CFO due diligence confirms the numbers are real but rarely asks whether the finance leader can run the function through an ownership change. Here’s how to assess the person before you close.

Sponsors price the role. Candidates price the result. When those two equations don’t line up, a four-month search can collapse in the final week. Here’s how to structure a CFO compensation package that closes the right person.

The numbers were clean enough to close. What happens after is a finance problem first — and the interim CFO who fills the seat decides whether the function gets rebuilt or stays broken for the life of the hold.

CFO succession in PE runs on the hold period, not a corporate timeline. Here’s when to start, how to match the seat to the next phase of the hold, and why the handoff matters as much as the hire.

The CFO hires that fail in PE-backed companies are rarely the ones who failed the interview. They are the ones who passed it cleanly. Here are the red flags that standard private equity CFO interview questions consistently miss — and the structured conversation that surfaces them before the hire.

Selecting an interim CFO is a different exercise from selecting a permanent one — different criteria, different references, different screen. Here’s the framework we use to evaluate interim candidates against the operational reality of the next 90 days.

The CFO who stabilized the business after close may not be the one who can lead it through a buy-and-build, a refinancing, or preparation for exit. Here’s how sponsors can recognize when a portfolio company has outgrown its CFO and what the next hire needs to look like.

Most finance leaders assume the path to a PE CFO role starts with getting noticed. It doesn’t. It starts with knowing what sponsors are actually screening for. Here’s what placed CFOs say made the difference.

Most PE CFO searches don’t stall because of the candidate market. They stall because the process wasn’t ready when it launched. Here’s exactly where the time goes.

Some PE CFO searches close in eight weeks. Others drag on for six months before everyone agrees the hire was wrong. The difference comes down to how well the sponsor and CEO defined what they needed before the search began.