Finance
How to stop your CFO leaving you for private equity
Highly skilled and ambitious finance chiefs have long been attracted to the dynamism of private equity. In fact, a lack of experience in the industry can be considered a major hindrance to a CFO’s career progression, according to recruitment experts.
“It’s no secret that hardworking and ambitious financial professionals aspire to be a private equity CFO. I’d be very surprised if a candidate stated that they didn’t want to end up there,” says Mike Mesrie, founder and director of executive search firm MDM Resourcing. “It’s long been regarded as the promised land where there’s great riches to be had.”
In recent months, private equity firms have been largely focused on driving value in their existing portfolios and navigating headwinds. The result has been not only fewer deals but a higher turnover of CFOs, says Ben Graham, founder of executive recruitment firm Triton Exec. As a result, “CFO hiring into PE-backed businesses has risen sharply from Q4 2023 and is showing no sign of slowing down.”
It’s not for the faint-hearted, but the potential rewards are significant
With a heightened focus on jump-starting stagnating portfolio performance, demand from private equity for CFOs with the unique skills needed to navigate today’s high inflation and rising interest rates is increasing. “As the need for a successful exit grows, portfolio businesses are being actively encouraged to replace their CFO,” Graham says. “We’ve seen an increase in CFO mandates over the last 6 months.”
Businesses are paying more than ever for top finance talent. And with private equity firms now on the lookout for new CFOs, many of whom are equally eager to join the elusive club, boards and CEOs need to know how to hold onto theirs.
Understanding the pull of private equity
Understanding the nuances of the CFO role in private equity can help businesses better understand the appeal of the job – and start implementing a more effective retention strategy.
While it may be tempting to assume that financial incentives are the main motivating force, there are other equally important factors at play.
The adrenaline rush of working towards an acquisition or a sale is stressful, but exciting. And the shorter stints typically spent in a portfolio company while working towards a deal close provides an end-date that many find refreshing.
“Working in this realm presents a unique opportunity where you feel like you can directly shape the trajectory of the organisation and make tangible, impactful changes,” says Catherina Butler, interim CFO at software business Aryza. “The potential to make an impact stretches far beyond financial metrics, encompassing strategic realignments, talent cultivation, organisational structures and operational efficiencies and processes. It’s not an arena for the faint-hearted, but for those willing to embrace it, the potential rewards are significant and the journey is exciting.”
From a cultural perspective, there is a lot less juggling of personalities and shareholder demands. CFOs will typically work with just one or two sponsors, communicating financial results, working through capital structure issues or M&A opportunities and generally speaking the common language of finance. “There is a sense of alignment that is often lacking in other businesses,” says Harry Hewson, managing director of executive recruitment firm Camino Search. “You’ve got a management team that are all working towards the same goal and are motivated to get to the next stage. Finance chiefs really love that.”
It also demands a different style of leadership. Private equity CFOs have fewer external-facing duties, which can appeal to executives who tend to be more introverted. They aren’t in the spotlight as much so they get to spend more time with their team, adding value to the business. “Basically doing parts of the job they enjoy the most,” says Hewson.
A private equity firm will usually hire a finance chief with a specific goal in mind; whether it is to help execute a complex carve-out or turn around a distressed company. Working in more challenging and niche areas allows CFOs to sharpen their skills and become an experts in their field. “This is something they may not get a chance to do in their current roles,” Hewson adds.
It’s easy to see the attraction of private equity: fast-paced, strong incentives, tax benefits and less public scrutiny. Admittedly, these aspects of the job are hard to compete with. But scratch the surface and a different reality emerges.
The survival rate of CFOs in private equity is notoriously low: most are replaced within 18 months of investment and those able to make it past that point still have an average tenure of 20% less than their listed counterparts, according to accounting firm EY.
“It might sound super glamorous if it goes well. But, realistically, a lot of the time it doesn’t,” Hewson says. There is an opportunity for businesses to use that to their advantage.
The most effective retention strategies
Competition from private equity may be tough, but there are steps that businesses can take to boost CFO retention and strengthen loyalty.
