PJ Mcafee

Principal

P.J. McAfee joined Cameron Carmichael in 2020. As Principal, P.J. supports Cameron Carmichael’s private equity, venture capital, or family office client partners and their portfolio companies in the development or advancement of their executive leadership team. This support helps to establish and maintain a foundation for the governance structure that allows these companies to sustainably achieve their goals of building value through buy-and-build formulas, internal growth strategies, or other general value creation strategies. P.J. has more than five years of experience in consulting investor-backed companies on the ways in which they can hire and retain exceptional executive talent within the lower and middle markets. He is passionate about sharing the stories of our clients and their leaders, as well as helping them unlock their potential to increase performance.

Before he joined Cameron Carmichael, P.J. was a member of the recruiting team at Arete Partners, which global search firm Riviera Partners acquired in 2021. Arete Partners was a San Francisco-based executive search firm focused on supporting founders and their venture capital investors in Silicon Valley through the recruitment of product development executives who possessed a rare combination of leadership experience and demonstrated technical achievement for early-stage companies that had high growth potential or had demonstrated high growth. Prior to joining Arete Partners, P.J. led and supported searches within the engineering, industrial, energy, utilities, aerospace & defense, and product manufacturing industries for privately held and publicly traded businesses across the US.

P.J. began his professional career as a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual before transitioning to executive search. Although a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, P.J. earned his degree at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) before moving back to his hometown.

In his spare time, he likes to travel with his wife, Hannah, spend time with friends and family, stay physically active, and participate in anything outdoors. He considers himself to be a lifelong learner.