are not heavily transactional. We are relational.”

Our regional model is an important part of that. We have people on the ground building relationships with businesses and advisers in those markets. Reputation matters enormously. You need to behave well, do what you say you will do and hold yourself to a high standard.

We also have breadth across our VCT and buyout strategies, which allows us to work with businesses at different stages of their development. Our VCT strategy typically looks at businesses around £1m ARR that have found product-market fit and need funding to scale. Our buyout strategy typically focuses on businesses with £1m-£3m EBITDA and a plan to grow towards £5m-£10m EBITDA. These are typically businesses taking private equity investment for the first time, and the strategy is sector agnostic. That flexibility is valuable.

When you meet a business considering private equity, what makes you think there is something really interesting here?

People.

The management team is rarely complete when we first meet a business, but there is usually an anchor at the centre of it. That might be a founder, CEO or another senior leader with the vision, ambition and plan to move the business forward.

Just as importantly, they have to be open to partnership.

“We are not interested in people who are just interested in the capital investment.”

We are active investors. That does not mean we run the business; we back management teams to deliver their plans. But we are not passive.

The early stages often involve building the foundations for growth: strengthening the leadership team, investing in people, improving systems and creating the right platform. From there, the focus moves increasingly towards the key value drivers.

The North Star also needs to be clear: what are we trying to build, where are we trying to get to and what needs to happen along the way?

Nobody at YFM is a table-thumper. We respect management teams and work in partnership with them, but that does not mean we are not demanding.

Private equity is intense and the pace is high. It is not right for everybody. The strongest relationships are resilient enough to deal with the difficult periods as well as the successful ones because the journey is rarely linear.

I have described it before as being a little like a marriage - although hopefully a five-to-seven-year one rather than a lifetime!

You talk a lot about the relationship between investor and management. Where does the Chair fit into that?

The Chair can be absolutely critical.

A successful investment relies on trusted relationships. At YFM we have a dedicated portfolio team, which means management teams receive consistent, focused support throughout the investment cycle. Trust develops over time, and a large part of building it is simply doing what you say you are going to do.

Empathy is equally important. You may not have occupied that particular CEO seat, but you have worked alongside enough CEOs to understand how demanding and lonely the role can become. The same applies to the CFO, who can become a real fulcrum of pressure in a PE-backed business.

The Chair adds another vital dimension.

We work extremely hard to get that appointment right because the best Chairs can have a profound impact on both the journey and the eventual outcome.

“A really great Chair sits right at the centre, between the investor and the board.”

They are not simply the investor’s representative and they are not another member of the management team. They understand both perspectives and know when to flex towards either side.

Sometimes a Chair has to tell a CEO: “You are not going to win this one, and this is why.” At other times they need to challenge the investor: “I do not think you have the full picture here.”

It is an incredibly nuanced people role and the EQ has to be high.

The Chair helps maintain alignment between management and investor. The very best create a safe space on both sides, allowing the CEO and investor to speak candidly before helping them find common ground.

I have also learnt an enormous amount personally from the Chairs I have worked with. As an Investment Director, some of my best learning came from Chairs who were prepared to challenge my perspective and show me another way of looking at a situation.

“I like to think they made me a better investor because they expanded my horizons.”

There is no single profile for a great Chair. An earlier-stage scaling business may benefit from somebody who has built, scaled and exited a similar organisation. In a buyout, the management team may already have deep sector expertise and need somebody who can help them professionalise further, navigate the PE environment and maintain alignment.

Every investment is different.

Getting the Chair appointment right can be transformative.

Businesses are being asked to absorb change at a remarkable pace. What gives you confidence about the outlook?

What gives me enormous confidence is watching how people respond.

The leadership toolbox is expanding all the time. We have seen inflation, geopolitics, supply chains, talent, technology and AI all create new challenges. The result, however, is that we are seeing management teams develop a breadth and depth of capability that is genuinely impressive.

People are learning. More importantly, we are learning together.

COVID demonstrated that very clearly. It was extraordinarily difficult, but some outstanding leaders emerged stronger from the experience. AI is another example. It has arrived at extraordinary speed, but businesses are increasingly learning how to embrace it and use it as an enabler.

Nobody has all the answers, and that matters.

Management teams learn from investors. Investors learn from management teams. Businesses learn from one another. We are confronting many of the same challenges at the same time, and there is something powerful about that shared experience.

For me, the outlook is about perennial learning. Whatever comes next - another Budget, another technology or something none of us has anticipated - we have to retain confidence in our ability to adapt.

“We can respond. We can learn. We can manage this.”

Learning from each other is an important part of that. I love reading, but I get just as much from discussing what I have read and hearing how somebody else interpreted it. We try to create the same opportunities across our portfolio by bringing relevant groups together to share experiences and learn from one another.

Listening sits at the heart of that. Technology can actually help if we use it well. If a transcription tool is taking notes, for example, I can focus properly on the person in front of me: their words, body language and the things that might otherwise be missed.

The important balance is making sure technology supports the human skill rather than replacing it.

For someone working in private equity, you come back to people an awful lot.

Because ultimately we deliver through people.

Technology can enable us to do extraordinary things. We all love a spreadsheet, we all love a model and increasingly many of us love AI.

But the human layer remains critical.

“There is no substitute for human empathy, energy, passion and drive.”

That can sometimes be difficult to quantify. It might be the energy in a room, the connection between a team or the instinct that somebody has the determination to make something work.

Systems matter. Data matters. Technology matters. Capital matters.

But businesses ultimately succeed through people.

Finally, for somebody who is thinking about private equity but is not quite sure where to start, what would you say?

Be curious.

One of the things I love about YFM is our willingness to nurture that curiosity, both within our own team and among the people who approach us.

Sometimes somebody simply wants to ask a question or understand what private equity might mean for their business. They may be at the very beginning of the journey and there does not need to be an immediate transaction at the end of the conversation.

We may ultimately not even be the right partner for them.

That is fine.

“If you are curious, reach out and ask the question.”

I am 100% confident that somebody at YFM will take the time to listen, understand and hopefully have a useful conversation.

Sometimes that is all somebody needs to start a new journey.‍