Chief Financial Officer — Food and Beverage Cash-Control Bridge

The mandate

The CFO seat carries executive ownership of food-and-beverage manufacturing finance as the business reconciles seasonal cash needs with inventory, trade credit and tax obligations. Accounts can maintain transactions, but executives require a single owner who connects production economics to funding and controlled reporting. The interim must hold the finance-chief seat with explicit powers and constraints rather than treat accumulated career seniority as unlimited authority.

The bridge starts on 19 October 2026 for nine months in Panaji, with scheduled India manufacturing and trade-channel visits. A permanent CFO search proceeds in parallel, and the successor will complete the final operating and treasury reviews. Extension is possible only under a written board decision identifying the remaining transfer condition. Overseas commercial interfaces are primarily remote and do not create an unrestricted travel obligation.

At handover, the business must have an accepted cash plan, a production-margin bridge and a tax-obligation register reconciled to accounting records. Two operating cycles must demonstrate that commercial and manufacturing commitments are funded without obscuring overdue obligations. The successor must chair a finance review, explain inventory and credit risks and receive remaining assessments, banking conditions and supplier exposures with their decision histories.

The CFO may approve working-capital priorities, management forecasts and finance controls within sanctioned plans and facilities. New debt, asset disposal, permanent restructuring and settlements above ₹40 lakh require board or managing-director approval. Statutory signatures and tax representation follow specific legal appointments. Cash pressure cannot justify withholding known liabilities from forecasts or moving restricted funds through a convenient management-reporting adjustment.

The bridge excludes manufacturing quality leadership, a business acquisition and a wholesale commercial turnaround. It includes challenging production and trade economics, protecting tax-control discipline and distinguishing cash release from delayed recognition of obligations. The leader should leave a finance team that can explain the economics of inventory, credit and funding choices in ordinary executive language, backed by reproducible evidence.

What you will own

• Approve a weekly cash allocation paper connecting production purchases, trade collections, statutory dues and sanctioned funding, with explicit decisions where commitments exceed available liquidity.
• Resolve inventory and production-margin judgements using yield, ageing and accounting evidence, leaving product-quality conclusions and manufacturing execution with their authorised operating owners.
• Set a tax and compliance obligation register that reconciles payments, provisions and disputed matters without substituting finance management for appointed specialist representation.
• Challenge channel credit and discount proposals against cash and contribution evidence, escalating material commercial exceptions rather than allowing short-term volume targets to determine finance policy.
• Authorize treasury and close review controls that preserve independent evidence, sanctioned facility limits and visibility of banking conditions throughout the temporary executive term.
• Transfer the CFO decision cycle through a successor-led cash and margin review, including unresolved tax, credit and funding matters with accountable owners and next evidence dates.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate a career of twenty-eight years or more in finance with genuine CFO accountability in food, beverage, consumer manufacturing or comparable operating businesses. Present a cash and margin intervention you personally led, the authority you held and the realised outcome. Length of service alone does not establish readiness for a bounded executive bridge.
• Show strong manufacturing finance judgement across inventory, production yield, overhead and trade-channel economics. Describe a case where apparent margin improvement did not produce cash or where a production decision changed working-capital risk, explaining the evidence and the accounting treatment approved.
• Bring treasury, tax-control and governance experience grounded in sanctioned facilities and clear professional boundaries. Provide an example where known tax or banking obligations altered an operating plan, and identify the specialist or board decisions you relied on. The role does not assume authority to provide every legal or tax opinion.
• Prove leadership of finance managers and practical successor transfer, including controlled reporting and a usable cash review. Explain how you handled operating pressure without obscuring liabilities or weakening independent review. Current obligations must support the proposed start, five-day coverage and planned India manufacturing presence; broad multisector experience must be translated into actual finance-chief judgement.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 8 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-INT-2026-IND-52.