CFO Executive Search Firms and Recruiters: 13 Compared

Egon Zehnder's Financial Officers Practice works with boards and chief executives of public and private companies, private equity portfolio companies and family-owned businesses. The practice page says it also helps build finance leadership teams, from controllers and treasurers to heads of tax, investor relations, corporate development and internal audit, and designs succession plans with a pipeline of internal CFO candidates.

The firm also publishes CFO research. In a survey report published in 2024 (opens in a new tab), 82% of nearly 600 CFOs said their role had grown significantly over the preceding five years.

Heidrick & Struggles recruits corporate and divisional CFOs and the rest of the finance leadership: controllership and accounting, audit and risk, treasury, tax, corporate development and M&A, investor relations, FP&A and shared services. It lists "full finance team assessment, build-out, and development" as part of the work.

The page says the firm's team places hundreds of C-level candidates a year, a figure it does not limit to finance roles. Its executive search page (opens in a new tab) describes a retained search on an exclusive basis, with support through references, negotiation and onboarding.

The Russell Reynolds financial officer practice covers CFOs and finance directors, chief accounting officers and controllers, divisional and regional CFOs, tax and treasury leaders, and heads of investor relations, FP&A and corporate development. Its financial officer page sets out five steps, from the position specification to offer, announcement and onboarding.

The firm's FAQ says its goal is for a financial officer search to take three months, depending on the time of year and the type of role; a search launched during earnings season or a public company search can differ.

Spencer Stuart's global Financial Officer Practice reports more than 1,200 senior-level finance searches over a two-year period, for clients including Fortune 500, FTSE 100 and DAX companies, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, emerging companies and nonprofits. The count covers finance roles beyond the CFO, among them accounting, audit, FP&A, investor relations, risk, tax and treasury.

Stanton Chase says it has recruited hundreds of CFOs, without giving a period for the count. Its CFO and Financial Executives Practice Group offers CFO search, leadership assessment and leadership consulting through more than 30 CFO-focused consultants worldwide, many with finance backgrounds and credentials such as CPA, ACCA, MBA and CFA.

Stanton Chase describes a retained search process it calls Search+, and its offices are partner-owned, so ask which office and partner will run your search. The practice is led by Cathy Logue, a managing director based in Toronto.

Alpha Apex Group's CFO page describes searches for CFOs in four areas: strategic financial leadership, financial systems and processes, risk management and compliance, and capital raising and investment strategy. It says each search is tailored and that support continues after placement.

The page reports firm-wide figures: 2,000+ placements worldwide and a 43-day average time to fill full-time hires. A third figure, 72 hours until new candidates reach the hiring manager's inbox, has no stated start point or scope. The page does not identify any of the three as CFO measures and names no CFO client or case. Agree the search model and fee directly.

Cowen Partners publishes eight CFO case studies, seven of them naming the client, among them Galderma, Renewal by Andersen, Wausau Supply and MODTECH Solutions. Its Addition Financial case (opens in a new tab), posted in April 2024, names the CFO the credit union appointed, Qing Lu. Its Galderma case (opens in a new tab), posted in May 2026, says Cowen took over the US CFO search after nine months with another firm and that Keith Stauffer was selected.

Cowen describes itself as a retained firm for boards, private equity firms, family businesses, founders and investors. Its CFO page says it delivers a qualified slate in an average of three weeks from kickoff, with interviews and negotiation on the client's schedule. Its executive search page (opens in a new tab) gives a standard timeline of 6 to 9 weeks from engagement to placement. Shawn Cole, a co-founder, leads the CFO practice.

JM Search's Ametris client story (opens in a new tab), published in September 2026, covers the six years from Archimed's 2020 acquisition of the PE-backed health technology company to its 2026 sale. JM Search sourced its CFO after the acquisition; in 2022 Ametris brought in a second CFO with experience of growing and exiting PE-backed companies, and JM Search later filled other C-suite roles; the firm says the CFO it placed was part of the leadership team behind the sale to Signant Health. The CFO page carries named testimonials, among them Evan Kramer, CEO of MotionPoint, who says JM Search found its CFO "in less time than the average search".

JM Search recruits CFOs, chief accounting officers, controllers and heads of FP&A, tax, audit and investor relations for PE-backed, private and public companies. It calls itself a retained firm and says partners are involved in every search. Its About page says more than 80% of its clients are private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and that 85% hire it for more than one search; it has recruited since 1980.

CFO Search reports more than 500 CFO placements since its founding in 2008. Its homepage quotes Gurmit Bhatia, CEO of U.S. Med Equip: "CFO Search found our new CFO for us in a matter of weeks." Its clients page presents a partial client list for its CFO recruiting work, without details of each search.

The firm fills permanent and interim CFO roles and other senior finance positions. Its retained vs. contingency page (opens in a new tab) calls contingency its signature offering, describes a retained option for searches that need confidentiality and depth, and says the hybrid model is popular with PE-backed companies. It publishes "100% Guaranteed Results" as a slogan, without replacement terms.

CFO Selections quotes Krish Srinivasan, President and CEO of PCC Community Markets, on hiring a CFO and a controller at the same time, with the firm suggesting a pairing of candidates for the two roles.

The firm works only in accounting and finance, and says its searches are led by people who have held these roles. Its FAQ (opens in a new tab) publishes the clearest retained terms among the firms read: the fee base, three staged payments and a typical 60 to 90 days from kickoff to offer acceptance, with a shortlist of three to five candidates. The same FAQ calls CFO Selections the flagship for fractional CFO and controller matching within its Ensemble Partners group, with contingent recruiting run by a sister company, ASP.

Harvest CFO announced a CFO placement for Site Impact (opens in a new tab), a direct marketing services company in the Fort Lauderdale area, in September 2025. In the post, Site Impact's VP of People and Culture, Lisa Westenberger, says the company engaged Harvest again for a newly created executive role. The CFO is not named.

The firm recruits permanent and interim CFOs for PE portfolio companies and says it has worked with over 100 PE firms and recruited hundreds of CFOs. Its executive recruiting page (opens in a new tab) describes five parts of its process, including weekly calls with decision makers, and refers to a "nontraditional fee structure" without describing it. The same page reports under 100 days on average to complete a placement and more than 90% of the CFOs it placed still with the company, without a start point or period for either. Don Hillier, its CEO, reports more than 30 years as a CFO, CPA and entrepreneur.

Osborne's homepage says it can usually produce a short list within three weeks of launching a search, presents four or five candidates from the 15 to 25 it interviews, and expects the new hire to give three weeks to a month of notice. The pages read name no client or placement.

Its market is owner-managed and mid-sized Canadian companies, and it also advises on whether a company needs a CFO, VP Finance, director of finance or controller. Lance Osborne has recruited CFOs since 1985, according to the site.

Stone Executive's retained CFO and finance director searches cover FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and AIM-listed companies, PE-backed and pre-IPO businesses, founder-led and family companies, turnarounds, charities and the public sector. Each is run by a named consultant, and long lists routinely extend across the UK into Europe.

The page says a typical CFO search runs four to eight weeks from briefing to offer acceptance, longer for listed companies, with a shortlist of typically four to six candidates. It adds that notice periods at this level add a further six to twelve months before the CFO starts. The named testimonials on the page concern other roles, and no CFO client or placement is named.