Position: Chief Financial Officer, PE-backed Commercial MEP Platform Roll-up
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman
Location: Remote, with residence required near a major airport. Central or Eastern time zone preferred.
Position: Chief Financial Officer, PE-backed Commercial MEP Platform Roll-up
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman
Location: Remote, with residence required near a major airport. Central or Eastern time zone preferred.
Travel: Approximately fifty percent, to operating companies across the Midwest and to board and sponsor meetings.
Compensation: Competitive base salary, annual performance bonus, and meaningful equity participation in the platform. Specifics discussed in the first conversation.
Chamberlain Advisors is conducting an executive search for Foundral, Inc., a Midwest platform of union labor commercial mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, process piping and specialty trade businesses. Backed by McNally Capital, Foundral has assembled a group of established, industry-leading operating companies and is pursuing an acquisition-led growth strategy that is expected to roughly double the platform entering 2027 and to carry it to materially greater scale by the end of the decade. The Chief Financial Officer is the platform's first, and will build the corporate finance function that does not exist today while serving as the Chief Executive Officer's principal partner to the Board, the sponsor, lenders and surety providers.
Core Profile: alignment with the following is required to get you in the conversation
- Project Controls and Work in Progress (the threshold qualification): You will own project controls outright for a portfolio of long-duration commercial construction and service businesses, and you will do it as a forecaster rather than a reporter. Work in progress and percentage of completion are not a reporting obligation here, they are the instrument you use to see a problem before it reaches the profit and loss: margin fade diagnosed to cause, under and over billings and cost in excess read as leading indicators, project cash flow traced to the jobs absorbing working capital. You will go line by line with operating company presidents who have run these schedules for decades, and be credible doing it. A candidate who intends to learn this on the job does not clear the bar; a candidate who cannot narrate reading a schedule and heading off a loss fails the first screen.
- Building the Platform Finance Function From a Standing Start: You will build the platform finance layer that does not exist today. There is no corporate controllership, no platform close, no consolidated reporting standard and no team beneath you on day one. Your first hire is a corporate controller, budgeted to start as soon as possible: three entities consolidate today, and that workload changes materially the moment the next acquisitions close. A VP of Finance follows, and financial planning and analysis behind that in the back half of 2027, already carried in the approved budget. These are your hires to make. Operating company finance leaders sit in their operating companies and report to their presidents today. The chief executive has set no line in the sand, leans toward a straight line to you with a dotted line to the presidents, and has left both the decision and its timing to you. So you begin by setting standards you do not yet command, and compress a close that runs one to two weeks toward a three to four day discipline. You will do the work yourself while you build the bench, including work well below your title. This is construction, not succession, and the first year is measured by what exists at the end of it that did not exist at the start.
- Capital Structure, Lenders, Surety and Cash in a Leveraged Platform: You will take ownership of a capital structure the operating companies never carried. Credit agreement compliance sits with one person at one operating company today and does not scale. You will own covenant compliance, lender reporting and the borrowing base certificate that carries your signature, and you will build a cash forecast that reflects how this business actually converts: retainage held against long-duration jobs, billing terms reset where a customer is financing themselves on your working capital, and cash dynamics that differ company by company and job by job. You will manage the surety relationship directly rather than through the broker, carrying cost to complete on bonded work and forward bonding needs, against capacity that is only lightly utilized and is a growth lever rather than a constraint. What is screened here is not how many credit agreements you have read. It is whether leverage, trailing twelve month EBITDA and cash position stay current in your head week to week, so a covenant issue surfaces early rather than three days before the monthly report goes out.
- Acquisition Integration, Weighted Ahead of Deal Execution: You will be measured on what happens after the close, not at it. The weighting is explicit at roughly seventy percent integration and ongoing management against thirty percent deal support, and deal count is not a scoring driver. Corporate development owns negotiation, the data room and the quality of earnings; you read the outputs, own the management forecast, run the project and work in progress diligence, and carry closing statement work and post-close working capital. Then you integrate: the people, the processes, the chart of accounts, the systems, and a founder who has never answered to anyone. You will bring first-time sellers along rather than break them, which means answering the why rather than issuing the standard. Expect two to four acquisitions a year, where complexity compounds faster than count.
