Interim CEO. Defined outcome. Defined end.
Hire an interim CEO when the seat is empty, the plan is stalling, or the next twelve months decide the company. Niklas Lindahl takes the seat, holds the accountability, fixes the operating machine, and hands over.
What the mandate actually is
An interim CEO is not an advisor with a longer contract. The interim CEO signs, decides, hires, cuts, and answers to the board for the result. The engagement is written down before day one: the outcome, the authority, the reporting line, the end date.
Typical scopes: stabilising a business burning cash, bridging between two permanent CEOs, executing a 100 day plan after an acquisition, rebuilding a commercial engine that stopped converting, or carrying a restructuring that the permanent successor should not be the face of.
When to make the call
- The CEO left, was removed, or is leaving in under ninety days and there is no internal successor ready.
- Cash runway is shortening and nobody in the room owns the whole picture.
- A private equity investor needs a value creation plan executed, not presented.
- A family business is mid succession and needs a neutral operator to hold the wheel.
- The strategy is fine and the execution is not, which is almost always the real diagnosis.
How the first hundred days run
Days 1 to 14. Read the ground truth. Cash, contracts, customers, the top thirty people, and the three numbers the business is actually run on. No reorganisation in the first two weeks.
Days 15 to 45. Set the cadence. One weekly operating meeting with the same agenda, owners on every line, and a decision log. Most companies in trouble do not lack strategy, they lack cadence and accountability.
Days 46 to 100. Cut and build. Stop what does not pay. Fund what does. Put the right people in the right seats and tell the ones in the wrong seats early and honestly.
Beyond 100. Hand over. Document the machine so the next CEO inherits an operating system, not a mystery.
Who you get
A Swedish operator based in Milano, born 1981, who has been CMO of a 500M EUR group, turnaround CEO, founder and soldier. Fluent in Swedish, English and Italian. The full record is on the career path page and the operating principles are in the creed.
To start: send a written brief through the contact form. The first conversation is a scoping call, not a pitch.
Frequently asked questions
- What does an interim CEO do?
- An interim CEO takes full executive responsibility for a company for a defined period, usually three to eighteen months. The mandate is scoped up front: stabilise cash, rebuild the leadership team, run a restructuring, bridge to a permanent CEO, or execute a post-acquisition plan. Unlike a consultant, an interim CEO holds the decision rights and the accountability.
- How fast can an interim CEO start?
- Typically within one to three weeks of an agreed brief. That speed is the point of the model: an executive search for a permanent CEO runs three to nine months, and most situations that need an interim CEO cannot wait that long.
- How much does an interim CEO cost?
- Interim CEO mandates are priced as a day rate or a monthly retainer tied to the scope and the intensity of the mandate, not as a salary with equity and severance attached. Because the engagement has a defined end, the total cost is known before it starts. Send a brief through the contact form for a scoped figure.
- When should a company hire an interim CEO instead of promoting internally?
- When no internal candidate has run the specific situation before, when the decisions required will be unpopular and a permanent successor should not carry them, or when the board needs an honest read of the organisation from someone with no internal history.
- What happens at the end of an interim CEO mandate?
- Handover. The interim CEO documents the operating cadence, the open risks and the state of every workstream, briefs the incoming permanent CEO or the board, and leaves. A mandate that quietly becomes permanent was scoped badly.