Strong Advocate needed
The CFO of an institutional broker dealer known as fierce competitor with a high profile CEO, unexpectedly resigned to join a hedge fund after less than two years with the company. The firm, one of the last private partnerships on Wall Street and had the reputation of a tough competitor with a difficult and demanding CEO. Although much smaller than many of its competitors, its business was quite complex with numerous partnerships and a complex capital structure so it required a senior financial executive who could handle the financial function end to end.
Our mission:
We needed to find a CFO able to handle the critical product control functions while also possessing the intellectual capability to effectively serve a brilliant but demanding CEO in a complex partnership structure. Therefore, we needed someone with big company, complex product control experience, an ability to manage complex capital structures, who was willing to "buy in" to the partnership and was unfazed by the firm's reputation. Before embarking upon our sourcing efforts, we had two meetings with the CEO, during which we discussed his philosophy regarding the partnership and gathered as much information as possible regarding the firm's growth and ambitions.
We crafted a communications strategy that positioned the role as not suitable for most financial executives because it required a much broader business perspective than most financial executives possessed. We addressed the firm's reputation up front and made clear that the CEO was demanding but also brilliant. We suggested to sources and prospects that potential candidates would self-select and that we didn't need to "sell" the opportunity.
Results:
We completed the assignment in less than 2 months. The successful candidate's career included Big 4, domestic and international financial assignments with bulge bracket investment banks and was, at the time at a successful hedge fund. The individual had the large complex company experience as well as a demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit and experience and the intellect to relate effectively to the CEO.
