About
C Level Finance
Discover the founder-led expertise and partnership philosophy driving our success
Our Story:
The "Banker's Lens"
My journey in banking
I worked 28 years as a corporate and commercial banker in international financial institutions.
Once I joined ABN AMRO and (then) Citibank, I got the chance to have significant international and multicultural exposure.
As a banker, I met and worked alongside thousands of people from banking, financial institutions, finance, and accounting across all industries.
When I first started as a junior banker I got my CPA certification. For some years I took a 2nd job as part-time accountant for small companies. My 3rd side job was teaching accounting training courses.
It was tough during these years, struggling to keep up with the different demands of three parallel jobs but this proved to be of tremendous help later in my banking career.
I have gained a better understanding of accounting and of finance in general. And this helped me progress as a banker. Credit analysis, a strange concept at the beginning, became pretty familiar.
I was involved in a number of big projects:
-the launch of retail banking in both ABN Amro and Citi
-the launch of commercial banking in Citi
-the launch of options
-managed to grow significantly both banks portfolio of corporate and global clients
-believe it or not I somehow managed to get out banking with zero non-performing loans tagged to my portfolio/name
It was straightforward until...it wasn't.
Banks were quick to consolidate. Cutting costs and increasing capital efficiency became the name of the game.
"It was straight forward until... it wasn't."
The UAE Market Challenge:
A Supply/Demand Imbalance
The Market Gap
Six years ago I began evaluating the concept of a startup in recruiting in banking, finance, accounting, controlling, FP&A, and treasury.
Actually, the people I already knew, met, and worked with for 28 years.
I began leveraging the unparalleled network of outstanding, talented professionals I had built.
Finance professionals play a crucial role in driving business success and economic stability.
5 years ago, everyone was searching for IT professionals.
Everyone was talking about the lack of IT professionals.
And yet there was another stark decline no one noticed.
Fewer and fewer people were choosing finance and accounting as a career.
Companies started to signal difficulties in finding skilled candidates:
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the accounting profession is aging (quite a number of them are nearing retiring age).
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graduates find no incentives to join the profession.
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educational requirements are too high.
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pay hasn't kept pace with other professions.
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concerns about automation and AI replacing jobs had grown.
"Fewer and fewer people were choosing finance and accounting as a career."
Our Solution: A Model Built on Expertise
Founding C Level Finance
Once I identified this niche, I decided to set up the business.
I learned on the job from some of the most experienced recruiters in the US, UK, and Australia.
Our first CFO recruiting project was signed at the end of November 2019.
The successful candidate signed the offer end of December and joined early January 2020 with plans to hire C Level Finance to recruit a Chief Accountant and financial controllers and senior accountants.
It was recruiters' Nirvana right there and then.
Little did we know what would happen two months later: the COVID pandemic.
Those challenges, right there, crystallized the vision for C Level Finance.
Our strategic expansion into DIFC/ADGM is a direct response to the region's critical need for vetted, high-performance financial leadership.
In the meantime, we were busy perfecting powerful, data-driven tools into our offering:
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Scientific Validation (McQuaig®): We use McQuaig psychometric diagnostics to provide a data-driven filter for cultural and temperamental fit, ensuring precision and speed.
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Onboarding Design (ADKAR®): We build custom 90-Day Onboarding Blueprints using the Prosci® ADKAR® model to ensure new hires are effective from Day One.
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As a separate, premium service, we also decided to offer Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching (MG SCC) as post-placement "Leadership Transformation" for C-suite clients.
To scale search precision without operational noise, we systematically backed our advisory with a secured, dedicated research division.
This desk acts as our clinical anchor—verifying market intelligence and
de-risking every placement before any introduction is made.
I'll keep adding to this page as we progress as a team and as a business.
The true cost of a failed finance hire is not the search fee—it is the strategic paralysis that follows.
Our Guiding Principles
Human-Led Search
While automation is on everyone's mind these days we believe the human connection is tremendously undervalued.
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We do not use recruiting platforms.
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Passive approach is not going to cut it.
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We proactively engage talent.
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Value (often) hides with candidates that are not looking for a new job.
Undivided Focus
We do not engage in competing projects for several reasons:
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Not fair for our clients
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Not fair for our candidates
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Could be lucrative for us as recruiters but it's so biased
Radical Transparency
We are an open book.
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Too many recruiting projects go south because all parties are keeping things to themselves.
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A recipe for failure.
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So let's share the whole picture.
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It's for the better. We all avoid nasty things along the way.
Vested Partnership
We keep skin in the game.
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Our definition of success is not a 'placement.' It is a leader who is thriving in your organization three to six months after their start date.
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We are partners in that long-term outcome, which is why our process is built on a foundation of radical transparency and a non-negotiable guarantee.
Meet The Team
Behind every strategic diagnosis and high-stakes executive placement runs a highly secured, dedicated infrastructure for macroeconomic research and data governance.
To guarantee the absolute confidentiality of our clients' search strategies and protect our private network of over 12,000 financial executives, C Level Finance operates under a strict AI Airgap Protocol.
All candidate intelligence, market mapping, and GDPR/PLD compliance validation are managed internally by our dedicated Operations & Data Integrity Desk.
By aligning with the highest international compliance standards—including the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) and UAE Preventive and Protective Due Diligence (PPD/PLD) mandates—our research and data operations remain completely isolated and anonymous.
This strict compartmentalization ensures that proprietary P&L insights and executive identities are never exposed to external networks, delivering absolute operational security to the Boards and Family Offices we partner with.