Westwick Partners
Services

Family office interim management

A partner holds the chief executive's seat while the family decides what comes next. For boards, principals and family offices between two appointments.

When the seat is empty.

  • The chief executive has left, or is about to, and the board does not want to recruit under pressure.
  • A founder is stepping back and the office still runs around them; the next principals want a steady hand before they choose a permanent one.
  • A liquidity event or a restructuring has changed what the office must do, and the role needs redefining before it is filled.
  • The team is sound but has lost its leader; the family wants continuity for the people and the counterparties while it decides.

What the partner does in the seat.

A partner takes the executive seat with the authority the family gives it, and no more. The day-to-day continues: reporting, bankers, trustees, the investment calendar, the people.

In parallel, we work with the family and the board on what the next chapter needs the role to be. That conversation is usually what makes an interim worth having. A permanent appointment made before the role is defined often has to be made again.

When the family has chosen a successor, we manage the transition and step out. Where the family wants it, we help find and assess candidates, alongside the search firm when there is one; we never place our own people.

Paul ReynoldsGilles ErulinLed by Paul Reynolds and Gilles Erulin

We complete the team. We do not replace it.

An interim is not an audit of the people in the office. The partner answers to the family and the board; the team keeps its roles, the advisers keep their mandates, and we start by asking each of them what they know.

The family's lawyers, bankers and trustees are told who is in the seat and with what authority, in writing, on the first day.

Working with the family's advisers

How it runs.

  • A first exchange

    A few lines to a partner, then a meeting with the board or the principals. We say whether an interim is the right answer, and who on our side would hold it.

  • A letter of engagement

    Scope, authority and reporting line, agreed before the first day.

  • A partner in the seat

    From the first day to the handover, with a written account for the family at each board meeting, and a defined end.

Questions we are asked.

  • 01 Is the interim partner a candidate for the permanent role?

    No. The partner leaves when the successor is in place, which is why the advice on the role itself can be trusted.

  • 02 Who does the interim report to?

    To whoever the family decides: the board of the office, the principal or a family council. It is written into the letter and told to the team.

  • 03 Does Westwick run the investments during the interim?

    We oversee what the office already does and keep the committee calendar. We do not give investment advice and we do not manage assets.

Contact Paul.

Write to Paul