Accordion unveils ‘interim CFO’ service

Accordion Partners plans to roll out its 'CFO Leadership Services' this week, the firm told PE Manager.

The addition of the CFO service line is designed to provide private equity-backed companies help with their finance functions: either parachuting an interim chief financial officer in, or supplementing the work of an incumbent finance chief with specialist expertise.

”We believe that we have identified a significant gap in the private equity industry,” Accordion founder and head Nick Leopard told PE Manager. He added that GPs did not always have the time or resources to provide portfolio companies help with their financial modeling and analysis, for example. “Our private equity clients have been approaching us, seeking trusted CFO leadership for their portfolio companies, in order to give them the ability to confidently make quick operational and strategic decisions.”

Heading the CFO practice  will be John Brittain, a 30-year industry veteran who previously had acted as chief financial officer of a number of private equity sponsored and public companies including Nextel Communications, a wireless service provider that later merged with former rival Sprint.

“Maybe the company’s CFO is good at financial reporting or operational finance, but is now dealing with a merger integration that they have very little experience with. We can provide an engagement partner who has M&A merger integration leadership skills who can not only handle that work, but can also develop a business model or carry out financial planning for any M&A transaction,” Brittain said.

Since its inception in 2009, Accordion has worked alongside some 90 private equity and corporate clients, including Providence Equity Partners and The Riverside Company, according to the group’s spokesperson.