Rutherford Cross held its second Interim & Fractional CFO Roundtable meeting of the year last week with 15 high calibre CFOs in attendance.
8 of the 15 attendees were Fractional professionals which is an indicator of the growth of this market in Scotland over the last 12 months. Director of Interim Services at Rutherford Cross, Derek Lauder, shares an overview below from the event.
Scotland’s Interim & Fractional CFO Market at Mid-Year
After attendee introductions, we provided an update on how Rutherford Cross was seeing the Interim and Fractional market in 2026 at the half year. Interim job flow is up by 15% year on year; after a slow start in January and February, job flow has been very good from March onward.
We were expecting a slower June due to the World Cup, but this has not materialised, and the market has held up well. At the CFO level, 30% of the roles we have handled this year have been Fractional as we see this market continuing to grow across Scotland.
We also discussed how the PE deals space is closely linked to interim and fractional CFO appointments. After a busy 2025, this year has been quieter, with PE-backed investment deals slowing due to the increase of costs. Last year, there were a number of growth CFO appointments, while this year has focused more on turnaround CFO roles.
AI Adoption: Opportunities and Challenges for Finance Leaders
We then moved onto discussing AI and its impact on the CFO role. There was a varying range of AI adoption across the call, with fintech businesses leading the way. A few CFOs are very excited about the potential of AI and have a number of ideas on how to best use it, such as processes for cash runways. AI has been helpful in building PowerPoints for month end reports, and Claude has been particularly useful at building integrated models in Excel.
The question was posed as to whether AI checking human input is better than humans checking AI output? There is always going to be a need for human oversight with AI, and an example was given of AI performing a task in a matter of days that had previously taken considerably longer. This was all balanced with the need for security and confidentiality to be at the forefront of all AI use.
This is a topic that we are going to delve deeper into on future calls, as the feeling is that you need to upskill or you get left behind.
How Interim and Fractional CFOs Can Win New Business
Finally, there was a discussion on how the Interim or Fractional CFO is marketing themselves. Pro-bono work can be a great way to get started, but not for too long – you want to pick up paid work as soon as possible and make sure you have intentional and focused networking, reaching out to the banks or investors in the space you are targeting. Law and Accountancy firms can also be useful in sourcing future interim or fractional opportunities, as well as contacting Founders and Non-Executives directly if you have a track record in the relevant sector.
As a Fractional CFO, building up your network of other fractional CFOs is key, as referred work is often passed from one Fractional professional to another if they are at full capacity. Posting relevant business posts (and the occasional personal post) on LinkedIn, and building your connections is another important way to market yourself. Knowing who your best contacts are is key, and working with the right recruitment firm is an important part of your marketing strategy.
What’s Next for the Rutherford Cross CFO Community
We finished the call with an outline on a future event Rutherford Cross is holding later this year – more on that soon!
At Rutherford Cross we are extremely grateful to all of the CFO attendees, both those who have been supporting the Roundtable for a few years and the new attendees.
If you have an enquiry regarding the interim or fractional CFO / senior finance market in Scotland, please get in touch with [email protected] or the rest of the Rutherford Cross Interim team: [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].
Visit our Interim Hub for more information on our services.
