Board Finance Evidence Adviser — Public-Market Readiness and Disclosure Consistency

The mandate

A platform company's board is considering future access to public capital and wants stronger challenge of the financial evidence presented as readiness. The adviser will examine whether operating metrics, management adjustments, forecasts and financial statements tell a consistent story. The question is not whether an attractive presentation can be prepared, but whether the underlying definitions and records withstand repeated inquiry. The adviser will identify where apparent progress depends on a selective period, an untested adjustment or an assumption whose owner has not accepted responsibility for it.

The eight-month retainer reserves four days per month from 26 October 2026, including monthly finance-committee attendance. Two working sessions with the CFO's team and a concise written challenge note form the normal cycle. Remote work is supported by planned Mumbai meetings within the included capacity. Requests affecting a committee decision receive a substantive response within three business days once the relevant materials are supplied. Urgent requests are acknowledged by the next business day; work beyond the agreed capacity requires separate approval rather than an assumption of unlimited transaction availability.

The appointment provides independent financial challenge with no line authority and no executive responsibility for producing the company's readiness materials. The adviser recommends questions, evidence tests and readiness priorities; the CFO owns reporting and remediation, while appointed legal, accounting and transaction specialists own their formal opinions and deliverables. No board appointment or fiduciary office is offered. The remit excludes regulatory sign-off, listing sponsorship, transaction execution and any promise of valuation or fundraising completion. Advisory value lies in helping directors distinguish a defensible financial claim from a polished but fragile narrative before external scrutiny makes the distinction more costly.

Up to two unrelated concurrent advisory engagements are permitted if capacity and independence remain intact. Work for a competing platform, a potential transaction counterparty or a provider whose deliverables are being challenged must be disclosed before accepting materials. Restricted participation, recusal or withdrawal will be agreed with the chair where conflicts cannot be resolved. Renewal is reviewed by the committee in month seven based on the continuing need for evidence challenge. The appointment should leave clearer board questions and accountable readiness priorities, not a parallel finance team that management relies on to assemble every answer.

What you will own

• Challenge the consistency of management metrics and financial statements, identifying adjustments or definitions that change between periods and recommending evidence tests before directors use those measures to assess readiness.
• Examine forecast assumptions against approved plans and historical delivery, framing questions about unsupported improvement or omitted costs without replacing management's ownership of the financial model and its conclusions.
• Recommend a prioritised readiness evidence agenda to the committee, distinguishing matters that weaken financial credibility from optional presentation enhancements so management effort follows the most consequential gaps.
• Review selected reconciliation and disclosure pathways with CFO-appointed owners, highlighting claims that cannot be reproduced and advising the chair on what additional evidence is needed for a responsible discussion.
• Provide monthly challenge notes and committee input within the agreed capacity, recording the uncertainty behind recommendations rather than presenting advisory judgement as an accounting opinion or transaction clearance.
• Surface conflicts and specialist-boundary questions before reviewing restricted materials, recommending recusal or an independent opinion when continued participation could compromise the committee's confidence in the advice.

Candidate qualifications

• Evidence financial reporting, planning or controllership leadership in platform businesses, with practical exposure to IPO preparedness, investor diligence or equivalent capital-readiness scrutiny. Explain a management metric or adjustment you challenged and the evidence that changed its treatment. The strongest proof distinguishes a useful operating indicator from a misleading financial claim without assuming that all non-standard measures are inherently inappropriate.
• Bring twelve to eighteen years in finance and a Chartered Accountancy qualification, with the ability to trace management analysis to financial records and understand disclosure consistency. Company-secretarial training is useful for governance discipline. You should recognise where a question calls for formal legal, accounting or transaction advice and frame that referral precisely rather than offering an opinion outside the advisory perimeter.
• Demonstrate independent advice to senior decision-makers when an attractive capital narrative ran ahead of operational evidence. Describe how you made the uncertainty understandable, which additional test you recommended and how management retained accountability for its response. We need constructive scepticism and judgement about materiality, not a readiness checklist that labels every missing document equally important.
• Reserve four days monthly and meet the stated response cadence through the eight-month term. Disclose competing-company, counterparty and professional-provider relationships before accepting the appointment. Show how you have managed a conflict or declined a request that would have turned advisory review into executive production work, while protecting sensitive business information and preserving a useful relationship with the sponsor.

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 15 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-ADV-2026-IND-040.