33 situations finance leaders and boards walk into. Find yours, see the kind of leader we'd put in the seat and what they'd get done. If one sounds like your week, give us a call.
Illustrative situations, not client engagements.
"Historically, I've been a skeptic when it comes to working with recruiting firms, but Hazeltine completely changed my perception. I felt like he was my partner throughout the entire recruiting process, adding value every step of the way."SVP, PE-backed midstream company
"Chad at Hazeltine has been a great resource. He takes the time to understand what his client needs, finds a list of qualified candidates, and helps his client understand what the recruit is looking for in a new role."CFO, PE-backed energy company
If this is you: You plan to launch a sale process inside 18 months, but KPI reporting is inconsistent and the last audit dragged.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive with investment banking roots who has prepared companies for sale from the inside.
What they'd get done: Rebuild the KPI suite, run a quality of earnings dry run, and build the data room before the bankers are engaged, so the numbers are ready for diligence.
If this is you: Add-on targets keep surfacing, but every LOI stalls in diligence and integration is improvised.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who has run buy-side programs inside PE-backed platforms.
What they'd get done: Build the acquisition playbook: diligence checklists, financing structure, day-one integration plans, and purchase accounting handoffs, so add-ons can close on a repeatable cadence.
If this is you: You're drifting toward a covenant breach with maturities stacking up inside 24 months.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who has negotiated with lenders through more than one cycle.
What they'd get done: Renegotiate the facility, extend maturities, and build the 13-week cash forecast the bank can rely on, with the aim of protecting ownership.
If this is you: The board approved the divestiture, but the division has never produced its own numbers.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who has run carve-outs from both sides of the table.
What they'd get done: Build the carve-out financials, negotiate the transition service agreements, and manage buyer diligence alongside your banker working toward the board's timeline.
If this is you: You're under LOI and the buyer's diligence team is attacking the working capital peg, pushing for a price cut.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who used to be the banker on the other side of that table.
What they'd get done: Rebuild the net working capital analysis, normalize the seasonality story, and defend the peg line by line.
If this is you: A raise is coming and the operating model can't survive an hour with an institutional investor.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who has raised equity and debt from both sides of the table.
What they'd get done: Rebuild the operating model, tighten the unit economics, and run the raise process side by side with the founders.
If this is you: The sale isn't optional, and management can't run the business and the process at the same time.
The person we'd send: An interim Deal Executive who has closed lender-driven processes before.
What they'd get done: Take the entire process workload: data room, lender reporting, management presentations, and buyer Q&A, while your team keeps the business from slipping.
If this is you: Mid-process feedback keeps coming back the same way: strong business, weak story. Second meetings aren't converting.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who has coached management teams through dozens of buyer meetings.
What they'd get done: Rebuild the management presentation around the value creation plan and rehearse the team until they are ready for the room.
If this is you: PE minority capital is on the table, and a decade of commingled personal and business finances is too.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who has prepared founder-led companies for institutional diligence.
What they'd get done: Separate the entities, build clean financials, and prepare the diligence file before the process starts, so the valuation conversation can stay on growth.
If this is you: The new platform has never reported to institutional owners, and the first board meeting is weeks away.
The person we'd send: A Deal Executive who has run the first 100 days after close before.
What they'd get done: Opening balance sheet, purchase accounting, lender reporting cadence, and the sponsor's monthly package, while the permanent CFO search runs in parallel through our retained practice.
If this is you: The next acquisitions need a bigger facility, but reporting across your entities can't support syndication.
The person we'd send: An interim Deal Executive who has syndicated facilities for multi-entity platforms.
What they'd get done: Standardize reporting across the entities and run the lender process with your sponsor, sized for the next six deals, not the last one.
If this is you: You're 12 to 24 months out, the close takes 30 days, and nothing is PCAOB-ready.
The person we'd send: A Big 4-trained Technical Executive who has taken companies public from the inside.
What they'd get done: PCAOB uplift, SOX scoping, the technical memo library, SEC reporting capability, and the hiring plan for your public-company finance team, which we can then recruit.
If this is you: A revenue recognition error surfaced and the company's credibility is on the line.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has run restatements and kept boards calm doing it.
What they'd get done: Scope it, write the memos, work with the auditors from management's side, draft the disclosures, and work toward a clear remediation story.
If this is you: Your first public-company year-end delivered material weaknesses and a frustrated audit committee.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has built controls functions that auditors rely on.
What they'd get done: Control design, documentation, testing cadence, and audit committee reporting, built to work toward clearing the weaknesses.
If this is you: A sale is coming, and the adjustments underneath your EBITDA won't hold at face value.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has prepared and defended sell-side quality of earnings support.
What they'd get done: Document every adjustment, prove the one-time items, and normalize working capital, so you are prepared for the buyer's QoE.
If this is you: The sponsor gets numbers a month late, so every board meeting argues about stale data.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who re-engineers closes for a living.
