Situation
Our client, a global company that develops, manufactures and sells its products to industrial customers and retailers, had just appointed a new President & CEO. The company has several production and sales subsidiaries around the world.

The new President & CEO had the economic business background from a successful career in the group and he knew that to achieve outstanding results in the future, he had to change the company’s culture and its employees’ way of economic thinking. The company had not returned positive results for some years. The administrative structure needed to be rationalized and new IT management systems would need to be implemented.

The new President & CEO quickly realized that he urgently needed a new Chief Financial Officer to strengthen and develop the organization, and turned to us for help in finding the right person.

Search
The qualified candidate would be a member of the Group Executive Board and responsible for all financial management, IT and strategic development of all administrative systems in the group. The candidate would have a masters degree in economics and broad experience in financial management of an internationally operating group of companies. Furthermore, the person would have strong experience in cost control management, corporate acquisitions in foreign countries, and in-depth insight into transfer pricing. His/her industrial background and experience would preferably come from manufacturing companies making both consumer and industrial products.

We presented a number of highly qualified candidates who matched the required profile in both educational and career terms. The candidates had important international experience based on several years of secondments within the industry in the USA and Europe.

Results
The new Chief Financial Officer we found to the group had build up an international career in global companies that manufacture and sell their products to the consumer and industrial markets. Also the chosen candidate had a very strong practical background reference in financial management and IT, and in-depth experience in ERP-system implementation. Furthermore, the candidate had proven experience in a comprehensive array of financial functions such as financial control, tax and acquisitions. The person was a good planner and organizer, he was analytical, energetic and business-oriented, and held highly qualified references from previous positions.

The Chief Financial Officer has done a great job and the client is very satisfied, both with the person and with our search process.