Where the seats are
Family offices in the UK, the United States and the UAE run the same three businesses in different combinations: a portfolio of operating companies, a property or asset base, and the office itself. The seats that go unfilled are the same everywhere.
- A fractional CFO for an operating business that has outgrown its accountant: the management accounts, the covenant reporting, the model the family actually reads.
- A fractional COO for a business the family owns but does not run day to day, to professionalise delivery without putting a stranger in charge.
- A fractional CMO for a consumer or hospitality business that has never had marketing leadership and is spending with an agency on instinct.
- A fractional CTO or data lead when the family wants a view of its businesses that the businesses themselves cannot produce.
Why fractional suits a family office
The engagement is sized to the need, not to a job description. Two days a week of a CFO who has run a business of this size is almost always more useful than five days of one who has not, and it costs a fraction. The published day rate for a fractional CFO on this bench is £800 to £1,500, with the number on every profile before a word is exchanged.
Discretion is structural. The operator contracts with the operating business, reports to whoever the family nominates, and is not a search firm's candidate with a search firm's file. Everything about the engagement, including the rate, is visible to the family before the first conversation.
And the bar is the bar. Every operator on the bench is verified by hand against their LinkedIn and their CV before they go live. A family office principal can read the last two roles, see the rate, and decide in an afternoon.
How a family office hires from the bench
- Browse by seat and country. Profiles are open and nothing is behind an account.
- Shortlist operators whose track record matches the business, not the office: a hospitality CFO for the hotel, a manufacturing COO for the plant.
- Send a short brief from the profile. The operator replies directly. The family's name stays out of it until the family wants it in.
- Contract directly, for the days agreed, with a notice period the family controls.
- Where the office would rather the search was run quietly, Operator Search puts three verified operators against the brief.
UAE family offices
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among the fastest growing family office markets in the world, and the operating businesses behind them need the same leadership as anywhere else, often faster. The bench lists operators in the UAE with rates published in dirhams, alongside UK and US operators who work with the region remotely or on rotation.
Common questions
Can a family office keep a fractional executive engagement private?
Yes. The engagement is contracted directly between the operating business and the operator. No search firm holds a file, no shortlist circulates, and the only people who know are the ones the family tells. Profiles on the bench can be read without an account.
How many days a week does a family office business need?
Most start at one or two days a week for finance and two or three for operations, then adjust. The guide on how many days a week a fractional executive needs sets out the pattern by seat and stage.
Can one fractional CFO cover several family businesses?
Often, where the businesses are similar in size and the days add up. Each business contracts for its own days at the published rate. Where the businesses are very different, two operators with the right sector backgrounds usually beat one generalist.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.