Business case
Chief Financial Officer
Technology
SCENARIO
Our Client was a private technology company, backed by a leading international PE.
They were just facing an evolution, and the business had space for growth both in terms of positioning, and clearly of leadership.
Their goal was to become a global player, with distinctive positioning. The new set up required a new organizational footprint and a new Executive team: in this context, the new role of CFO was required.
CHALLENGE
The critical aspects of the role were:
- The strong expected impact in terms of culture transformation, process set up, best in class delivery: a strategic partner, a key support to both i) current tech business and related profitability, as well as ii) a scale up driven by Technology platform redesign. This would come through a strong alignment and evaluation message to current management.
- The change management that CFO was expected to co-drive, in close partnership with both the CEO, the CHRO and the CTO: a new operating model, consistent with the scale up mission, was needed and would affect all functions.
- Medium term: the value creation consisted in designing and implementing a new business model, new systems and a stronger global organization, consistently with the designed transformation journey.
STRATEGY
Our approach to this search was built around a fundamental insight: we needed someone with comprehensive financial expertise who could combine traditional, solid CFO competencies with an entrepreneurial mindset and exceptional adaptability.
The ideal candidate would need to demonstrate mastery across the full spectrum of finance functions – from accounting and consolidated financial reporting to controlling, treasury, tax, and M&A – while showing they could thrive in a mid-size company with strong growth potential.
We focused our search on identifying senior profiles with recognized credibility and a proven track record of achievements in high-pressure, scale-up environments. Technology and software industry experience was particularly valuable, as it provided relevant context for the challenges our client was facing.
The behavioural profile was equally important. We needed someone who could quickly onboard, adapt, and make an immediate impact. We were looking for an assertive, results-oriented leader – someone who could not only deliver results but also raise the bar and establish new standards across the organization.
Our search methodology involved mapping candidates within dynamic environments who had experience with newly developed or recently transformed finance functions. This gave us confidence that they understood the challenges of building while scaling and could navigate the complexities of transformation without losing momentum.
RESULTS
The search culminated in the placement of an experienced CFO who met both our expectations and the client’s ambitious requirements. The candidate we identified brought years of progressive experience including technology scale-ups, with a particularly strong background in leading financial transformations also at PE-backed companies. His track record included supporting multiple structured, international corporates through periods of significant growth while maintaining strong profitability metrics.
