Group Chief Financial Officer

About the role

This role exists to bridge the gap between a standalone education business and a diversified financial services group. The goal is to build a valuation framework across all business units, structure the group to maximize its value, and prepare the group for institutional-grade financials.

Responsibilities

• Build the sum-of-the-parts valuation framework across every business unit, with a defensible methodology and comparables set for each
• Structure each entity so that it maximizes its own multiple, and structure the group so the whole is worth more than the parts
• Take the group from founder-run reporting to institutional-grade financials that survive a quality-of-earnings review and a full due diligence process
• Closely monitor the cash engine's performance and protect its economics while other initiatives are underway
• Lead the capital event process alongside the CEO and external advisers, including buyer engagement, diligence management, negotiation support, and post-transaction reporting obligations
• Design the employee incentive architecture at group level, ensuring alignment before a transaction
• Stand up the regulated fund and the investor infrastructure behind it
• Own the framework that decides where the next dollar of operating cash goes, setting clear guardrails and allocating resources based on return profiles and risk characteristics
• Own the relationship with external counsel, auditors, and transaction advisers, ensuring all legal and regulatory requirements are met
• Own the corporate calendar across every entity, managing filings, licences, renewals, and tax deadlines
• Own commercial terms on major partnerships, vendor, affiliate, and talent agreements; legal drafting stays with counsel

Requirements

• 10-20 years in finance, including 3+ years as CFO, Group CFO or VP Finance with full P&L and balance sheet accountability
• Direct, hands-on experience of a transaction. You have been on a sell-side or minority sale process and can describe what you personally built - the model, the CIM, the data room, the diligence responses - and what went wrong
• Multi-entity holdco or portfolio experience. You have run finance across several unlike businesses, not one company with divisions, and you can explain how you consolidated and how you allocated between them
• Sum-of-the-parts fluency. You can value a software business, a subscription publishing business, a services business, and a fee-earning investment business, and explain why each methodology is the right one
• Performance-marketing economics. You have owned unit economics in a business spending meaningful money on paid acquisition - CAC, LTV, payback, front end versus back end
• Multi-jurisdiction experience with real consolidation, ideally including the UAE, the US, and Europe
• Fully conversant in both IFRS and US GAAP, and able to defend technical positions under scrutiny
• Prolific, demonstrable user of AI tools in finance work - you can show us what you have built or automated
• Financial services depth - you have worked across at least two of publishing, education, software, wealth management, or fund management
• Structuring or operating an investment fund: jurisdiction, administration, NAV, fee and carry mechanics, investor reporting
• PE-backed or PE operating experience - you understand how institutional buyers think and what they discount
• Crypto and digital asset exposure. You do not need to be a trader, but you cannot be squeamish about the asset class
• Subscription accounting and deferred revenue depth across high-ticket, payment plan, and recurring products

Preferred

• Financial services depth - you have worked across at least two of publishing, education, software, wealth management, or fund management
• Structuring or operating an investment fund: jurisdiction, administration, NAV, fee and carry mechanics, investor reporting
• PE-backed or PE operating experience - you understand how institutional buyers think and what they discount
• Crypto and digital asset exposure. You do not need to be a trader, but you cannot be squeamish about the asset class
• Subscription accounting and deferred revenue depth across high-ticket, payment plan, and recurring products

What You Must Bring

• Required 10-20 years in finance, including 3+ years as CFO, Group CFO or VP Finance with full P&L and balance sheet accountability
• Direct, hands-on experience of a transaction. You have been on a sell-side or minority sale process and can describe what you personally built - the model, the CIM, the data room, the diligence responses - and what went wrong
• Multi-entity holdco or portfolio experience. You have run finance across several unlike businesses, not one company with divisions, and you can explain how you consolidated and how you allocated between them
• Sum-of-the-parts fluency. You can value a software business, a subscription publishing business, a services business, and a fee-earning investment business, and explain why each methodology is the right one
• Performance-marketing economics. You have owned unit economics in a business spending meaningful money on paid acquisition - CAC, LTV, payback, front end versus back end
• Multi-jurisdiction experience with real consolidation, ideally including the UAE, the US, and Europe
• Fully conversant in both IFRS and US GAAP, and able to defend technical positions under scrutiny
• Prolific, demonstrable user of AI tools in finance work - you can show us what you have built or automated
• Financial services depth - you have worked across at least two of publishing, education, software, wealth management, or fund management
• Structuring or operating an investment fund: jurisdiction, administration, NAV, fee and carry mechanics, investor reporting
• PE-backed or PE operating experience - you understand how institutional buyers think and what they discount
• Crypto and digital asset exposure. You do not need to be a trader, but you cannot be squeamish about the asset class
• Subscription accounting and deferred revenue depth across high-ticket, payment plan, and recurring products

Do Not Apply If...

• Your entire career has been in large corporate environments with no exposure to founder-led, high-growth, or PE-backed businesses
• You have never been close to a transaction and would be learning the process on our timeline
• You have never treated paid acquisition as a strategic cost lever
• You need six months to ramp before you add value
• You prefer slow-moving, consensus-heavy environments, or you fold when a founder pushes back
• You do not want legal, regulatory, and corporate affairs coordination in your remit
• You want to build a large team before you have personally fixed the numbers
• You are not actively using AI tools in your work today