- The Operator-Leader: Presence, Bench and Low Ego: You will be the chief executive's number two and the sponsor's principal counterpart, and you will hold both without a staff to hide behind. You will be a genuinely good boss, screened on whether your lieutenants stayed and grew, because managerial failure is the single most common way this seat has failed before. You will hold a room under scrutiny, in a management presentation, with a lender and eventually with a buyer, and be a plus-up rather than a liability in that setting. You will carry no ego into a platform where everyone wears several hats. You will absorb a sponsor load heavier than the chief executive's own, adapt when the plan is disrupted rather than resent it, and bring problems forward early with a proposed answer attached.
Core Responsibilities & Scope Of Work:
Strategic Leadership, Value Creation and Executive Partnership
- Trusted advisor and principal liaison: Serve as trusted advisor to the Chief Executive Officer, the Board and investors on financial strategy, performance and enterprise risk, and act as the primary liaison to the sponsor, lenders and the Board, absorbing a sponsor reporting load heavier than the Chief Executive's own.
- Planning and capital allocation: Lead long-term financial planning, budgeting, variance analysis, forecasting and capital allocation, and translate financial and operational data into actionable insight that drives EBITDA growth, cash flow and risk mitigation.
- Value creation levers: Understand and actively drive the platform's key value creation levers, evaluating strategic initiatives, investments and acquisitions with a disciplined risk-return approach.
- Board and investor reporting: Prepare and deliver concise, insight-driven reporting and board presentations, and support exit readiness including investor presentations and diligence processes.
Project Controls, Planning and Performance Management
- Project controls ownership: Own project controls outright across the platform, covering work in progress, percentage of completion, margin fade, under and over billings, cost in excess of billings and project cash flow, and implement controls that proactively assess and mitigate operational risk.
- Forecasting discipline: Use the work in progress schedule as a forecasting instrument rather than a reporting obligation, diagnosing margin erosion to cause before it reaches the profit and loss, and work line by line with operating company presidents who have run these schedules for decades.
- Performance management: Establish and monitor key performance indicators aligned with the value creation plan, lead enterprise-wide financial analytics and performance management, and partner with operating leaders to improve profitability, productivity and margins.
- Working capital and cash: Drive working capital efficiency, pricing discipline and cash flow optimization across accounts receivable, accounts payable, retainage and work in progress, and build a cash forecast that reflects how a long-duration, job-by-job business actually converts.
Financial Operations, Systems and Technology Ownership
- Controllership build: Bring corporate controllership into the platform, which is not solved today and is part of this seat rather than an inheritance from it, and oversee accounting, financial reporting, treasury, tax, audit and compliance while producing high-quality, reliable financial statements in a timely manner.
- Close, controls and governance: Ensure timely, accurate GAAP-compliant reporting and audit readiness, compress a close that runs one to two weeks toward a three to four day discipline, and maintain strong internal controls alongside a clear financial Delegation of Authority framework defining approval thresholds, spending authority and accountability across the platform and its operating companies.
- Treasury and banking: Lead liquidity planning, forecasting and banking relationships, and design, implement and continuously optimize the bank account structure for efficient cash management, visibility, control and scalability across a multi-entity platform.
- ERP and technology oversight: Own the business requirements and finance-module scope for ERP and financial systems implementation, upgrade and standardization across operating companies, partnering with the Senior Director of IT who leads platform-level program delivery, and provide executive oversight of enterprise IT strategy, cybersecurity and data governance as they affect financial data, controls and reporting, together with the financial and capital dimensions of the fleet management program.
Acquisition Integration, Capital Structure and Surety
- Integration first: Own post-acquisition integration end to end, covering people, processes, chart of accounts, systems, reporting and performance tracking at a pace of roughly two to four acquisitions a year, weighted at approximately seventy percent integration and ongoing management against thirty percent deal support, where deal count is not a scoring driver.
- Deal support: Support valuation, structuring and financial modeling, own the management forecast, run project and work in progress diligence, carry closing statement work and post-close working capital, and pressure-test the diligence and Quality of Earnings outputs led by Corporate Development, who owns negotiation and the data room, while partnering with executives and investors to evaluate and execute opportunities and assessing target financials, working capital, cash flow and surety implications.
- Lenders and capital structure: Own covenant compliance, lender reporting and the borrowing base certificate, ensure acquisition alignment with credit agreements, oversee lender compliance certificates, develop lender presentations and financing materials, manage principal and interest forecasting, coordinate with lenders on approvals, amendments and waivers, and lead financing, refinancing and capital structure optimization while monitoring leverage with credit partners.