Recognition and tailored reward systems, including competitive salaries and bonuses are “a must” for retaining top financial talent, stresses Doug Baird, CEO at leadership consultancy New Street Consulting Group. More important still, he argues, is the need to design compensation packages that not only reward past performance but incentivise future success. “Offering equity participation through long-term incentive plans or growth schemes is becoming more common. These schemes help to instil a sense of ownership and belonging, giving CFOs a vested interest in the success of the company – and a strong incentive to stay.”
Sustainability and digital transformation are becoming increasingly decisive factors for CFOs when considering a position, Baird adds. “CFOs will be looking to see if a company’s values and missions are clearly aligned with them on this.”
Private equity has long been regarded as the promised land
In Mesrie’s view, CFOs typically become disengaged when they feel underappreciated. Public acknowledgments in company meetings can boost morale and emphasise the value of the CFO to the entire organisation. Equally important is a culture within the C-suite that promotes a collaborative environment through open and honest communication, Mesrie adds. “For CFOs to feel personally and professionally valued, they need to be made to feel part of the team.”
Given how closely they work together, special attention should be given to the relationship between the CEO and CFO, Mesrie stresses. “It needs to be a proper partnership where the CFO is listened to. An overbearing or irrational CEO will quickly leave any finance chief feeling disenchanted, pushing them out the door.”
“The life of a CFO can be a lonely one,” Hewson adds, so anything companies can do to provide additional support and stability is key. Learning and development programmes should be tailored to finance leaders’ individual goals, he says, while flexible working hours and the option to work remotely can help them to manage their demanding roles without sacrificing personal or family time. Hewson believes this could be where businesses have the upper hand over private equity firms which tend to be less amenable to flexible working.
Continue to invest in succession planning
While having a solid retention strategy in place can keep CFOs happy, motivated and away from circling private equity firms, it’s important to manage expectations about the extent to which they will help.
Hewson believes that continuous investment in a CFO succession plan is the most effective way to safeguard financial leadership in the long term.
And yet many businesses are failing to take it seriously: only 26% of UK companies stated that they have a succession plan in place for their C-suite, according to data published by recruitment firm Robert Half. A further 17% said they have an unofficial or informal plan, while the majority (57%) admitted that they do not have any succession plan at all.
This is even more surprising given that CFO turnover is at an all-time high. Over the last 12 months, 20% of FTSE 100 CFOs left their jobs, compared with 13% in 2019, according to data published by Russell Reynolds Associates.
Hewson sees it as a “huge missed opportunity” for businesses to identify, train and develop the next generation of CFOs. “Right now, there is a pool of diverse, young and talented finance professionals that are waiting to step up into CFO positions. They’re hungrier, more motivated and they’ve got a point to prove.”
An empty CFO chair in the C-suite puts businesses at tremendous risk of instability. A failure to plan properly for that possibility is not only putting the business in jeopardy, it is shutting the door on a cohort of new finance leaders.
Three ways to motivate your CFO
Bluespring Wealth Partners has purchased SHP Financial, a firm based in Massachusetts that manages about $2.3bn in assets for mass-affluent and high-net-worth clients.
Financial specifics of the deal remain undisclosed.
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SHP Financial was established in 2003 by Derek L. Gregoire, Matthew C. Peck, and Keith W. Ellis Jr., who began their financial careers together in the insurance sector.
The company employs around 50 staff across three offices in Plymouth, Woburn, and Hyannis. Its team includes seven advisers and 18 other financial services professionals.
The firm is known for providing fiduciary advice and offers services such as its SHP Retirement Road Map, aimed at making retirement planning more accessible to clients.
Peck said: “We are deeply protective of the culture we’ve built over the last two decades and were intentional about choosing a partner we felt could help us fuel SHP’s next stage of growth while helping us remain true to our goals.
“And we found that partner in Bluespring. We believe Bluespring can provide the resources and support needed to grow and invest in our team, while preserving the client experience that defines SHP.”
In 2025, Bluespring added over $6bn in assets under management to its business.
Bluespring president Pradeep Jayaraman commented: “SHP is a team that has already built meaningful scale and is still hungry to grow. That’s what makes this an acceleration story, as opposed to a transition story.
“SHP’s founders are seasoned leaders in the prime of their careers, still deeply engaged in their business, with decades of success yet ahead.
Last month, Bluespring added Coghill Investment Strategies, managing around $600m in assets, to its network.
