Interim CEO services
Hire an interim CEO for the transition
An interim CEO is a full-time, fixed-term chief executive who leads the business when the top seat is empty or the board needs a different kind of leader for a defined period: after a sudden departure, following an acquisition, through a turnaround or into a sale.
We scope the mandate with you in fifteen minutes and come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
- Shortlist of 3–5
- Day rate, availability and IR35 on each
- Published rate bands
- Fixed-term, full-time mandates
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to scope the mandate
Tell us the situation, the days and the start date. We come back with interim CEO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the assignment
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Interim CEO and managing director roles on the board
Looking? Build your repo once on Fractional Quest and every role on the board is read against it.
Sign up now →01/ definition
What an interim CEO actually does
An interim CEO leads the whole business for a defined term, with the authority of the role and a mandate agreed with the board.
The reason is specific — a vacancy, a deal, a crisis, a sale — and so is the end date.
A good interim chief executive is measured by the business they leave behind: steadier, clearer about its direction, and ready for the permanent leader who follows.
TRANSITION
Leads the business while the board searches
The chief executive resigns, retires early, falls ill or is asked to leave. The interim takes the leadership team, the board relationship and the big decisions so the permanent search can be done properly rather than quickly.
Leads the business while the board searches. The chief executive resigns, retires early, falls ill or is asked to leave. The interim takes the leadership team, the board relationship and the big decisions so the permanent search can be done properly rather than quickly.
Replaces the leader the deal did not keep. An acquisition has completed and the founder or previous CEO is stepping back. The interim gives staff, customers and the new owners a credible leader from the start and delivers the first stage of the plan.
Takes charge when performance has broken. Cash is tight, lenders are watching and the plan has stopped working. A turnaround interim CEO resets priorities, makes the hard decisions and works with the board, the bank and advisers at once.
Prepares the business for a sale. Shareholders want to sell within a defined window and the business needs a leader buyers will trust. The interim sharpens the equity story, tidies the operation and leads management through the process.
Stabilises leadership after a dispute or crisis. A shareholder dispute, a regulatory issue or a loss of confidence in the leadership team. The interim restores order, rebuilds relationships and gives the board time to decide what the permanent role should be.
02/ scope
What the CEO owns on a mandate
Agree the mandate in writing.
An interim chief executive needs real authority, but the board should be clear which decisions stay with it.
- Leadership of the executive team during the term
- The business plan and its delivery against the board’s mandate
- Relationships with shareholders, lenders and key customers
- Major people decisions in the senior team
- Internal and external communication about the transition
- Preparing the ground for the permanent CEO and the hand-over
- Day-to-day operations (to the COO or operations lead)
- Finance and treasury mechanics (to the CFO)
- Legal drafting on transactions (to counsel)
- Long-term strategy the board reserves for the permanent CEO
- Recruitment of the permanent successor (to the board and its search partner)
03/ which model
Interim, part-time or permanent?
Move the slider to the days the top seat needs and choose how long.
Four or five days on a fixed term is interim.
A chief executive is rarely a part-week role, but chairs and investors sometimes use a part-time CEO or an interim managing director for a smaller business or a subsidiary.
The model that fits · CEO
Interim
A full-time or near full-time leader on a fixed-term mandate — a gap, a turnaround, a transaction — who hands over at the end.
Book a call about an interim CEO →Our framing, not a measured rule: the lines between the four models blur, and many briefs could run two ways.
04/ alternatives
The CEO seat against the alternatives
The choice turns on how fast the business needs a leader, what that leader must achieve, and whether anyone inside can do it.
→ Interim when the business needs a leader now; permanent when the board knows what the next five years require.
05/ rates
Interim CEO day rates
Published bands only, each with its source named.
Enter a day rate you have been quoted to see where it sits.
- Interim CEO£1,000–£1,800Exec Capital 2026
- Fractional CEO£800–£1,500FD Capital 2026
- Permanent CEO (salary ÷ 220 days)£545–£1,136Exec Capital 2026 SME salary ÷ 220 days
Bands are as each source publishes them; permanent day equivalents are the salary band ÷ 220 working days, our arithmetic. Recruiter guides are named, not linked. Rates vary with sector, scope and location.
