Executive Search: Packaging Finance Director

How Stanton Chase wrapped up a Finance Director search for an Italian packaging group in Vienna in 90 days

>The Background 
An Italian Packaging Group Acquiring an Austrian Family Business 

Our client is an Italian packaging group that had recently acquired a successful Austrian family-owned packaging business in Vienna. With the previous Finance Director, who was also a family member, stepping back from the role, the new owner engaged Stanton Chase to run a packaging executive search for a replacement Finance Director. 

The new Finance Director would also act as post-merger integration manager for the Austrian operation, with the job of folding the Austrian business into the Italian parent’s global structure. 

>The Challenge 
Two Cultures, Two Accounting Frameworks, One Finance Director 

The two cultures inside the deal were very different. The Austrian business was a small niche success with limited reporting structures under Austrian GAAP and the looser rhythm of a family-owned company. The Italian acquirer was a globally operating corporate group reporting under IFRS, with a hierarchical structure and a strong appetite for integrating the Austrian business quickly. 

The Finance Director we found would need to sit comfortably inside both worlds at the same time, working in fluent German and English, equally familiar with Austrian GAAP and IFRS, and at home in both an Italian corporate environment and an Austrian family-business environment that still needed reassurance and encouragement to settle into the new ownership. 

>The Solution 
Why the First Candidate We Presented Won the Role 

After some initial coordination difficulties with the impatient new owner, our packaging executive search team in Vienna presented strong candidates relatively quickly. Each one was fluent in German and English, familiar with both Austrian GAAP and IFRS, trained at a Big Four accounting and consulting firm, and seasoned in controlling roles in industry. 

The very first candidate we presented was the one who ultimately prevailed after several internal interview rounds. He was equally at ease in both the Italian corporate culture and the Austrian family-business culture, which mattered as much as his technical skills. 

The assignment also required us to drive the process actively. Internally on the client side it was often unclear who was supposed to interview the candidate next or where feedback should go. We managed the process from the outside, kept it moving, and placed the new Finance Director after 90 days. 

>Our Team 
Cross-Border Finance Executive Search Specialists in Vienna

This packaging sector search was led by Christoph Leydolt, Partner at Stanton Chase Vienna. Our Austrian team specializes in cross-border finance assignments where the right Finance Director, Chief Financial Officer, or post-merger integration leader has to work credibly inside two cultures at once. We bring the local network and the international experience to find candidates who can hold both ends of an integration together.