Practice 01 / Finance and accounting
CFO and finance leadership search.
The spine of the firm. We find CFOs and the leaders around them for companies from $50M to $500M in revenue.
Steward Well runs retained searches for CFOs and the office of the CFO at founder-led, sponsor-backed and private-equity-owned companies from $50M to $500M in revenue. A partner leads every search from start to finish, with a calibrated shortlist in 21 days and a written 12-month guarantee.
Which finance roles does the practice cover?
We cover the whole office of the CFO, seat by seat:
- Chief Financial Officer, including the first strategic CFO a company has ever had
- VP Finance, often the bridge between a controller and a CFO
- Controller, the owner of the close, the controls and the audit
- Chief Accounting Officer, when reporting gets more complex
- SaaS CFO, for recurring-revenue businesses
- Portfolio company CFOs for sponsors, covered in our private equity practice
Why does a $50M to $500M company need a different kind of CFO search?
Companies in this band sit in an awkward spot. They're too big for a bookkeeper and a part-time advisor. They're often too small to attract a CFO the way a large public company does.
The right leader here has to do two jobs at once. They build the plan, raise or manage capital and sit with the board. They also fix the close, clean up the systems and hire the team. Many strong CFOs have only done one of those two jobs.
So we test for both. Every candidate gets scored against a success profile written for your stage, not a generic CFO job spec.
What does a CFO cost at this size?
Pay depends on revenue, ownership and the equity on offer. One public survey of 312 sitting CFOs found these as the most common ranges:
| Company revenue | Most common base | Most common target bonus |
|---|---|---|
| $50M to $99M | $250K to $299K | 40% to 49% of base |
| $100M to $499M | $350K to $399K | 50% to 59% of base |
Source: JM Search 2025 CFO Compensation and Insights Study. These are survey ranges, not a quote for any single seat. Equity is extra and varies widely.
For finance managers as a whole, the BLS reports a 2025 median pay of $166,570 a year. A CFO at this size usually sits well above that median. Our compensation brief has more detail.
When should you start a finance leadership search?
Most companies start too late. The signs show up a year before the hire does:
- The board or a lender asks for numbers the team can't produce on time.
- The month-end close keeps slipping past day ten.
- A sale, a recap or new debt is on the calendar within 18 months.
- The founder is still the real CFO, and it's eating their week.
If two of those are true, take the readiness diagnostic. It shows what to fix before the search, so the search doesn't stall in week six.
How does a Steward Well search run?
- Discovery. A partner meets the owner, the board or sponsor, and the team the leader will inherit.
- A written success profile. What this person must have done by month twelve, agreed before we call anyone.
- An original market map. Built for your seat, not pulled from a stack of resumes.
- A calibrated shortlist in 21 days. Qualified, interested and assessed against the profile.
- Scored interviews, deep references and offer support. The search closes in 45 to 90 days.
- Twelve months of check-ins, backed by a written 12-month guarantee.
A partner runs every step. You never get handed to a junior team after the pitch. See the full approach.
Questions buyers ask first
How long does a CFO search take?
We commit in writing to a calibrated shortlist in 21 days and a completed search in 45 to 90 days. Notice periods and board schedules can move the start date, so we plan around them from day one.
Do you search for controllers and VPs of Finance too?
Yes. The practice covers the whole office of the CFO, including the controller, VP Finance and chief accounting officer seats.
Do you only work with private equity owned companies?
No. We work with founder-led, family-owned and sponsor-backed companies. Private equity buyers have their own practice page because their searches run on a hold-period clock.
What does the 12-month guarantee cover?
If a retained placement does not last twelve months, we run the search again on the same terms. The exact terms sit in the engagement letter you sign before the search starts.
See where your search stands before it starts.
The readiness diagnostic takes two minutes. It shows the gaps that slow a search down. When you're ready, a partner takes the first call.