Cardinal Principals is a boutique advisory firm partnering with private-equity sponsors and portfolio-company CEOs on turnarounds, growth strategy, and organizational redesign at mid-market to large-scale industrial companies.
Before anything compounds — sales, margin, retention — the organization has to believe the plan is real. We diagnose the culture honestly and align it to what the business actually needs to win.
Clarity on where to play, how to win, and what to stop doing — translated into decisions a plant manager, sales lead, or engineering director can act on Monday morning.
Organizational redesign, operating-model work, and disciplined execution against a triple-bottom-line scorecard — the unglamorous work that moves EBITDA and sale multiples.
Over a 30+ year career in strategy, operations, and leadership, I’ve led multi-national organizations that collectively created billions in shareholder value.
Today I work with PE sponsors and portfolio-company executives on turnarounds and growth — applying the framework I’ve refined across LORD, Hilti, and two current board seats. I love the hard problems: culture that won’t budge, strategies that won’t translate, operations that won’t scale.
— Joel Rood, Founder
Devised and executed a Triple Bottom Line strategy that delivered $100M+ in sales growth and $60M in EBITDA improvement — contributing directly to the 2019 sale of LORD Corporation.
Grew revenue from $175M to $240M and profit from $10M to $40M in two years— closing the tenure with a London Times “Best Places to Work” recognition.
Turned the business from a $2M loss to $6M profit, with revenue climbing from $35M to $55M over three years.
Honest diagnosis in 30 days, a credible plan in 60, visible traction in 90. We partner with the CEO and sponsor through the hardest stretches — underperforming assets, margin compression, a team that has lost the thread.
Where to play, how to win, and — just as importantly — what to stop doing. Built from commercial reality, not a slide template. Tied to a specific EBITDA thesis and hold-period outcome.
Org structure, operating model, and accountability — redesigned to fit the strategy rather than the reverse. We’ve done it at scale and we know where the failure modes hide.
An experienced operator on call. Monthly cadence, tough questions, candid feedback, pattern-matching from three decades of P&L ownership. For CEOs who want a counterpart, not a consultant deck.
Culture isn’t a workstream — it’s the substrate every other initiative runs on. We help leadership teams do the honest work of naming what’s true, aligning it to strategy, and building the rituals that make change stick. Culture that wins “Best Places to Work” is the same culture that wins the market.