By Role
CFO & Audit Chair — Executive Search
CFOs, Finance Directors, and Audit Committee chairs for industrial businesses with US and Mexico operations.
The CFO seat in an industrial business is not the same seat as the CFO seat in a software business. It sits closer to the plant floor, closer to the customer contract, and closer to the capital plan. Silvia Flores runs CFO, Finance Director, and Audit Committee chair searches for industrial and manufacturing businesses across the US and Mexico — as part of Alder Koten's retained practice.
Where CFO searches fit
Four common patterns. An industrial platform with US and Mexico operations naming a CFO who works US GAAP and Mexican regulatory reporting fluently. A Mexican industrial group hiring a Finance Director for a subsidiary that reports into a US parent. A private-equity-backed value-creation CFO stepping into a platform with a defined exit horizon. And a public or near-public industrial company recruiting an Audit Committee chair with the technical depth to hold the seat.
Roles the practice covers
- CFO — full-scope CFO for industrial platforms with US and Mexico operations
- Finance Director — for Mexican subsidiaries and business units reporting into US or global parents
- Value-Creation CFO — for private-equity-backed industrial platforms with a defined hold period
- Controller and FP&A Director — with manufacturing depth, plant-level absorption, and product costing fluency
- Audit Committee Chair — CPA-track independent directors chairing the audit function of the board
How a CFO search runs
Every engagement runs on The Dynamic Fit Method™ — Ability, Capability, and Capacity assessed against the rate of change the role will carry. For CFO mandates the calibration weighs technical depth (US GAAP, Mexican regulatory, USMCA, transfer pricing), operating fluency (plant P&L, working capital, capital projects), and board-facing judgment as three separate dimensions — not one blended requirement.
Related
For the CEO the CFO partners with, see Chief Executive Officers. For Audit Committee mandates in the broader board context, see Board Directors & Chairs. For sponsor-backed value-creation CFOs, see Private Equity Executive Search.
CFO & Audit Chair — questions
- What makes an industrial CFO different?
- A great industrial CFO reads a plant P&L before they read a corporate P&L. They understand product cost, absorption, PPV, capital projects, and working-capital cycles in a way that finance leaders from software or services rarely do. That plant-floor fluency is what the practice screens for.
- Do you place bilingual CFOs across the US–Mexico border?
- Yes. A meaningful share of CFO mandates are bilingual and bicultural — a Mexico-based Finance Director reporting into a US CFO, or a US CFO overseeing multiple Mexican legal entities. Bilingual technical fluency, not just conversational Spanish, is the bar.
- Do you also place Audit Committee chairs?
- Yes. Audit Committee chair searches are a subset of the board practice — CPA-track directors, ex-CFOs, or ex-audit-partners with public-company or complex-financials experience who can hold the room on controls, filings, and risk.