Korn Ferry has partnered with Pollard Banknote on their search for a Chief Financial Officer.
Client:
Pollard Banknote is a leading lottery partner to more than 60 lotteries worldwide, providing high-quality printed instant lottery tickets (instant tickets), licensed games, in-lane ticket options, and sales-driving merchandising solutions from its Schafer Retail Solutions + portfolio. It also offers a full suite of digital offerings, ranging from world-class game apps to comprehensive player engagement, and full-scale turnkey iLottery solutions, including strategic marketing and management services.
The company is a proven innovator and has decades of experience helping lotteries to maximize player engagement, sales, and proceeds for good causes. Pollard Banknote also provides pull-tab tickets, bingo paper, ticket vending machines, and its Diamond Game and Compliant Gaming electronic games and devices to charitable and other gaming markets in North America.
Established in 1907, Pollard Banknote is headquartered in Winnipeg and owned approximately 64% by the Pollard family and 36% by public shareholders and is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: PBL).
For more information, please visit: http://www.pollardbanknote.com
Opportunity:
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a core member of Pollard Banknote’s Executive Leadership Team and a key advisor to the Co-Chief Executive Officers (the “Co-CEOs”). The CFO is accountable for the administrative, financial, and risk management operations of the Company; while also playing a central role in shaping strategy, allocating capital, and driving enterprise value. As Pollard continues to scale its digital and iLottery businesses alongside its core operations, the CFO will help guide a meaningful evolution of the business, ensuring discipled investment, clear performance visibility, and a strong governance across a more complex, technology-enabled portfolio.
In addition to financial stewardship and public company reporting, Pollard is seeking a CFO who acts as a strategic business partner – helping the Co-CEOs and Executive Leadership Team shape strategy, evaluate trade-offs, allocate capital, and drive execution and accountability across the organization. In addition, the CFO will support the Co-CEOs’ capacity to make high-quality decisions quickly and to execute with discipline.
The CFO must be equally comfortable operating inside the business (commercial, operational, and digital growth decisions) and outside the business (Board/Audit Committee, disclosure, investors, banks, auditors). The successful candidate will pair strong technical depth with pragmatic commercial judgment and the presence to influence at the CEO and Board level.
Key Responsibilities include:
- Enterprise Strategy & CEO/ELT Advisory
- Financial Strategy, Capital Allocation & Value Creation
- Public Company Reporting, Disclosure & Investor Credibility
- Board & Audit Committee Partnership
- Finance Operations, Controls & Stewardship
- Treasury, Capital Structure, Tax & Enterprise Risk
- M&A, Corporate Development & Integration Support
- Commercial Partnership – Contracts, Bids, Pricing & Margin
Candidate:
Pollard is seeking a seasoned, commercially minded CFO who combines public company financial stewardship with the proven ability to act as a hands-on strategic partner during periods of growth and transformation.
In this role, the CFO will:
- Act as a strategic business partner to the Co-CEOs and Executive Leadership Team, translating financial and operational data into clear choices, trade-offs, and actions.
- Shape and oversee capital allocation, ensuring rigorous evaluation of organic investments, major capital projects, digital initiatives, and M&A opportunities.
- Establish and drive a strong performance management cadence, linking strategy to operating plans, KPIs, and measurable outcomes, with clear accountability across the organization.
- Partner closely with commercial teams on contracts, bids, pricing, and margin optimization, bringing financial discipline into customer and growth decisions.
- Lead public company reporting, disclosure, and investor engagement, maintaining credibility with the Board, Audit Committee, and external stakeholders.
- Oversee global finance operations, controls, treasury, tax, and enterprise risk, ensuring both operational excellence and scalability.
The ideal candidate will bring the following experience:
- 15+ years of progressive financial leadership, including CFO or divisional CFO experience in complex, multi-site and/or global organizations.
- Experience in navigating organizations pivoting into digital, e-commerce oriented, or technology-driven businesses.
- Demonstrated success operating in a public company environment with strong governance, audit, and disclosure requirements (TSX/Canadian issuer experience strongly preferred).
- Proven track record as a strategic business partner to a CEO – shaping enterprise decisions, improving execution discipline, and elevating performance management.
- Strong capital allocation and investment evaluation capability, including leading major capital projects, technology modernization, and/or M&A.
- Manufacturing and/or regulated, contract-based environments considered a strong asset.
Education & Credentials
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, or related field required.
- CPA strongly preferred; MBA/CFA considered an asset.
- Demonstrated understanding of IFRS and public issuer reporting expectations.
