The Situation

A regional real estate developer had scaled to $400M in active projects across residential and mixed-use developments. In the middle of refinancing a major portfolio, its long-time CFO resigned with almost no notice to join a competitor.

The timing could not have been worse. Lenders were mid-due-diligence, two deals were close to funding, and the finance team was suddenly leaderless. The founder knew that any sign of instability could spook lenders and stall hundreds of millions in financing. They needed a credible, proven CFO in the seat—fast.

What We Found

Speed and credibility were in direct tension. The client could fill the seat quickly with an available candidate, or hold out for a CFO with real estate capital-markets credibility. They couldn't seem to have both—and a weak interim hire risked permanently damaging lender relationships.

The profile was narrow. The right person needed deep experience refinancing real estate portfolios, existing relationships with the developer's lender syndicate, and the executive presence to walk into a tense lender meeting and project calm. That ruled out generalist CFOs entirely.

What We Did

We ran a compressed, high-precision search that protected the client's lender relationships throughout.

We targeted a known pool, not the open market. Within 72 hours we built a shortlist of CFOs and senior VPs of Finance who had led real estate refinancings of similar scale. We approached them confidentially, positioning the role around the challenge and the upside—never signaling distress.

We used psychometric assessment to de-risk a fast decision. With no time for a long courtship, we relied on structured psychometric testing to validate composure under pressure, judgment, and stakeholder influence. It gave the board the confidence to move decisively on a candidate they'd known for only two weeks.

We managed the transition, not just the hire. We helped sequence the announcement to lenders and structured the new CFO's first 30 days around the most time-sensitive financing milestones.

The Result

We placed a CFO in 38 days—a leader who had refinanced over $2B in real estate assets and already knew two of the developer's three lenders personally.

The refinancing closed on schedule. Both near-term deals funded, and the lender syndicate later told the founder that the new CFO's arrival actually strengthened their confidence in the company. What began as a crisis became a credibility upgrade.

Two years on, that CFO is still in the seat and has since led the company's expansion into a new market—a placement that protected $400M in the short term and shaped the company's trajectory for the long term.