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Finance
Oregon Democrats’ campaign finance proposal would establish spending limits, push back other provisions
The Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Ore. on Monday, Feb 2, 2026.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
State leaders are trying to stand up a law to massively overhaul Oregon’s campaign finance system.
Now, two years after the original bill’s passage, a new proposal would limit political contributions before the next general election as planned, but give the Secretary of State more time to launch a required system to track spending.
An amended bill, unveiled Monday evening, is shining a spotlight on the divide between the politically powerful labor and business groups who support it and good government advocates who are accusing state leaders of trying to skirt the intent of the original legislation.
House Bill 4018, which saw its first public hearing Tuesday morning, comes as state officials seek to prop up the campaign finance bill passed in 2024. Since then, state leaders have been jockeying over how best to quickly set up the bill for Oregon’s elections. For years, the state has not capped political giving.
State elections officials have warned repeatedly that the legislation from 2024 was flawed and that Oregon was barreling toward a failed implementation. The Oregon Secretary of State says it needs far more money — potentially $25 million — to keep things on schedule.
In addition to a dizzying array of technical changes, the new bill gives the state more time to create an online system to better monitor and track political spending and giving. It would move the start date from 2028 to 2032.
The bill maintains the original plan of capping political donations by businesses, political committees, interest groups, labor unions and other citizens by 2027.
“If our goal is to strengthen trust in democracy, we cannot afford a rollout that undermines confidence in government’s ability to deliver,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in testimony supporting the bill on Tuesday.
“Oregonians deserve campaign finance reform that works, not just on paper, but in practice,” said Read. “They deserve a system that ends unlimited contributions. HB 4018 is a step closer to achieving that goal by preserving the key contribution limits promised to Oregonians while providing a realistic runway for the state to resolve the more complex reporting and transparency issues.”
Rep. Julie Fahey (D-Eugene), right, and Rep. Lucetta (R-McMinnville) attend a legislative preview for the press on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 in Salem, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
House Speaker Julie Fahey, who proposed the bill, believes it “addresses the most urgent needs of our campaign finance system,” a spokesperson for the Lane County Democrat said. For the tracking system, the bill “will give the Secretary of State the time needed to build it carefully, test it thoroughly, and roll it out without risking problems in the middle of a major election.”
The bill has the backing of labor groups such as the Oregon Nurses Association, Oregon AFSCME, Oregon AFL-CIO and the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association. Republican leaders have yet to chime in.
“Oregon is fighting hard for a transparent, robust, and intact democracy against a challenging national landscape from federal threats and corporate power. Fair elections are the foundation of this,” said Harper Haverkamp, of the American Federation of Teachers — Oregon. “The upcoming rollout of recently passed campaign finance reforms is something for us to look forward to — but the rollout must be done right.”
Campaign finance advocates offered a withering view of the proposal on Tuesday, saying they were excluded from discussions around crafting the bill and calling on lawmakers to reject the bill. In written testimony, one of them urged lawmakers to “Stop kicking the can down the road.”
The bill “massively changes [the 2024 bill] to come very close to making the contribution limits and disclosure requirements illusory,” Dan Meek, a Portland attorney and campaign finance reform advocate, said in Tuesday’s public hearing.
Among other things, he added, the bill would delay disclosure requirements by three years. It would also only restrict a group’s contribution to a campaign if the Secretary of State’s office determined that a single person had created them with the intent of evading limits, “which will be very difficult to prove,” he noted.
“This is another stealth attempt by legislative leadership and the big campaign contributors to do an end run around on campaign finance reform, before it’s set to be implemented,” Kate Titus, the executive director of Common Cause Oregon, said in a statement to OPB Tuesday.
The bill is scheduled for another public hearing on Thursday.
Latest research from Basware shows majority are investing in technology, but ROI remains elusive
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Calls from boards of directors and executive leadership to “do something with AI” are growing louder, and finance is struggling to answer them. According to a new report from Basware, a global leader in Invoice Lifecycle Management, nearly half of CFOs say they feel increased pressure from company leadership to implement AI across their operations. And while many are investing in agentic AI in response, a majority admit they are largely experimenting with the technology and flying blind when it comes to putting it into practice and delivering ROI.