What they'd get done: Close calendar, checklists, reconciliations, system automation, and a trained team, aimed at a faster close and an earlier sponsor package.
If this is you: The records were built for tax filing, not audit standards, and the audit is already scheduled.
The person we'd send: An interim Technical Executive who has taken companies through their first institutional audits dozens of times.
What they'd get done: Convert the books to GAAP, build the support schedules, and manage the audit process from management's side with the goal of a smooth first year.
If this is you: Convertible notes, warrants, and a SAFE stack are sitting there ahead of a priced round.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive fluent in complex instruments and the memos they require.
What they'd get done: Produce the technical accounting memos and restructure the reporting before investors' accountants arrive, so diligence can focus on the business, not the cleanup.
If this is you: The divestiture requires audited carve-out financials on top of everyone's day jobs.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has taken carve-out financials through audit under deal pressure.
What they'd get done: Allocations, standalone adjustments, auditor coordination, and buyer diligence support, aimed at the timeline the board set.
If this is you: Questions on segment reporting and non-GAAP measures arrived with the CFO seat already stretched thin.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive with SEC reporting scars and comment-letter experience.
What they'd get done: Draft the responses, align the auditors and counsel, rebuild the disclosures, and work toward resolving the comments efficiently.
If this is you: The implementation stalled mid-migration: two systems, no reconciliation, and a nervous sponsor.
The person we'd send: An interim Technical Executive who has rescued system cutovers under audit pressure.
What they'd get done: Stabilize the migration, run parallel reconciliations, re-plan the audit timeline, and take pressure off your finance team.
If this is you: The principals can't see consolidated performance across the holdings, and every advisor works from different numbers.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has built family office reporting from scratch.
What they'd get done: A uniform chart of accounts, intercompany eliminations, and one quarterly package the family and its advisors all work from.
If this is you: Revenue recognition and lease standards threaten to warp the story in the middle of IPO preparation.
The person we'd send: A Technical Executive who has run standard adoptions quietly, more than once.
What they'd get done: Impact assessment, memos, restated comparatives, and investor-ready bridges, aimed at a consistent S-1 story.
If this is you: Two weeks' notice, a lender deadline inside 30 days, and a board that wants a bridge, not a scramble.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO from the bench, video-vetted in advance, in the seat within days.
What they'd get done: Hit the audit and lender deadlines while the retained search for your permanent hire runs in parallel, planned as a handoff instead of a gap.
If this is you: The reporting calendar doesn't pause for a medical leave, and the 10-Q won't file itself.
The person we'd send: An interim technical leader who can run public-company reporting cycles cold.
What they'd get done: Two quarters of on-time filings, close management, and team leadership, then hand the function back in good order.
If this is you: The business needs a real finance leader, and you don't yet know what good looks like.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who has professionalized founder-led companies before.
What they'd get done: Build the reporting, forecasting, and banking relationships first. Then we run the permanent search against a job description proven by the interim's actual work.
If this is you: The controller is gone, and the sponsor no longer trusts the numbers.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who rebuilds credibility from the ledger up.
What they'd get done: Controls, reconciliations, support for the outside auditors' re-examination of the affected periods, and weekly sponsor reporting, working toward a normal sponsor reporting rhythm.
If this is you: Losses turned into a liquidity crisis, and the lender wants a credible plan in weeks, not quarters.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who has traded companies through the trough without a filing.
What they'd get done: The 13-week cash forecast, vendor negotiations, payment prioritization, and weekly lender reporting, aimed at getting you through it and back to refinancing.
If this is you: The function hasn't changed since the seed round, and the board is effectively flying blind.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who has scaled finance functions through hypergrowth.
What they'd get done: Billing operations, revenue reporting, a first real budget, and the hiring plan beneath it, in place before your next diligence event.
If this is you: A year of reconciliation backlog sits under an understaffed team, and your CFO is doing three jobs.
The person we'd send: An interim Controller who clears backlogs for a living.
What they'd get done: Clear the backlog, rebuild the close checklist, and train the team. Then we hire your permanent Controller through retained search.
If this is you: Two missed forecasts have the sponsor quietly weighing a management change.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO who rebuilds forecasting credibility under sponsor scrutiny.
What they'd get done: A bottoms-up model, a rolling reforecast, and a reforecast process built to make budgeting more predictable.
If this is you: Most of the institutional knowledge is about to walk out the door, quietly and all at once.
The person we'd send: A discreet interim CFO who has bridged long-tenure successions.
What they'd get done: Bridge the seat, document what has lived in one person's head, and stabilize reporting while we run a quiet search for the successor.
If this is you: You need the seat filled immediately, and you'd like the option to convert if the fit proves out.
The person we'd send: An interim CFO open to conversion, with the engagement structured for both outcomes.
What they'd get done: Clear evaluation checkpoints at 90 and 180 days. If it converts, the new leader already knows the business.
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