Chief Financial Officers typically have an all encompassing role, whether in large corporations, middle market entities, start-ups or Family Offices, however Family Offices have some additional responsibilities as well.
As private equity, hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and others experience significant liquidity events one of the most attractive alternatives to managing their wealth appears to be establishing a Family Office.
The Chief Financial Officer of a Family Office typically will get involved in philanthropy and gaining an understanding of the expectations of all of the key family members, which can be quite challenging at times. When the family members are not on the same page regarding the direction of the firm, infrastructure, leadership and other issues, the CFO may play the role of mediator and/or negotiator, to get all of the parties aligned in the same direction.
Building an effective infrastructure can also be difficult, if the family has not committed the right budget to hire the appropriate talent to run the family office. In many cases, the office requires better technology and processes than the family may be willing to invest in.
Another key issue that the CFO of a Family Office gets involved with is how to motivate and educate the future generations. The next generation may clearly have different ideas about how the business should be run, what role they should play, and what types of investments the Family Office should be making. As an example, Impact Investing is very important to many of the millenials.
The CFO of a Family Office has a very broad spectrum of responsibilities which may be very attractive to some candidates, and not appealing to others.
We find that more applicants prefer working for a Family Office over some of the other environments due to the stability, quality of life and the feeling of being part of one organization rather than dealing with politics and bureaucracy.
For additional information on how to hire the highest quality Chief Financial Officer or other C-Level executives, feel free to contact Michael Rosenblatt: President of FON Search and The Quest Organization at 212-971-0033 or via email at michael.rosenblatt@questorg.com
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