As revealed in AI to ROI: Unlocking Value with AI Agents report, a global survey conducted by FT Longitude with support from Basware, six in ten (61%) of 200 finance leaders across the US, UK, France and Germany polled say their organization rolled out custom-developed AI agents largely as an experiment, simply to see what the technology could do. And one in four admit they still don’t fully understand what an AI agent looks like in practice.
It’s a vexing problem, and as they look to the year ahead, CFOs need to focus on solving it.
The Rise of Agentic AI
Two-thirds (66%) of respondents to the Basware survey say there is more hype around agentic AI than any previous technology shift, yet three-quarters are still figuring out the best way to leverage it. And the C-Suite is losing patience.
“We’ve reached a tipping point where boards and CEOs are done with AI experiments and expecting real results,” said Jason Kurtz, CEO, Basware.
And as the Basware research makes clear, agentic AI is the key to delivering them. While overall AI return on investment (ROI) rose from 35% to 67% in the last year, survey data shows agentic AI far – and companies using third-party solutions already embedded with AI agents – outperformed all categories with an average ROI of 80%.
Scoring Easy Wins
“Finance teams that focus on areas where AI can have immediate impact, such as automating accounts payable, improving compliance, reducing errors, and detecting fraud, can deliver these results,” Kurtz adds.
Respondents to the Basware survey confirm this, with 72% saying they see accounts payable (AP)—often the most manual and data-heavy part of the finance function—as the most obvious starting point for agentic AI. And it’s an area where Basware can deliver quick wins. At the end of the day, AP is a data problem. and Basware is solving it with AI. Over the last 40 years, the company has built the industry’s largest set of structured, high-quality AP data and processed more than two billion invoices. And it’s applying AI to this data to train its AI agents and deliver context-aware predictions, enabling finance teams to spend less time analyzing and more time deciding and acting. Other areas where they will likely deploy agentic AI:
- Automating invoice capture and data entry (30%)
- Cash flow management (24%)
- Scenario modeling and forecasting (23%)
- Lower operating costs (21%)
- Running real-time risk and market analysis (20%)
- Automating financial reporting and reconciliations (20%)
- Streamlining compliance checks and regulatory filings (19%)
- Detecting duplicate invoices or potential fraud (19%)
- Reducing overpayments or duplicate payments (18%)
Build Vs Buy
Organizations that leverage intelligent platforms like Basware’s Invoice Lifecycle Management that are embedded with agentic AI and uniquely designed to drive these processes can deliver the results they’re leadership is expecting with greater speed and cost efficiency than cobbling together point solutions or attempting to build their own.
Take InvoiceAI, a solution delivered on the platform that intelligently and securely applies generative and agentic AI, natural language processing and deep learning across the entire invoice lifecycle. Leveraging embedded AI Agents, the solution goes beyond simple automation to autonomously processes invoices and deliver game-changing improvements in speed, accuracy and compliance.
From Hype to Reality – and ROI
But achieving these results requires clear strategies and governance to drive them.
According to the Basware survey, nearly three quarters (71%) of finance teams seeing the weakest returns from AI reported acting under pressure and without direction, compared to 13% of teams achieving strong ROI.
“Our research confirms what we see every day: AI for AI’s sake is a waste,” Kurtz said. “Agentic AI can deliver transformational results, but only when it is deployed with purpose and discipline. And that means embedding AI directly into finance workflows, grounding agents in trusted data, and governing them like digital employees. This is how AI moves from innovation to impact. And this is what Basware delivers for our customers.”
To learn more about Basware’s Invoice Lifecycle Management platform and the value it is delivering to enterprises around the globe, click here.
About Basware
Basware is how the world’s best finance teams gain complete control of every invoice, every time. Our Intelligent Invoice Lifecycle Management Platform ensures end-to-end efficiency, compliance and control for all invoice transactions. Powered by the world’s most sophisticated invoice-centric AI – trained on over 2 billion invoices – Basware’s Intelligent Automation drives real ROI by transforming finance operations. We serve 6,500+ customers globally and are trusted by industry leaders including DHL, Heineken and Sony. Fueled by 40 years of specialized expertise with $10+ trillion in total spend handled, we are pioneering the next era of finance. With Basware, now it all just happens.
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2889805/Basware_x_FT_Longitude_Agentic_AI_Report.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2398888/Basware_logo.jpg
SOURCE Basware
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