Principal-Level COO Leadership
for Institutional Platforms
Building, scaling, fixing, restructuring, and transitioning institutional businesses. Engaged by boards and leadership teams.
30+ yrs
OPERATING EXPERIENCE
$16B → $97B
REAL ASSETS
PLATFORM GROWTH
$145B
ALTERNATIVES AUM
26
FUND LAUNCHES &
MARKET ENTRIES
500+
PROFESSIONALS LED
$1.4B
PLATFORM WIND-DOWN
When COO Experience Matters
Change may begin in one part of the business, but it rarely stays there.
Many know these businesses from the outside. Lawrence Fuchs has run them from the inside, operating at the scale where decisions are most complex and the consequences are real. His experience spans the entire enterprise, not just a single function. That perspective is what consequential situations demand, and it shapes every engagement, led directly by Lawrence from the first conversation through completion.
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Outgrowing Your <br> Current Platform
AUM growth accelerates, a successful Fund I leads to Fund II, new products or strategies are added — and the business model that worked at the prior scale starts to strain. LP expectations, regulatory exposure, staffing, risk, governance, reporting, portfolio management, investment execution, and financial discipline all change at once. Lawrence builds the platform to match the ambition before operating gaps begin to limit growth.
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Launching New Funds, <br> Strategies, and Markets
A new investment vehicle, asset class, strategy, or geography needs more than a thesis. It needs institutional readiness from day one — the team, investment capabilities, operating model, governance, technology, controls, and reporting built to the standard institutional investors expect. Lawrence has built these from scratch and knows what cannot be bolted on later.
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When the Operating Model <br> Becomes a Constraint
An operating model often grows more complex over time. New functions are added, responsibilities are split across teams, systems are layered on, and providers are retained longer than they need to be. The result is rarely failure, but rather friction, duplicated effort, uneven capacity, and unnecessary costs. Lawrence examines the model from end to end, assessing where work sits, which capabilities should be handled internally or externally, and how people, systems, and providers fit together. He then rebuilds the areas that are no longer serving the business.
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Leadership and <br> Organizational Transitions
A senior departure, a succession question, a restructuring, a management reset — each opens a window where investor confidence and the continuity of the business are both at risk. Lawrence stabilizes the organization, holds the team and stakeholders steady, and keeps the platform moving through the change.
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Growth That Hasn’t <br> Reached the Bottom Line
Scale does not automatically become profitability. New funds, products, strategies, and geographies add revenue potential, but they also add people, systems, reporting, controls, and complexity. Lawrence works directly on the platform economics — budgeting, expense and headcount discipline, cost structure, revenue quality, compensation and carried-interest design, and the operating leverage that lets the platform scale faster than its cost base.
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Wind-Downs and <br> Special Situations
Some moments demand disciplined execution under pressure: portfolio rationalization, platform transition, liquidity event, restructuring, or full wind-down. These situations are won or lost on sequencing, governance, communication, and control. Lawrence has run them through completion — protecting value and reputation when the stakes are highest.
Leadership
Lawrence Fuchs
Founder & Managing Partner
Lawrence Fuchs Operating Partners LLC
Lawrence Fuchs has more than 30 years of experience building, running, transforming, improving, and winding down institutional investment platforms across real assets and alternatives.
At JPMorgan Asset Management, Lawrence served as Chief Operating Officer of Global Real Assets and later Global Alternatives, with responsibility across platforms of approximately $97 billion and $145 billion in AUM. His work spanned business execution, portfolio management connectivity, financial performance, operating model design, governance, technology, organizational leadership, and global platform expansion across more than 500 professionals and 21 offices.
He later served as Managing Director, COO and CFO of WeWork Capital Advisors, the approximately $3 billion global real estate platform. He subsequently became its Managing Partner and Board Chair, leading the disciplined wind-down of the $1.4 billion platform through completion — including portfolio divestments, investor communications, governance, staffing, and expense management — with investor interests and business continuity protected throughout.
Across every role, his focus has been consistent: improve how the business performs — expanding capability, increasing efficiency, strengthening financial discipline, and building platforms that grow without adding complexity at the same pace.
JPMorgan Asset Management · WeWork Capital Advisors · Hofstra University, BBA Banking & Finance
Capabilities
Operating work Lawrence leads directly
The work often spans three broad areas: running the business, the economics of the platform, and the situations that carry the most risk. Most engagements involve more than one.
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Enterprise Leadership <br> and Execution
Leadership across every function, carried through to result.
Convert strategic priorities into clear ownership, execution, and measurable results
Align portfolio management, investments, finance, technology, and distribution around one agenda
Remove cross-functional barriers that slow decisions, execution, and growth
Analyze the operating model to determine what works, what no longer does, and what should change
Clarify leadership roles, decision rights, and escalation paths across the enterprise
Bring a senior operating voice to the decisions that carry the most weight
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Platform Economics <br> and Performance
Revenue quality, cost structure, and the margin that survives both.
Strengthen fee structure, revenue quality, and profitability across funds, strategies, and business lines
Rationalize cost structure and operating efficiency against the business being built
Align compensation and carried interest with performance, retention, and profitability across the investment team and the business functions
Sharpen budgeting, forecasting, and the management information leadership relies on
Direct technology, data, and AI investments towards growth, productivity, and operating leverage, not added cost and complexity
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Platform Builds, Transitions, <br> and Special Situations
New funds and platforms built; complex situations seen to completion.
Translate the investment thesis into a business plan, economic model, and launch roadmap
Build institutional readiness before the capital arrives, not after
Integrate new teams, capabilities, and infrastructure as the platform expands or changes
Run the operating side of an acquisition, a sale, or a platform changing hands or changing manager
Design and drive restructurings, leadership transitions, and platform resets under pressure
Direct portfolio rationalizations, liquidity events, and managed wind-downs through completion
How Engagements Work
A defined mandate with direct execution and involvement through completion.
Engagements are structured around a specific business need, a clear executive sponsor, and a defined period of work. Lawrence works directly with the organization from the first conversation through execution and handover.
It starts with the situation. A first conversation with the board, CEO, COO, or CFO: what is happening, what matters most, and whether Lawrence's experience fits.
The mandate is defined before work begins. What must be accomplished, who is involved, what decisions are required, what completion looks like. It usually crosses more than one function.
It runs for a defined period. A monthly retainer with an agreed level of commitment. Two-month minimum, with the term determined by the mandate.
Execution follows approval. Lawrence analyzes, diagnoses, and builds the plan. Implementation begins when the client approves the plan and advances against agreed sign-offs. Decisions stay with the client.
Lawrence works inside the business. Alongside senior leaders and key people across the organization, as the mandate requires — from client offices, traveling when the work calls for it.
The client has direct access throughout. Progress, decisions, risks, and issues are reviewed with the executive sponsor, at a cadence set by the pace of the work.
It ends with the finished work in the client's hands. Decisions, changes, responsibilities, and deliverables transfer to the people who will own them going forward.
Contact
Start a conversation
Lawrence Fuchs Operating Partners engages selectively with institutional asset managers, alternative investment platforms, and complex organizations facing consequential operating decisions. If that describes your situation, submit our contact form to get started.