Spencer Stuart Recruits CFO for Burford Capital  

May 11, 2021 – Spencer Stuart has placed Kenneth A. Brause as the new chief financial officer for Burford Capital, a global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Jim Kilman, the firm’s current CFO, was appointed in August 2019 to serve for up to two years, after having been a senior advisor since 2017. Working with Spencer Stuart, the firm undertook a search for Mr. Kilman’s successor late last year. Mr. Kilman will spend a three-month transition period with Mr. Brause before returning to his former role.

“I’m delighted to welcome Ken as Burford’s new CFO,” said Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford Capital. “With Spencer Stuart’s assistance, we conducted an extensive search for our new permanent CFO, and Ken stood out as someone with high quality, career-long specialty finance expertise across a range of strategic and operational roles, including wholesale funding markets. I believe Burford will benefit from his wide range of experience as we continue our growth trajectory, and our ongoing expansion of our U.S. capital markets presence.”

Mr. Brause has 35 years of experience in the financial services industry, with a focus in specialty finance. Most recently, he was CFO of OnDeck Capital, a New York Stock Exchange-listed specialty lender. Previously, he held executive roles at CIT Group Inc., including serving as treasurer of its bank and parent company, and, before that, as CFO of its North American banking business, president of small business lending, and head of investor relations. CIT was at the time among the largest specialty finance firms in the U.S. Before CIT, Mr. Brause held senior roles at American General, the Bank of New York and Bankers Trust. He started his career as a consultant with Booz, Allen, and has a bachelor’s degree in economics with concentrations in finance and management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in accounting and finance from the University of Chicago.

Related: Crist|Kolder Associates Recruits CFO for Foot Locker

Burford Capital’s businesses include litigation finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, and it works with companies and law firms around the world from its principal offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore and Sydney.

New Pressures on CFOs

Immediate concerns around cash flow, liquidity and the bottom line are taking precedence at many companies due to continued fallout from the pandemic. But there are high-value lessons emerging from the current health and economic crisis that chief financial officers should bear in mind, according to recruiters specializing in finding talent for finance functional roles.


Executive Search Review Special Issue: Financial Services Recruiting

Hunt Scanlon Media has just released our latest special issue of ESR. This time around we take an in-depth look at the challenges financial services firms are facing in their hunt for new talent.

We cover it all: How CFOs are confronting new layers of risk in the pandemic era; the rapid and dramatic change coming at the CFO; using people analytics to acquire top talent, predict performance & reduce turnover; and why banks are turning to search firms. We even provide our latest “Financial Fifty Recruiters” ranking of financial services search firms! In this special issue of ESR, Hunt Scanlon editors take an extraordinary inside look at recruiting during these unprecedented times. Click here and enjoy.


The COVID-19 crisis has thrust CFOs into the spotlight as never before, they report, while the pandemic itself has also created a business environment in which CFOs are uniquely positioned to drive business value during the recovery phase, which is expected to come in 2021 and 2022.

Related: WB&B Executive Search Assists Getty Images in Recruiting New CFO

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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