Vanessa Stack is a Partner at Omera Partners specialising in Chief Financial Officer and senior financial leadership executive search across Australia. A KPMG-trained Chartered Accountant with a background in Transaction Services, she brings genuine commercial fluency to every search she runs. With more than two decades of experience in this market, Vanessa is recognised for her ability to access senior finance talent across ASX-listed companies,PE-backed businesses, and the broader Australian corporate landscape that is rarely visible to the open market.

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What are the biggest challenges your clients face in finding senior talent?

“Most organisations underestimate how competitive this market is. The Chief Financial Officers who can genuinely move the needle are not actively looking. They are heads down, doing great work, and not thinking about a move. Getting in front of them, building the relationship, and making a compelling case for the opportunity is the whole job.”

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Which industries or functions do you specialise in?

“I specialise exclusively in Chief Financial Officer and senior finance leadership, appointing Chief Financial Officers, Group Financial Controllers,Heads of FP&A, and senior leaders in Internal Audit and Tax acrossA SX-listed companies, PE-backed businesses, large private corporates, government, and not-for-profit organisations. I spent my early career at KPMG in Australia and the United Kingdom, which means I am genuinely a native in the finance community.”

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What types of appointments are you most proud of?

“The appointments I am proudest of are the unexpected fits, where the client had a type in mind and I pushed back with someone who looked different on paper but was exactly right for where the business was heading. That iswhere the work gets interesting.”

A PE-backed technology business approaching a significant growth phaserequired a new Chief Financial Officer with the capability to professionalisethe finance function and prepare the organisation for future capital events.The founding shareholders had a specific profile in mind, favouring candidatesfrom Big Four transaction services backgrounds with direct experiencenavigating similar processes. Vanessa challenged the brief, presenting acandidate from a large ASX-listed business whose experience across financialreporting, treasury, and investor relations brought a level of commercialcomplexity the original brief had not anticipated. The candidate lookeddifferent on paper to what the client had specified, but carried the commercialmaturity and leadership depth Vanessa had identified as the genuine requirementfor where the business needed to go.

As Vanessa reflects: “The client came to me with a checklist. We endedup appointing someone who did not tick every box but was entirely right forwhere the business needed to go. That is what two decades in this marketteaches you to see.”

How do you build trust with both clients and candidates?

“I am straight with people. Clients receive honest market feedback even when it is not what they want to hear, and candidates always know where they stand. I have been told that I balance directness with kindness, and I think that is why people come back and why they refer others.”

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“Greatness to me is appreciating that small things done well make a big difference. To get that one per cent right can make all the difference between good and great, and I strive towards the great.”

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What keeps you energised outside of work?

“I am quite social. I love to get out on the water and sail as much as I can, as being on the water completely resets me. Family and a brilliant, chaotic group of friends do the rest.”