Interim CFO / Finance Turnaround Leader | PE-Backed Restructuring, Exit Readiness & Cash Control
This executive brings deep experience as a hands-on CFO and Finance Director operating in businesses that require rapid stabilisation, accurate financial visibility and practical turnaround execution. Their work is focused on understanding the true financial position quickly, rebuilding management information, strengthening cash control and creating finance functions capable of supporting board and investor decision-making. They are particularly valuable where the finance function has lost credibility, reporting is unreliable or the business needs immediate grip.
They have significant private equity experience, having worked across multiple PE-backed portfolio companies in both interim and permanent Group CFO roles. Their experience includes exit preparation, investor reporting, due diligence management, covenant restatement, distressed sale support, debt restructuring, finance transformation and post-acquisition integration. They are comfortable working directly with boards, investors, lenders, advisors and management teams, and understand the pace and transparency required in investor-backed environments.
Well suited to interim CFO, Group CFO, Finance Director or finance turnaround assignments, they bring a direct, resilient and commercially grounded approach. Their ability to take control of complex finance and back-office environments, manage cash under pressure and create clear board-level insight makes them particularly valuable for PE-backed, distressed or acquisition-led businesses requiring urgent financial leadership.
As Group CFO of a PE-backed technical services group, supported a successful exit at £135m, delivering a strong blended investor return and leading finance, due diligence, reporting and integration activity across the group.
Led group-wide transformation across a £100m services business, consolidating 12 business units into two, restructuring finance, HR, IT and fleet, and identifying £1.9m of pro forma overhead savings with further savings identified.
Stabilised a distressed PE-backed manufacturing business through sale preparation, cash management, supplier financing restructure, redundancy process, management reporting rebuild and daily cash control, supporting a successful trade sale and investor exit.
Delivered multiple turnaround finance assignments involving HMRC negotiations, covenant restatements, debtor recovery, stock reduction, gross margin improvement, financial modelling, board pack redesign and finance team rebuilds.
About the Candidate
This interim executive is a highly experienced CFO and finance turnaround specialist with more than 20 years’ experience across private equity-backed, owner-managed and SME environments. They are particularly strong in distressed, fast-moving or under-controlled businesses where finance, cash, reporting and back-office infrastructure need to be stabilised quickly. Their experience spans Group CFO, Finance Director and interim finance leadership roles across manufacturing, construction, engineering, technology, security, public sector services and regulated businesses.
They are most effective in situations requiring hands-on intervention, whether that involves cash management, creditor control, finance function rebuild, due diligence, exit preparation, ERP implementation, shared service centre design, board reporting or operational restructuring. Known as a direct, practical and highly hands-on finance leader, they are comfortable taking ownership beyond finance, often leading IT, HR, payroll, legal, M&A, procurement, fleet and back-office transformation to create control, clarity and value.