Separation Balance-Sheet Control Leader

The mandate

The carved-out business requires reconciliation of inventory ownership, intercompany settlement, customer rebates, environmental provisions and shared-service accruals ahead of sale completion. Corporate ledgers were designed for management reporting rather than a stand-alone entity, and the buyer requires opening balance-sheet logic that supports a clean separation.

The interim must take control in London within ten days and lead for thirteen months through completion and the first four stand-alone closes. Recruitment for a permanent divisional controller begins after the second clean mock close, targeted for month six. The successor will own the fourth stand-alone close, one purchase-price adjustment cycle and a transition-service exit review during a six-week overlap.

Handover requires every balance-sheet account to have legal-entity ownership, supporting evidence, cut-over treatment, transition-service dependency and named controller; opening positions must reconcile to agreed transaction mechanics; four post-completion closes must meet timetable and materiality; and buyer-raised issues must have documented disposition. The successor inherits provision, intercompany, stranded-cost and systems-risk registers.

The interim may reject an unsupported opening entry, freeze separation journals, direct account remediation, reprioritise finance resources and commit up to GBP 18 million within the approved separation budget. Transaction terms, tax elections, legal-entity perimeter, purchase-price agreement and settlements above delegated limits remain with the steering committee. Accounting judgments requiring group policy approval follow existing governance.

Commercial integration, factory operations, enterprise ERP replacement, workforce consultation and transaction negotiation outside finance readiness are expressly out of scope. The seat covers carve-out accounts, opening balance sheet, close control, transition-service finance dependencies, buyer evidence and permanent control succession. It cannot rewrite the sale agreement to solve an accounting-operating weakness.

Why this seat is open

The failed mock close jeopardised completion readiness, then the separation controller departed during the most evidence-intensive phase. Corporate owners are accountable for ledgers that will leave them, while the buyer demands independent traceability. Temporary carve-out authority is needed to force account-level resolution and operate the controls beyond legal completion.

What you will own

• Reconstruct inventory, receivables, payables, provisions, intercompany and cash balances by entity, product flow and transaction perimeter.
• Establish opening balance-sheet logic with source evidence, accounting owner, transaction reference and cut-over date.
• Close intercompany differences across trading, royalties, cash pooling, central procurement and shared-service allocations.
• Separate transferred, stranded and temporary corporate cost while preventing unsupported pro forma normalisation.
• Run mock and stand-alone closes with issue ageing, materiality thresholds, buyer observation and signed controller evidence.
• Govern finance transition services through volumes, control ownership, exit tests, stranded capacity and dispute routes.
• Transfer account dossiers, journal controls, unresolved provisions, buyer questions and close calendars through successor-led cycles.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive financial-control authority through a complex multi-entity carve-out and first stand-alone reporting periods.
• Built opening balance sheets from corporate ledgers not designed for divisional legal-entity reporting.
• Resolved inventory, intercompany, rebate and provision disputes involving plants, shared services and buyer finance.
• Distinguished accounting policy, transaction mechanics and operational evidence without masking gaps through pro forma adjustments.
• Controlled transition-service finance dependencies and stranded cost while protecting close and audit readiness.
• Handed a separated controllership to permanent leadership after observed mock, completion and stand-alone closes.