Most senior finance hires get easier with seniority. Corporate finance gets harder. The brief sits between strategy and execution, between the CFO and the deal team, between long-term capital planning and the deal that has to close this quarter — and the candidates who can hold all of that without dropping a side are genuinely rare.

Hanson Search’s Corporate Finance Executive Search practice, part of Hanson Capital, helps boards, investors and CFOs hire the leaders who own capital structure, transaction readiness and the financial discipline that holds it all together. We advise FTSE 100 corporates, financial services institutions, sovereign-backed entities, family offices and private equity portfolio companies on the senior appointments where the right hire shapes how capital flows through the business.

The Corporate Finance Leadership Roles We Place

Our Corporate Finance Executive Search practice covers the senior end of the corporate finance function. We place Heads of Corporate Finance, Group Treasury Directors, Heads of Capital Markets, Heads of Financial Planning and Analysis, Heads of Investor Reporting, Heads of Corporate Development and Heads of Strategic Finance.

We also lead Corporate Finance recruitment for senior appointments adjacent to the core function: transaction services leadership, capital allocation specialists, IPO and listing preparation leads, and the senior commercial finance roles that turn financial discipline into operational decisions.

What unites every search is the same test: can this person partner credibly with the CFO, the CEO and the board, and stand behind the numbers when the room gets difficult?

How the Corporate Finance Brief Has Sharpened

The corporate finance market has been reshaped by capital cost, deal intensity and disclosure pressure. The senior brief has sharpened with it.

Capital is no longer cheap, and boards want corporate finance leaders who can model it that way. The era of growth at any cost is over, and senior candidates are being assessed on capital efficiency, returns discipline and the judgement to say no as well as yes.

Transaction readiness has become a standing requirement. M&A, refinancings, IPO preparation and sponsor exits now happen at speed and on multiple tracks at once. The strongest corporate finance leaders run their function as if a deal is always six months away.

Disclosure has reached deeper into the function. Sustainability reporting, climate-aligned capital allocation and investor scrutiny of governance have all expanded what corporate finance is responsible for, and the leaders who can speak credibly to investors on all of it sit at a premium.

How We Run a Corporate Finance Executive Search

Every Corporate Finance Executive Search we lead is owned end to end by a senior consultant. The strongest corporate finance leaders are typically in confidential conversations with several organisations at once, and a slow process loses them quickly.

We map across in-house corporate finance functions, investment banks, advisory firms and the private capital community, because the best corporate finance leader for your business is rarely the obvious one. They might be the deputy at a larger group, the lead at a smaller listed business, or sitting inside a PE-backed company at the stage of life yours is heading toward. Every candidate is benchmarked on technical depth, transaction credibility, capital and disclosure fluency, and the boardroom presence to operate alongside the CFO.

Diverse and inclusive shortlists are prioritised on every mandate. As a B Corp, responsible search is built into how we work.

Speak to Our Corporate Finance Executive Search Team

If you are appointing a Head of Corporate Finance, Group Treasury Director or senior corporate finance leader, we would welcome a confidential conversation. We advise organisations across the UK, Europe, the USA and the Middle East, from FTSE 100 corporates and financial institutions to sovereign-backed entities, family offices and private equity portfolio companies.

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