06/ calculator
What an interim CEO costs
Model a fixed-term interim CEO against a permanent Chief Executive Officer over the same period.
£1,400 a day is within the published CEO band (£1,000–£1,800, Exec Capital 2026).
Interim cost for the term
£182,000
130 working days · 5 d/wk · 6 mo · before tax
Interim costs more over 6 months£77,000
Interim CEO, the term£182,000
Permanent CEO, same period£105,000
Interim CEO, the term$241,132
Permanent CEO, same period$139,115
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Interim CEO, the term€213,777
Permanent CEO, same period€123,333
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = £120,000, the bottom of the Exec Capital 2026 (UK SME) salary band pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
07/ decision
When a board brings in an interim chief executive
Interim chief executive mandates usually start in one of four situations.
Each needs a slightly different kind of leader.
Which sounds like you?
The deal has completed, the founder or outgoing CEO is leaving on an agreed timetable, and the new owners need someone in place before the handover ends. An interim gives staff and customers continuity, delivers the first stage of the investment plan and lets the owners take their time over the permanent appointment.
- → Deal completed or about to
- → Outgoing CEO on a fixed handover
- → Permanent profile not yet agreed
A sudden resignation, illness or dismissal leaves the board with no leader and a business asking questions. An experienced interim steadies the executive team, reassures customers and lenders and gives the board space to run a proper search.
- → Departure at short notice
- → Staff and customer uncertainty
- → No ready internal successor
Cash is tight, covenants are close and the team has lost confidence. A turnaround interim takes charge, makes decisions the existing leadership has avoided and works with the bank and advisers to buy time.
- → Covenant pressure
- → Repeated forecast misses
- → Board losing confidence in the plan
A sale is planned within a defined window and buyers will judge the leadership. The interim prepares the business, leads management through diligence and keeps trading strong until completion.
- → Advisers appointed or about to be
- → Founder ready to step back
- → Sale timetable set
08/ tax and IR35
How an interim CEO is contracted
General position under UK rules, with the HMRC source for each point. Not tax advice — check your own case with your accountant.
01 · DEDUCTIBLE
Fees are a business expense
Fees, like a salary, are deductible against profits when incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade (HMRC BIM37000), with corporation tax at the 25% main rate.
02 · WHO DECIDES
Status turns on how the work runs
Medium and large clients make the off-payroll status determination themselves; for a small private-sector client, the interim’s own company does (HMRC off-payroll guidance).
03 · WHAT HMRC LOOKS AT
Substitution, control, mutuality
Whether a substitute could genuinely be sent, who decides how the work is done, and whether either side must offer or accept further work. HMRC’s CEST tool walks through the same questions.
09/ guide
Interim CEO services: a practical guide
Interim CEO services cover the hardest seat to leave empty.
When the chief executive goes, every other leader looks upward and every decision slows.
Staff, customers, lenders and shareholders all want to know who is in charge.
An interim chief executive answers that question on day one and gives the board time to make the permanent appointment carefully.
Start with the mandate, not the title.
"Run the company" will attract anyone.
"Lead the business through the first two quarters after the acquisition, keep the top customers and hand over to a permanent CEO" tells you — and every candidate — what kind of interim you need: a transition leader, a turnaround specialist, a deal leader or a steadying presence after a crisis.
Agree the authority in writing.
An interim CEO is a director of the company in practice and often in law, with the same duties as any other director — the government’s guidance on being a company director sets them out, including the duty in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to promote the success of the company.
The board should say which decisions the interim can take alone and which it reserves.
Compare cost on the same basis.
An interim is paid a day rate for the days worked.
A permanent chief executive carries salary, employer National Insurance, pension, bonus, often equity, and usually a search fee.
The calculator above runs both on published figures.
For a mandate of a few months, the interim is often the lower-risk route to the same outcome.
A turnaround often needs an interim CFO beside the interim chief executive, and a post-deal mandate an interim COO.
Think about the permanent role while the interim is in post.
A good interim CEO will tell the board what the business actually needs from its next leader, which can be different from what it thought it needed when the seat fell empty.
Some boards ask the interim to help write the permanent brief; a few ask the interim to stay.
Say early if either is on the table.
Plan the exit from the first week.