- Surety and enterprise risk: Manage the surety relationship directly rather than through the broker, maintaining and optimizing bonding capacity, indemnity obligations and surety reporting, carrying cost to complete on bonded work and forward bonding needs against a program that is lightly utilized today and is a growth lever rather than a constraint, and lead enterprise risk management alongside corporate insurance and risk transfer strategies.
Leadership, Governance and Team Development
- Build the function: Build the platform finance organization from a standing start, where the first hire is a corporate controller, budgeted to start as soon as possible, followed by a Vice President of Finance and then financial planning and analysis in the back half of 2027, each carried in the approved 2027 budget.
- Lead by doing: Do the work personally while building the bench, including work well below the title, and function as a player-coach in a fast-paced environment.
- Influence without authority: Set standards for operating company finance leaders who report to their presidents rather than to this seat, earning adoption rather than commanding it, and partner with and develop finance leaders across the operating companies.
- Governance and culture: Be a genuinely good boss, measured on whether direct reports stay and grow, since managerial failure is the most common way this seat has failed before, and ensure strong internal audit, compliance and governance frameworks while fostering a culture of accountability, transparency and continuous improvement.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance or a related field required. CPA strongly preferred; MBA a plus.
- Fifteen or more years of progressive finance leadership experience.
- Currently or previously the Chief Financial Officer of an operating company, division or business unit. A Controller or Senior Vice President of Finance who has been the head of finance for a business also qualifies; a Vice President of Finance who has never held the top finance seat does not.
- Structural complexity rather than revenue is the scale gate: multi-entity, multi-state, union and bonded, with several operating companies under one roof. A platform of seven or eight operating companies across three states qualifies where a larger single-entity operator does not, and revenue is directional only.
- Significant experience in private equity-backed companies, including operating within leveraged capital structures with covenant compliance, lender reporting and debt management.
- Industry experience in industrial services, construction or related sectors required, with preference running mechanical or MEP specialty first, then specialty trade under a general contractor, then general contracting, then project-based businesses outside contracting.
- Deep working command of cost-to-cost, percentage-of-completion accounting and work in process, which is the threshold technical requirement and the first screen.
- Proven success scaling multi-entity or decentralized organizations and designing scalable financial and cash management infrastructure.
- Demonstrated M&A experience encompassing oversight of financial diligence, the ability to pressure-test third-party Quality of Earnings and tax work rather than perform it, and post-acquisition integration of acquired companies onto common systems, reporting and controls.
- Knowledge of surety bonding and construction financial metrics, with experience in risk management, governance frameworks and internal controls.
- Experience with ERP and financial systems implementation, migration and consolidation across a decentralized, multi-entity environment, and familiarity with data analytics tools.
- Strong grounding in GAAP, corporate finance and treasury, with advanced financial modeling, forecasting and cash flow management.
- Experience in union labor environments, including multiemployer pension and withdrawal liability, certified payroll and fringe benefit fund reporting, is valued but is not a screen; what matters is forecasting literacy on a labor base that moves on bargaining cycles.
- Demonstrated people leadership with a record of direct reports who stayed and were promoted, and the ability to influence and challenge stakeholders constructively and drive change through influence rather than authority.
- Low ego, hands-on and solutions-oriented, able to hold a room under scrutiny in a management presentation, with a lender and eventually with a buyer, and to bring problems forward early with a proposed answer attached.
- Remote, with residence near a major airport and willingness to travel approximately fifty percent to operating companies and to board and sponsor meetings. Central or Eastern time zone preferred.
About Our Client
Foundral is building a Midwest platform of commercial mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, process piping and specialty trade contractors, assembled from established businesses with long operating histories and deep customer relationships. The platform is union labor and commercial rather than residential, with a deliberate concentration in markets where larger competitors have chased bigger metros. Its operating companies deliver complex, long-duration construction work alongside a growing recurring service line, and the platform's sponsor raises from some of the same pension funds that support the union labor doing the work.
Travel: Approximately fifty percent, to operating companies across the Midwest and to board and sponsor meetings.
Compensation: Competitive base salary, annual performance bonus, and meaningful equity participation in the platform. Specifics discussed in the first conversation.
