Caldwell Recruits CFO for Long View
March 7, 2023 – The pressure on chief financial officers during the pandemic has been significant. That has made finding the best ones big business for executive recruiters. Just recently, Toronto-based Caldwell assisted in the recruitment of Rachael Golembuski as the new chief financial officer of Long View Systems. The search led by Les Gombik, Drew Railton, and Maryse Robichaud.
Ms. Golembuski has 20-plus years of financial services, internal audit, risk management, and professional services industry experience. She is an audit leader with more than 15 years of progressively senior and complex internal audit, risk management, compliance, and leadership roles. Previously, Ms. Golembuski was SVP of risk and administration and chief audit officer for connectFirst Credit Union. Before that, she spent 11 years with ATB Financial, serving as managing director, operational and fraud risk management (enterprise risk management and compliance), in addition to earlier roles with the financial institution.
Long View is an IT solutions and services company in North America with offices across the continent. With a clear focus on combining business and technology through its Hybrid IT solutions including cloud, IT infrastructure, managed services, and end user support, Long View is able to define and customize IT solutions for clients.
Seasoned Search Professionals
Mr. Gombik is managing partner of Caldwell’s prairie region. With more than 25 years of executive and board search and human resources experience, he has a broad perspective on the most pressing talent issues in executive management today. His particular focus is on board and senior executive positions for commercially oriented, public, private, and private equity-backed enterprises within the industrial, consumer, and financial services sectors.
Related: Caldwell Recruits CEO for Knowledge First Financial
Mr. Railton is a managing partner in Western Canada. Drawing on more than 18 years of experience placing senior executives and board directors, he provides expertise in board, CEO, and senior executive recruitment. Mr. Railton has experience as a director, serving on both volunteer and corporate boards, as well as extensive philanthropic involvement. Prior to joining Caldwell in 2006, Mr. Railton’s career spanned a wide range of industries and functions including roles in operations, sales, human resources, customer service, and general management.
Ms. Robichaud is a consultant in Caldwell’s Calgary office and a member of the industrial and consumer retail and E-commerce practices. She has experience managing executive level searches for a wide variety of clients across Canada and the U.S. Ms. Robichaud focuses on the recruitment of C-suite executives within the consumer, retail and E-commerce sector with particular interest and expertise in the Canadian cannabis industry.
The Market for CFOs
The market for senior finance executives remains candidate-centric and brisk, according to Andy Miller, CEO of BrainWorks. “While public discussion of macroeconomic conditions continues to hint at inflation and recession, finance professionals remain fully employed and heavily engaged,” he said. “Among the finance executives, CFOs and business unit financial officers remain in high demand, both to provide oversight for portfolio companies in the PE space and to engage newly created business units by expanding public companies. Tax talent has been in demand for many years and is increasingly scarce. Global and complex tax guidance and leadership, including managers, directors, and analysts remain essential in the proliferation of business strategies. Also engaged at high volume over the last twelve months are controllers, analysts, and FP&A professionals.”
The Evolving Role of the CFO
Given the speed at which market conditions, business strategies, and operational structures have changed in recent years, businesses are more aware than ever of the crucial role the chief financial officer plays in shaping and driving a company’s strategic direction. A just-released report by BoardEx of ‘The Role of the CFO 2022’ examines more than 1,400 CFOs who lead major publicly traded companies across 16 countries around the world. Let’s take a closer look.
At the sector level, geopolitical uncertainty, legislative uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding interest rates, inflation, and the potential for recession create sector level challenges. While forecasting is fraught with uncertainty, BrainWorks believes that inflation has peaked and that recession, if it is to be named, is largely a lagging story at this point. “Given the degree of uncertainty in the world, any assessment of what financial services will face in the future is at best educated guessing,” said Mr. Miller. “That said, the challenge of securing top talent, the sufficiency of talent in the marketplace, the rate of change between currencies, tax implications of selected business strategies and the proper filing of documents in support of such strategies, accurate forecasting, analytics, and planning will all remain needful in the sector.”
Related: Financial Services is Booming, CFO Role Continues to Evolve
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