The strongest mandates end with a written hand-over, a leadership team that knows its priorities, and a permanent chief executive who overlaps with the interim.
Our parent company runs the permanent search too, through its fractional executive search firms practice, so the two can run side by side.
10.1/ how to hire
How to hire an interim CEO step by step
Hiring an interim CEO runs in five steps.
Write a one-page mandate with the situation, the outcome and the term.
Agree the authority the board will delegate and set a budget against published day-rate bands.
Brief one search partner, so the market hears one consistent and confidential account.
Interview a shortlist of three to five, ideally with the chair and one investor in the room.
Contract on clear terms, including the status determination where you are a medium or large company.
On IR35: medium and large clients decide the interim’s status and give them a status determination statement — see HMRC’s off-payroll working guidance.
For small clients the interim’s own company decides.
Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice, and an interim chief executive with line authority over the business needs a careful look.
What to put in the mandate
The situation in two lines, the outcome by the end of the term, the start date, location, reporting line to the chair, the decisions reserved to the board, the key stakeholders — lenders, investors, major customers — and how the permanent search will run alongside.
If the timetable is tight
When a new acquisition needs a replacement chief executive within a quarter, tell us the handover date on the first call.
Start dates turn mostly on each candidate’s notice: many interims are between mandates, others must finish an assignment first.
We set out each candidate’s availability on the shortlist so you can plan the handover around it.
10.2/ the managing director seat
Interim managing director or the full CEO seat?
An interim managing director and an interim chief executive do much the same job.
The difference is usually structure and size.
Smaller and owner-managed businesses, and subsidiaries inside a group, often call the top executive the managing director; larger and investor-backed companies more often use chief executive.
A subsidiary MD may report to a group CEO; a CEO reports to the board.
Choose the title that fits the business, then brief on the situation.
An interim MD for a subsidiary after an acquisition needs strong operational grip and a good relationship with the group; an interim chief executive for a standalone company needs board, investor and lender skills as well.
Our parent site’s interim managing director page covers the MD seat in more depth.
10.3/ interim management
CEO interim management and how it works
CEO interim management means placing an experienced chief executive into a business for a defined period, usually full-time, to lead it through a specific situation.
The interim is engaged on a day rate, usually through their own company, and reports to the chair and the board.
Interim management at chief executive level differs from consulting in one important way: the interim leads.
They take decisions, hold the executive team accountable and answer to the board for results.
A consultancy can diagnose a problem and recommend a plan; an interim chief executive is there to deliver it.
The best interim chief executives have led several businesses through situations like yours and can show what each looked like when they left.
Ask for the businesses, the situations, the outcomes and the names of chairs you can call.
References we take ourselves are part of every shortlist.
Our interim management agency page explains how we run the search.
10.4/ for executives
Interim CEO jobs and how to find them
Interim CEO jobs are rarely advertised for long, and many are filled by direct approach through chairs and investors.
The board above reads the Fractional Quest pipeline daily and labels every role honestly.
Our parent site lists interim CEO jobs, and the interim jobs board covers every interim seat.
Most interim chief executives work through their own limited company.
Keep your day rate, availability and the situations you have led — transitions, turnarounds, acquisitions, sales — current, because that is what a chair reads first.
10/ process
How we run the search
What we undertake on every brief, run by Fractional Quest, our parent company.
- 01
Brief
A scoping call on the role, the days a week, the start date and what the interim CEO must have delivered.
DAY 0 - 02
Search
We search and screen against that brief: track record at your stage, in your situation, and references we take ourselves.
SCREENING - 03
Shortlist
Three to five candidates, each with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5 - 04
Start
You interview and choose. The executive you choose contracts with you.
YOU CHOOSE
11/ the family
Chief executive leadership across Fractional Quest
Interim Quest is part of Fractional Quest.
When the brief is a managing director seat, a permanent search or a wider executive team, these pages cover it.
When the top seat is a managing director in a smaller business or a subsidiary.
How executive search for senior hires is run, and how to choose a firm.
Fractional, interim, part-time and permanent executive search in one firm.
12/ questions
Questions, answered
For hiring managers, and for executives looking for the role.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Start with the brief.
Fifteen minutes to scope the seat, the days and the start date.