CFO and VP Finance search · private equity backed companies · Midwest

The finance leader your investment depends on.

Covenant Search does one thing: finds and places CFOs and VPs of Finance for sponsor-backed companies in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. One lane, done well, with terms that put the risk on us. Every platform close, add-on and exit in those five states is tracked weekly, and every finance leader we map comes from a public record we read ourselves.

Start a conversation How engaged search works

What we do

A specialist, not a generalist.

One role, one market

Finance leaders for PE-backed companies from $3M to $50M EBITDA, in the Midwest. We are not a staffing firm and we do not run searches outside this lane.

We know the seat

Lender reporting, covenant compliance, the first institutional close, a board that wants a 13-week cash view. We screen for people who have carried that, not people who describe it.

We watch the deal flow

Every Midwest platform close, add-on and exit is tracked weekly. When a sponsor calls, we already know the company and who is in the market.

How it works

Engaged search. Skin in the game on both sides.

Scorecard, week one.

We sit with the sponsor and the CEO, write the outcomes the role must deliver in year one, and agree the must-haves before anyone is called.

Map and approach, weeks one to three.

Eighty to one hundred named finance leaders mapped from the market, forty called, the strongest interviewed against the scorecard by us first.

Shortlist in 30 days.

Three to five qualified, interested candidates with written assessments. Weekly status until the offer is signed.

Reference and close.

Structured references on the finalist, help with the offer, and a check-in at 30, 90 and 180 days after start.

The fee. A modest engagement fee at signing, the balance when the placement starts. Not a full retainer, never pure contingency.

The guarantee. If the placed executive leaves in the first year, we replace them at no additional fee.

Off-limits. We do not recruit from a client's company for two years after a search.

Who we are

Joe Benenati, Founder

Joe founded Covenant Search after years of running a company of his own. He owns and operates a licensed residential construction business in Michigan, which is where he learned what a finance leader has to carry when the numbers have to be right every week, not every quarter.

He holds a finance degree from Michigan State University's Broad College of Business and a Michigan insurance license, and he came to search from the operating side, not the agency side.

He works the Midwest from Shelby Township, Michigan, and takes every client and candidate call himself. Read how he runs a search and what the data says.

Contact

Fifteen minutes is enough to find out.

If you are a sponsor or CEO who will need a finance leader in the next year, or a finance leader thinking about the next seat, write or call. No pitch. We would rather learn how you handle it today.

Email: joe@covenantsearch.com Shelby Township, Michigan