Chamberlain Advisors is conducting an executive search for Foundral, Inc., a Midwest platform of union labor commercial mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, process piping and specialty trade businesses. Backed by McNally Capital, Foundral has assembled a group of established, industry-leading operating companies and is pursuing an acquisition-led growth strategy that is expected to roughly double the platform entering 2027 and to carry it to materially greater scale by the end of the decade. The Chief Financial Officer is the platform's first, and will build the corporate finance function that does not exist today while serving as the Chief Executive Officer's principal partner to the Board, the sponsor, lenders and surety providers.
Core Profile: alignment with the following is required to get you in the conversation
- Project Controls and Work in Progress (the threshold qualification): You will own project controls outright for a portfolio of long-duration commercial construction and service businesses, and you will do it as a forecaster rather than a reporter. Work in progress and percentage of completion are not a reporting obligation here, they are the instrument you use to see a problem before it reaches the profit and loss: margin fade diagnosed to cause, under and over billings and cost in excess read as leading indicators, project cash flow traced to the jobs absorbing working capital. You will go line by line with operating company presidents who have run these schedules for decades, and be credible doing it. A candidate who intends to learn this on the job does not clear the bar; a candidate who cannot narrate reading a schedule and heading off a loss fails the first screen.
- Building the Platform Finance Function From a Standing Start: You will build the platform finance layer that does not exist today. There is no corporate controllership, no platform close, no consolidated reporting standard and no team beneath you on day one. Your first hire is a corporate controller, budgeted to start as soon as possible: three entities consolidate today, and that workload changes materially the moment the next acquisitions close. A VP of Finance follows, and financial planning and analysis behind that in the back half of 2027, already carried in the approved budget. These are your hires to make. Operating company finance leaders stay in their seats reporting to their presidents, so you will set standards you do not command, and compress a close that runs one to two weeks toward a three to four day discipline. You will do the work yourself while you build the bench, including work well below your title. This is construction, not succession, and the first year is measured by what exists at the end of it that did not exist at the start.
- Capital Structure, Lenders, Surety and Cash in a Leveraged Platform: You will take ownership of a capital structure the operating companies never carried. Credit agreement compliance sits with one person at one operating company today and does not scale. You will own covenant compliance, lender reporting and the borrowing base certificate that carries your signature, and you will build a cash forecast that reflects how this business actually converts: retainage held against long-duration jobs, billing terms reset where a customer is financing themselves on your working capital, and cash dynamics that differ company by company and job by job. You will manage the surety relationship directly rather than through the broker, carrying cost to complete on bonded work and forward bonding needs, against capacity that is only lightly utilized and is a growth lever rather than a constraint. What is screened here is not how many credit agreements you have read. It is whether leverage, trailing twelve month EBITDA and cash position stay current in your head week to week, so a covenant issue surfaces early rather than three days before the monthly report goes out.
- Acquisition Integration, Weighted Ahead of Deal Execution: You will be measured on what happens after the close, not at it. The weighting is explicit at roughly seventy percent integration and ongoing management against thirty percent deal support, and deal count is not a scoring driver. Corporate development owns negotiation, the data room and the quality of earnings; you read the outputs, own the management forecast, run the project and work in progress diligence, and carry closing statement work and post-close working capital. Then you integrate: the people, the processes, the chart of accounts, the systems, and a founder who has never answered to anyone. You will bring first-time sellers along rather than break them, which means answering the why rather than issuing the standard. Expect two to four acquisitions a year, where complexity compounds faster than count.
- The Operator-Leader: Presence, Bench and Low Ego: You will be the chief executive's number two and the sponsor's principal counterpart, and you will hold both without a staff to hide behind. You will be a genuinely good boss, screened on whether your lieutenants stayed and grew, because managerial failure is the single most common way this seat has failed before. You will hold a room under scrutiny, in a management presentation, with a lender and eventually with a buyer, and be a plus-up rather than a liability in that setting. You will carry no ego into a platform where everyone wears several hats. You will absorb a sponsor load heavier than the chief executive's own, adapt when the plan is disrupted rather than resent it, and bring problems forward early with a proposed answer attached.
About Our Client
Foundral is building a Midwest platform of commercial mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, process piping and specialty trade contractors, assembled from established businesses with long operating histories and deep customer relationships. The platform is union labor and commercial rather than residential, with a deliberate concentration in markets where larger competitors have chased bigger metros. Its operating companies deliver complex, long-duration construction work alongside a growing recurring service line, and the platform's sponsor raises from some of the same pension funds that support the union labor doing the work.
