Directors move before deals do. A board that adds someone with buy-out experience is telling you something a screener sorted by EV/EBITDA never will.
Stuart & Yim (Journal of Financial Economics, 2010) found companies with a director who has prior buy-out board experience are materially more likely to be acquired by private equity. That is an event-prediction claim, not a returns claim — which is precisely why it survives scrutiny.
We do not claim board networks generate alpha. The academic case for that is contested, and we would rather tell you so than sell you a number we cannot defend.