McDermott + Bull Recruits CFO for Leonid Capital Partners
March 20, 2024 – Irvine, CA-based search firm McDermott + Bull has assisted in the recruitment of Ian Holroyd as the new CFO for Leonid Capital Partners. This search was led by McDermott + Bull president Brandon Biegenzahn, managing director Courtney Dorrel, and executive recruiter Rachel Camonayan.
Mr. Holroyd brings over 29 years of accounting and finance leadership experience within the financial services industry. He most recently served as senior managing director with investor services consulting group IQ-EQ, leading the CFO services and accounting practice group for the Western region. There, he managed project teams serving as outsourced financial functions for private equity funds, hedge funds, venture capital firms, and family offices. Previously, Mr. Holroyd has held accounting leadership roles for over 19 years with various firms, including WMD Asset Management, Imperial Capital, Dorchester Capital Advisors, and Chanin Capital Partners.
In his new position with Leonid Capital Partners, Mr. Holroyd will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the firm, developing and implementing comprehensive finance and accounting strategies to meet current and future needs, along with building and leading a team to support fund administration, credit, compliance, and reporting.
Leonid Capital Partners is a provider of alternative financing solutions for government contractors. The firm offers a variety of flexible financing options, including term loans, lines of credit, working capital and venture debt, all tailored to the unique needs of government contractors.
McDermott + Bull provides mission-critical permanent executive placement and interim solutions for a range of domestic and global clients. The firm serves private and public companies, private equity firms and their operating companies across multiple industries, including technology, financial services, biotech and life sciences, and professional services.
Mr. Biegenzahn holds dual roles as president of McDermott + Bull and chair of the firm’s financial services practice group. As president, he leads day-to-day operations as well as the strategic buildout of the team of executive search managing directors. As chair of the financial services practice group, Mr. Biegenzahn is a partner to an array of financial services firms, including investment banks, commercial banks, private banks, credit unions, asset managers, institutional investors and fintech companies.
Ms. Dorrel partners with the principal consultants on executive-level searches. Her prior professional experience includes admissions recruitment for a nationally-recognized trade college, as well as recruiting for technology and pharmaceutical/medical device professionals at small boutique firms.
Related: As CFOs Gain in Stature, Succession Plans to Replace Them Falter
Ms. Camonayan serves as an executive recruiter for McDermott + Bull’s financial services practice, where she works closely with the firm’s managing directors to source senior leadership talent for clients. Prior to joining the firm, she served for three years at a retained executive search firm based in Los Angeles that specialized in conducting senior and executive-level searches for clients in the financial services industry. Namely, their clientele was composed of banks, credit unions, and financial technology organizations.
CFO Confidence Crisis
Few roles are as important as the chief financial officer at most companies, but the CFOs of today who are thinking about tomorrow are growing nervous about a key talent issue: They worry that no one else in the company can assume their role. Indeed, according to one Korn Ferry study, 81 percent of CFOs surveyed say they want to groom the next CFO internally, but don’t believe that there’s a viable candidate in-house. Currently, about half of new roles are filled internally.
“The current CFO is the one charged with identifying and developing that talent, and since they know best the skills required to meet what’s coming, they are realizing the internal bench isn’t fully prepared,” said Bryan Proctor, senior client partner and global financial officers practice lead at Korn Ferry.
The lack of confidence is owed in part to CFOs feeling that their firms’ leadership development programs have failed to keep up with the rapidly changing role of CFO, Korn Ferry said. Core functions such as finance and accounting are increasingly being combined under one role, with CFOs citing a lack of resources or skills and career development opportunities as reasons for the merging. Korn Ferry surveyed more than 700 CFOs worldwide, asking them about their own internal talent pipelines. The top two abilities CFOs feel their direct reports need to develop are “leadership skills and executive presence” and “strategic thinking.”
“The tapestry of skills and experiences CFOs of today and tomorrow need are vastly different than what was needed in the past,” said John Petzold, senior client partner and CXO optimization lead at Korn Ferry. “The reason subfunctions are merging is because the focus is less on a role or person and more about the capabilities that need to be covered by a set of individuals.”
In essence, the CFO function is being deconstructed for optimization, according to Korn Ferry. Leaders are breaking down necessary functions based on their organization’s strategy and identifying people with a combination of those skills and piecing them together to get the right set of talent to execute against that plan. Core financial functions such as taxes, capital allocation, and M&A still need to be done accurately and in compliance with regulations, of course. But experts say the CFO role is becoming more about adapting and deploying talent in the most efficient manner possible.
“The leadership profile of the future CFO is less about tactical, direct experience, and more about learning agility, adaptability, and big-picture global perspective,” said Mr. Proctor. “That kind of nimbleness and ability to pivot isn’t naturally engrained in the typical CPA.”
Related: McDermott + Bull Recruits CFO for Community West Bank
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
