Equity CFO - Games Developer

We are excited to be handling the exclusive recruitment mandate for this truly exceptional career opportunity, including significant personal wealth Equity incentive, for a highly entrepreneurial CFO with this multi-award winning, highly innovative and rapidly growing Games Development market leader, with impressive creative studios based in Leeds & London, as well as plans to open in New York later this year.

Role summary - the ideal candidate can live anywhere in the UK, working on v flexible basis from home with access to either Leeds or London studios a couple of days/wk.

Operating as "business partner" to the founder/CEO as part of a cohesive and highly motivated SMT, to provide financial leadership and also a significant level of operational/commercial/strategic hands-on input/influence to ensure the profitable growth and development of the business leading to an eventual successful exit delivering optimal shareholder value.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop a small, efficient hands-on Finance team to ensure the timely and accurate production of all financial, management & statutory reporting/analysis..
• Develop and professionalise the entire infrastructure of the business to be able to support & facilitate the ongoing rapid expansion of the business.
• Operate as trusted and respected first point of contact with all external professional bodies – VC/PE Investment Partners, Auditors, Bank, Tax authorities, Advisors etc.
• Operate as a key member of the SMT to provide clear leadership to achieve the consistent highest levels of operational business performance.
• Working closely with the Creative teams – Producers, Game Designers, Animators & Artists etc – to ensure the proactive control and visibility of a range of concurrent Commercial projects under development; on time & within budget to deliver high levels of customer satisfaction as well as consistent margins/profit targets for the business.
• Support the CEO to provide astute financial appraisal of potential new business initiatives & opportunities.
• Work closely with the Creative Heads to proactively explore the business feasibility and risk/return analysis of developing new, state of the art Games digital platforms.
• Take ownership for the successful completion of a series of potentially increasingly large fund-raising events.
• Maximise the top and bottom line growth of the business to create the highest possible enterprise value (EV) of the company at the stage of planned exit strategy within the next 4-5 years.

Specific Experience Required:

• The CEO has clearly confirmed the successful candidate, working v closely as his financial/operational/strategic "business partner", MUST have proven successful experience within a closely related Creative Industry sector – Games Development/Digital Media/Digital Marketing/Advertising Agency/Entertainment/Film/TV etc - with a focus on concurrent multi-projects in a professional time-charging "creative" environment.

Personal Attributes:

• High calibre qualified accountant with the ability and band-width to add real value to the successful development of the business.
• Highly entrepreneurial with natural business acumen & commercial nous.
• Possess the energy, drive and ambition to “make things happen” and thrive off the pace of playing a leading role in this extremely fast moving, rapid growth "creative" environment.
• Strong professional stakeholder management skills.
• Additional Fund-raising/M&A experience would also be an advantage, although not pre-requisite.

In return, my client offers an executive level package including salary up to £140k with the additional Equity participation expected to deliver significant "7 figure" shareholder value on exit.

If you closely match the profile and specific "Creative Industry" sector experience required, we want to hear from you now.

Please send your CV in strictest confidence to Martin Morgan, the retained consultant - all strong relevant applicants can expect a direct prompt response. Alternatively, feel free to pick up the phone to contact Martin for an initial confidential discussion.