Creating Thinking Space
At CFA Society New York, interim executive leadership gave the association’s board a gift of time to assess what it needed in a new CEO.
Interim CEOs frequently position their successors for positive starts. In fact, the ASAE Research Foundation’s 2022 study The Role of the Interim CEO: Key Insights of Association Executive Transitions makes that very point. However, equally important is the role that an interim CEO can play in affording an organization’s board breathing room to work with its search firm to think through the capacities and characteristics needed in a permanent CEO—and make a well-informed hiring decision.
That is what happened at CFA Society New York, a regional association of about 12,000 members that serves as a forum for engagement and learning for investment management professionals, including programming to support earning the national CFA Institute’s Chartered Financial Analyst certification. While working with Vetted Solutions on its executive search, the leadership of CFA Society New York hired a Vetted-recommended interim CEO, Sean Conaton, to lead the staff and accomplish specific goals during a one-year engagement.
Establishing Trust
“The board needed time to think through what they wanted in a permanent CEO—and to do that very well,” says Conaton. To create the space for that focus, the board and Vetted Solutions leaders realized that the association needed an interim executive who could guide a staff of 15 through a period marked by the pandemic. Conaton’s credentials were influential: previous C-level interim experience and a background with well-respected management consulting firms. However, he points out that the crucial reason for the good match with CFA Society New York was that he and the board quickly established trust. Not only did the interview process suggest a basis for mutual trust, but Conaton’s nearly immediate and ongoing contributions—identifying opportunities to deliver value, acting with a sense of urgency on the board’s behalf, and communicating clearly—affirmed it.
Staffing and Stabilizing
As with other interim engagements, this one was intentionally focused on leadership activities that ultimately would a support a good starting point for the permanent CEO. The society set two priorities:
1. Appropriately staff the organization, which meant filling two key senior staff openings—one in marketing and the other in partnerships—and a third position that did not report to the CEO.
2. Stabilize operations for a post-pandemic world.
On the staffing front, Conaton acted swiftly, strategically, and inclusively. “As an interim, the level of detail about staffing that you share with the board is generally higher than when you are the permanent CEO, and I think that’s appropriate because you are there for a short period,” he says. “For example, I’d tell the board, ‘I’m thinking of prioritizing the recruitment and hiring of the positions in this way. Is that consistent with your thinking? What do you think will serve the organization best in the long term?’ ”
Refining the Operational Dynamic
While prioritizing the hiring and onboarding of crucial staff, Conaton and CFA Society New York also reached an operational crossroads. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff pivoted well from an in-person model for events and training to virtual engagement. Emerging from the worst of the pandemic, the Conaton-led staff was experiencing capacity strain “The operational dynamic had been that we’d respond to any member request,” he explains. The requests frequently focused on programming, as CFA Society New York relies heavily on member-created content. “We had to assess how we could be responsive with some boundaries in place.” He and the staff introduced an operational planning process that set a predetermined number of slots for quality programming and asked the members to define the content types and priorities.
Was introducing the new framework challenging? “Staff was not comfortable having that conversation with the board, but I could be the person to carry forward the recommendation,” says Conaton. “It was actually an easy conversation. The board was very supportive and appreciative of the thought that had gone into the process.”
During the interim engagement, Conaton and the team addressed three other vital operational areas. First was ensuring member and candidate engagement in society-hosted virtual training delivered in concert with CFA-approved test prep providers, who were partners. Pre-pandemic, the training was delivered in person. Second was recognition that the society would have to work harder to get members’ attention. In both instances, says Conaton, the keys were active communication and intentionality and consistency in “helping participants feel that CFA Society New York is your home, even though you cannot join us in the office right now because of the pandemic.”
The third focus was a revenue stream opportunity in sponsorships and other industry partnerships. Conaton worked with the board to define guidelines for the kinds of sponsorships that the society would accept. Further, he identified opportunities in the investment management and financial services industry, ultimately operationalizing the revenue program and beginning to generate some income.
Supporting the CEO Search
The one-year period of Conaton’s interim engagement was enough to achieve the operational strides that CFA Society New York board had prioritized. Yet there was an additional value to his staff tenure. As they worked with Vetted Solutions on the search, the board leaders’ observations of Conaton’s focus areas and performance helped to inform the preferred qualities they sought in a permanent CEO. As Conaton points out, this board was highly engaged and intent on being thorough in its hiring process. “They really wanted to invest the time to get the CEO hire right.”
