Project reference · Interim management
The director’s chair was never empty.
An international oilfield-services company was changing the head of its subsidiary in Ukraine. The incoming director could not be appointed until his papers were ready, and the company could not be left without a legal representative. For the months in between, one of our own senior managers served as the subsidiary’s interim director: the company kept signing, paying and filing, and handed over to its new director on a clean, registered date.
Same day from the request to a named director the company accepted
Speed
Every signature logged on a timesheet that the company’s administrator approved
Control
No gap in payroll, filings or bank signatures while the director changed
Continuity
One date for the hand-over, entered in the state register
Hand-over
The shape of it
From the first call to the registered hand-over
Short on paper, long in practice: a role planned for about a month lasted until the register showed the new name.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The subsidiary’s corporate-services provider called us on the company’s behalf. Its management was changing, and it needed a resident director for “about a month” while the incoming director’s papers were prepared.
It needed someone senior, available at once and with no stake in the business, who would sign only what the company’s own accountants and lawyers had prepared, and step aside the day the new director could take over. We named one of our own managers the same morning; the company agreed that afternoon, and within a week he was in office.
Why it matters
A company cannot pause its signature
In Ukraine the director entered in the state register represents the company: tax and payroll reports, bank documents, letters to the authorities and contracts all need that signature. Weeks without one mean late filings, delayed salaries and a bank that stops listening. An interim director keeps all of that moving, so the people inside the company notice nothing but a different name on the papers.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A name within hours
The request came in the morning; by lunchtime we had named our director, and by the afternoon the company had agreed. His papers were with the company’s advisers on the next working day.
Three parties, one clear contract
The company employed the director, its corporate-services provider ran the administration, and we were paid through that provider under one short annex: a fixed monthly fee plus hours, nothing open-ended.
Signing only what is checked
Every document came prepared by the company’s accountants or lawyers. Every signature went on a timesheet that the provider approved before each monthly invoice.
Payroll and filings on time
Salaries, reports and letters to the authorities carried a valid signature on the day they were due, signed at the company’s own office or at its lawyers’.
A hand-over the law accepts
The incoming director’s papers needed a signature from the company’s director: ours. He signed them, and the powers of attorney the lawyers needed, so the change could be registered.
“About a month” became four
Papers take the time they take. Our director stayed until the register showed the new name, and the role ended that day.
What we did
Name, appoint, sign, hand over
- Day 1 — Name. Request, candidate and the company’s agreement on the same day; identity papers to its advisers the next working day.
- Week 1 — Appoint. Employment as director, a personnel file with the company’s administrator, and a contract annex with a fixed fee and an hourly rate.
- Months 1–4 — Sign. Letters, filings and bank papers signed at the company’s or its lawyers’ offices, each logged on a monthly timesheet.
- Month 5 — Hand over. Powers of attorney and the new director’s papers signed; the change entered in the state register.
Interim management is not about making decisions for a company. It is about making sure the company can keep making them.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its people and its advisers are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Changing a director in Ukraine?
Tell us when the current director leaves and when the new one can start. We will tell you honestly what an interim director signs, what he will not sign, and what it costs month by month.