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CEO vacancy:

Securing Capacity to Act and Sustainability

25.08.2026
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By Antho­ny Baum­ruk, Part­ner at VALDIVIA

What happens when a key lead­er­ship posi­tion in the finance depart­ment becomes vacant on short notice? Who takes respon­si­bil­i­ty toward banks, investors, and share­hold­ers? And how can crit­i­cal financ­ing, report­ing, and manage­ment issues be handled with­out interruption?

For compa­nies today, the absence of a CFO is far more than just a vacant posi­tion on the orga­ni­za­tion­al chart. The role has changed signif­i­cant­ly in recent years. CFOs are not only respon­si­ble for the numbers and finan­cial state­ments but are increas­ing­ly taking on strate­gic respon­si­bil­i­ty for financ­ing, trans­for­ma­tion, and corpo­rate development.

Conse­quent­ly, a vacan­cy often results not only in an oper­a­tional gap but also in a loss of lead­er­ship and manage­ment capac­i­ty. The crucial ques­tion, there­fore, is not mere­ly how quick­ly a succes­sor can be found. Equal­ly impor­tant is how the company’s abil­i­ty to act can be ensured in the short term and what require­ments will be placed on the role in the future.

Creat­ing Stabil­i­ty and Setting Priorities

The first step is to estab­lish trans­paren­cy regard­ing the crit­i­cal issues: What is the liquid­i­ty situ­a­tion? Which financ­ing or report­ing require­ments take prior­i­ty? Where do imme­di­ate risks lie?

Depend­ing on the initial situ­a­tion, special­ized consul­tants can contribute addi­tion­al exper­tise, for exam­ple, in financ­ing, restruc­tur­ing, trans­ac­tions, or tax matters. Howev­er, it is crucial to iden­ti­fy the rele­vant issues early on and deploy the appro­pri­ate exper­tise in a target­ed manner.

Why Inter­im Manage­ment Can Play a Key Role

Tech­ni­cal support alone, howev­er, does not resolve the lead­er­ship issue.

Espe­cial­ly during tran­si­tion phas­es, there needs to be a respon­si­ble person who sets prior­i­ties, coor­di­nates deci­sions, and serves as a point of contact for manage­ment, share­hold­ers, banks, and investors. An expe­ri­enced inter­im CFO can assume this role on short notice while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly stabi­liz­ing the finan­cial organization.

In this way, inter­im manage­ment does more than just alle­vi­ate oper­a­tional pres­sure. It also enables compa­nies to gain the time need­ed to devel­op a care­ful and sustain­able long-term succes­sion plan.

Last month, in my post as part of my new series on inter­im topics, we explored why inter­im lead­er­ship is increas­ing­ly becom­ing part of a modern HR strat­e­gy. In that post, I high­light how compa­nies can navi­gate crit­i­cal tran­si­tion phas­es with­out having to make strate­gic HR deci­sions under time pressure.

Turn­ing a Vacan­cy into an Opportunity

As chal­leng­ing as a short-term CFO vacan­cy can be: it often also offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine the organization.

  • Are struc­tures and respon­si­bil­i­ties still appropriate?
  • What skills will be need­ed in the future?
  • Does the compa­ny need more finan­cial exper­tise, trans­for­ma­tion skills, or expe­ri­ence in growth situations?

The search for a new CFO should there­fore not auto­mat­i­cal­ly repli­cate the profile of the previ­ous incum­bent. Rather, it’s worth focus­ing on the require­ments of the company’s next phase.

Turn­ing a Vacan­cy into a Managed Transition

Success­ful compa­nies do not view a CFO vacan­cy sole­ly as a staffing prob­lem. They use the tran­si­tion phase to combine short-term stabil­i­ty with long-term development.

In prac­tice, three elements often work in tandem: special­ized consul­tants provide target­ed exper­tise, an inter­im CFO takes on lead­er­ship and respon­si­bil­i­ty in the short term, while the long-term succes­sion is prepared in paral­lel. In this way, an unex­pect­ed vacan­cy does not lead to stag­na­tion, but rather to an active­ly managed transition.

With VIA – Valdivia Inter­im Asso­ciates, we provide target­ed support to compa­nies in situ­a­tions where speed, trans­for­ma­tion, and the abil­i­ty to execute are essen­tial: during vacan­cies, restruc­tur­ings, turn­arounds, growth phas­es, or strate­gic projects.

We view inter­im manage­ment not mere­ly as a stop­gap measure, but as a strate­gi­cal­ly deployed tempo­rary lead­er­ship resource.

Sources

  1. PwC / WHU: The Digi­tal CFO 2026 – Study on the Digi­tal­iza­tion of the Finance Func­tion in the DACH Region
  2. Deloitte: Finance Trends 2026
  3. Valdivia Consult­ing GmbH, Newsroom

(Image source: Valdivia Consult­ing GmbH in coop­er­a­tion with new office GmbH)

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