the bench

Adam Ross has spent twenty-six years where capital, leadership, and consequence meet. He began in investment banking, advising CEOs, private equity firms, hedge funds, and Fortune 500 leadership teams on roughly $150 billion of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic transactions - first at UBS, then as a founding member of Centerview Partners. He left banking in 2011 to build. Since then he has co-founded, backed, and led companies as CEO, lead investor, board member, and chairman, raising more than $250 million, selling two, and serving on two active boards - including Serena & Lily.

Today Adam advises founders and CEOs at the inflection points that decide a company's trajectory - scaling from founder-led to professionally managed, raising or deploying capital, strengthening a board relationship, or preparing for a sale. He looks at every decision through an ROI lens: on time, capital, attention, and people. Having sat in the operator's chair himself, he works as a direct, confidential thinking partner - the person a leader can be fully honest with because nothing else is at stake.

Specialties:

• Founder and CEO advisory at inflection points - founder-led to professionally managed

• Strategy, ruthless prioritization, and decision-making under pressure

• Fundraising and capital strategy ($250M+ raised across ventures)

• M&A, exits, and strategic transactions

• Board and governance dynamics - CEO–board alignment

Billing: Engagement-based (a fixed package), not hourly. A fixed fee for an initial twelve-session engagement (bi-weekly, hour-long sessions with a 90-minute opener), paid by the company.

Favorite type of client: Founders and CEOs at an inflection point - a business scaling past founder-led, raising or deploying capital, or heading toward a transaction.

Clients Adam is proud of: The work Adam is proudest of rarely makes a headline. He has taken a leadership team from five competing priorities down to two, and watched decisions speed up once the noise was gone. He has helped a CEO step into a newly merged company and lead it with clarity rather than caution, and carried founders through raises that actually closed. The thread is always the same - fewer, sharper calls, and leaders who grow into the moment in front of them.

Something personal about Adam: “Australian-American, born and raised in Sydney on a family winery in the Hunter Valley wine country. He now splits the year between New York and Sydney. An avid golfer, tennis player, and committed traveler -  though the best day still ends the same way: a BBQ, a long dinner, and the people he cares about around the table.”