Interim Finance & Accounting Leadership · Nationwide

The whole finance suite, interim. In the seat in days, vetted on video first.

Hazeltine provides interim finance executives to private equity portfolio companies, family offices, founder-led companies, and public companies nationwide: CFOs, Chief Accounting Officers, Controllers, VPs of Investor Relations, heads of M&A, and compliance leadership. Our interim leaders specialize in two kinds of problems: transactions (M&A, capital raises, exit preparation) and complex reporting (financial reporting stabilization, due diligence, IPO readiness), with benches anchored by investment banking and Big 4 alumni. Typical engagements run three to twelve months, with the option to run a retained search for your permanent CFO in parallel.

Any seat in the finance suite


The CFO chair gets the headlines, but interim needs rarely stop there. The same bench, the same vetting, for every finance leadership seat:

Interim CFO

The flagship. Transactions, transitions, and everything in this practice.

Interim CAO & Controller

Close stabilization, technical accounting, audit readiness, team leadership beneath a sitting CFO.

Interim CCO

Compliance leadership when regulatory scrutiny, remediation, or a departure leaves the seat exposed.

Interim VP of Investor Relations

Earnings cycles, investor communications, and the street-facing story between permanent hires.

Interim VP / Head of M&A

Deal execution leadership for roll-ups and processes that outpace the corporate development bench.

The roles beneath them

SEC reporting, FP&A, treasury, technical accounting. If it reports into the CFO, we staff it interim.

Two kinds of problems. Two kinds of CFOs.


Most firms will send you "an experienced CFO" and hope for the best. We think that misses the point. The CFO who takes a company through a sale is not the same CFO who takes a company through a restatement. So we built two benches.

Investment Banking Pedigree

Deal Executives

Operators who started their careers modeling deals, raising capital, and sitting across the table from buyers. Bring them in for acquisitions, sell-side processes, capital raises, refinancings, and exit preparation.

Deal Executive situations →
Big 4 Pedigree

Technical Executives

CPAs who have run complex reporting environments, most trained inside PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG. Bring them in for reporting stabilization, audit remediation, due diligence, quality of earnings prep, SEC reporting, and IPO readiness.

Technical Executive situations →

Why the math works


A permanent CFO is a major investment, and a rushed permanent hire is the most expensive mistake a board can make. An interim CFO from our bench can start in days and buys you the time to run the permanent search right.

Zoom intake with your board or sponsor

We record it. It becomes the asset that sells the role.

We match from the bench

You watch structured video interviews before any live call.

In the seat within days

Weekly check-ins with your stakeholders for the life of the engagement.

Optional: permanent search in parallel

Same team, same process, no handoff gap.

Urgency never compromises standards. Every interim leader goes through the same video-vetted evaluation as our retained search candidates.

Interim CFO questions, answered straight


What does an interim CFO cost?

It depends on the depth of experience your situation calls for. We scope every engagement to the situation and walk you through it before we start.

How fast can an interim CFO start?

Days, not months. Because the bench is vetted in advance and every candidate has a recorded structured video interview, you can review, meet, and decide inside a week.

What's the difference between an interim CFO and a fractional CFO?

An interim CFO is full-time and event-driven: a vacancy, a transaction, an audit crisis, an IPO. A fractional CFO is part-time and ongoing. Our interim bench is built for that kind of event-driven work, which is what boards and sponsors need when timing matters.

Do you place interim Controllers too?

Yes. Interim Controllers, Chief Accounting Officers, and VPs of Finance, vetted through the same video process as our interim CFOs.

When should a company bring in an interim CFO?

When the seat opens without warning, when a transaction or audit needs more finance leadership than the team has, or when the board wants time to run a permanent search the right way.

Can the interim CFO become the permanent CFO?

Sometimes, and we structure for that possibility. More often the interim stabilizes the situation while we run a retained search for the permanent hire in parallel. Either way you're covered.

How we reach candidates

We pick up the phone.


A lot of recruiting is LinkedIn InMails and emails sent out in bulk, hoping something sticks. We build a targeted list for every search, and our first outreach is a phone call. The best finance leaders aren't scrolling job boards or talking to five recruiters. They get plenty of messages and very few calls. Across hundreds of searches, the phone call has found our best candidates, the ones who weren't looking. Then the Position Package lets them see the hiring manager and the role on video before the first interview.

Why we pick up the phone →

Need someone in the seat this month?

Call our office at (832) 371-6235.

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