Today’s guest is Michael Drexler, Chief Strategy Officer at Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in closely held, middle-market businesses and helps them scale into professional, process-driven organizations.

Michael’s career spans leadership roles across investment banking, global strategy, and private equity—from Barclays to the World Economic Forum, and Brightstar Capital Partners—giving him a rare perspective on how strategy functions evolve as companies mature from founder-led to institutional scale.

In this conversation, we unpack lessons from Michael’s career leading strategy functions and explore how the head of strategy role transforms along a company’s growth journey.

Things we will cover:

• How strategy evolves from a “chief of staff” role in founder-led companies to a full-fledged internal consulting function
• The mindset shift from advising a single CEO to influencing a broader leadership team
• How to build and sustain an effective strategy team—including Michael’s “2-to-4-year rotation” and “no bad news for two weeks” rules
• Why private equity firms view internal strategy functions differently—and how to reposition your team in a PE environment
• Michael’s four-step framework for prioritizing projects that’s “never failed him once”

From developing consulting-style skillsets inside corporations to balancing neutrality among competing executives, Michael brings clarity and practicality to what it means to be an effective CSO.

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