The CFO Centre South Africa was founded in 2010 by Rowan De Klerk. We are jointly owned by the international group The CFO Centre Group headquartered in the UK. As the World’s Number #1 provider of CFO services to SMEs and larger corporations, we supply high-value fractional, contract, and permanent Financial Leadership Solutions to clients across South Africa and the rest of Africa.

The FD Centre South Africa is part of an international group founded in the UK in 2001 by current chairman Colin Mills. Over the last two years The FD Centre has become the largest and most respected provider of part-time finance director (FD) services in South Africa.

The FD Centre works with business owners, entrepreneurs and corporate executives on business and financial strategy, operational finance improvements and efficiencies and helps to provide business support by managing key stakeholder relationships inside and outside the organisation.

Ambitious companies are provided access to top notch part-time FDs working on their business, bringing “big business experience” at a fraction of the cost of a full-time resource. In this way the owner and business benefit tremendously. Not only is there a highly skilled person with the relevant experience that the owner can turn to as a sounding board; but The FD Centre Principal also brings reassurance and science to the forward planning process, to ensure that all meaningful opportunities can be taken advantage of and that the owner is freed up to focus on the core value drivers of the business.

The FD Centre’s other target market is the “Office of the CFO” in large corporations. Here high-level capacity is required as and when the need arises. This may be in the form of “specialised” and “focused projects”; or through the provision of “interim placements” whilst the company addresses resourcing and capacity issues. In both cases there is assurance that key issues are being dealt with by professionals with proven know-how and experience.

The FD Centre engages Principals with strategic and commercial capability. Typically, their FDs have gained broad business acumen as FD or CEO of their own business venture or as corporate CFOs with 20 to 30 years of senior management experience. All their FDs are qualified and registered chartered accountants (SAICA or CIMA). They have walked the walk.

An FD is not merely assigned to a company, each engagement is carefully assessed based on the company’s culture, leadership and business needs as well as the economic sector, which tends to go beyond qualification and years of experience. All FDs are carefully screened and psychometrically profiled to ensure they are aligned to the business purpose, culture and leadership style of the company. It is imperative that they have the necessary qualities to help guide the organisation through intense, high growth, as well as ever changing and challenging economic times.

The FD is essential for ensuring that business operations are effectively optimised to achieve cost benefit, focusing not only on profit improvement, but making sure that cash flows required to sustain the organisation for the long term are properly managed. “Matt helped us make sense of it all, while also providing assistance on various projects ranging from cash planning to restructuring the finance team and ensuring a succession plan is in place. His input is not restricted to finance, however; I have often used him as a sounding board, and I consider him a resource for general business guidance and advice.”Ronelle Kleyn CEO – FluidRock.

The FD not only manages finances, but coaches and mentors the CEO to help achieve his/her dream and vision for the business. A primary goal is to assist in taking the business forward through developing a robust, future proof business and financial strategy. While entrepreneurs often have a specific set of skills in product innovation or business development, they do not always have deep knowledge of best practice finance processes and systems. The FD provides a support function that will go beyond finance to include aspects such as leadership, coaching IT, relationship management and human resources. “We were impressed by The FD Centre’s ability to look at a company’s processes and workflow from an outsider’s point of view, thus allowing for subjective feedback, ideas and thoughts from a fresh perspective.” Maxime Regnart – Human Resources Manager -Sintech.

The cornerstones of The FD Centre’s offering are collaboration, objectivity and trust. At times a number of different Team members (FDs) who have complementary skills and combined experience may be assigned to support a Client in order to navigate certain complex business matters, such as exit planning and completing the sale of your business at optimum value.

This means that besides having their own FD, The FD Centre’s clients also have access to a local, national and international Team of over 650 CFOs worldwide.
A typical client engagement starts from about two days per month upwards, working at the client’s premises or virtually to suit current circumstances, with additional availability via phone and e-mail. Engagements run from month to month, as long as a project requires, but tend to last many years once a relationship is forged and enduring value is delivered.

The FD Centre prides itself on building long-term relationships with its clients through its range of services and highly trusted delivery mechanism. The FD Centre has a presence in three African countries namely: Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique, however we are able to serve any country in Africa via South African resources or via our African partners.