Our long-time Head of Finance completely understands, wants, and has the capacity for her current seat, but we are entering exit preparation and now need someone with deep M&A transaction experience. She does not have this background. Do we replace her or restructure the seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic dilemma as a business prepares for an exit. Your current Head of Finance is a perfect culture fit and handles the day-to-day accounting beautifully, but she lacks the technical capacity for complex M&A due diligence.

Do not fire her or force her into a seat she does not GWC. Instead, look at the Accountability Chart and realize you have two distinct needs: core financial operations and transactional strategy. You must structure your finance department to accommodate both.

Keep your current leader in the Controller or Finance Manager seat, where she already excels. Then, create a separate, temporary or fractional CFO seat on the Accountability Chart that reports directly to the Integrator. This fractional CFO seat will be solely accountable for exit readiness, quality of earnings audits, and transactional advisory.

This structure allows your internal finance leader to continue managing the day-to-day operations she understands and wants, while the fractional executive handles the complex exit preparation. This setup eliminates key-person risk, preserves your team culture, and shows buyers you have a sophisticated, scalable financial structure.