Every ad hoc interim CFO search starts from zero, even for funds who’ve done it three times before. Here’s what it looks like to stop treating each vacancy as its own emergency.

The base salary looks similar on paper. It almost never tells you what a CFO is actually being paid to do.

Most CFO searches move slowly for a reason nobody names out loud: the profile was never actually defined. Here’s what a real one requires before a single resume gets reviewed.

Most CEOs assume a retained CFO search runs on autopilot once the contract is signed. What it actually requires from them is the real reason some searches take four months and others take eight.

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.