Scott Kennedy

About Scott

Scott Kennedy is a senior practice leader at Charles Aris Executive Search, where he leads CFO and senior finance searches for technically driven, growing companies.

Over more than a decade in executive search, Scott has worked on more than 100 financial officer searches, primarily for privately held businesses backed by venture capital, growth equity and private equity investors.

His clients are often navigating a meaningful inflection point—scaling quickly, professionalizing the finance function, entering a new phase of ownership or looking for a financial leader who can help change the way the business operates.

Scott typically works closely with CEOs, senior executives, board members and investors to understand not just the résumé required, but the problem the next executive actually needs to solve.

Before joining Charles Aris, Scott spent 10 years at SPMB Executive Search. He began his career there working on marketing, product and digital commerce leadership searches before moving into the firm’s Financial Officers practice, where he ultimately served as a senior director and worked in tandem with the practice leader across nearly every aspect of search execution.

His progression at SPMB took him from analyst to associate to director, while his search work evolved from consumer and technology-oriented roles into predominantly CFO and other senior finance mandates.

Scott believes executive search is fundamentally a people business. He views the work less as selling an opportunity and more as combining consulting with matchmaking: understanding what a company and its ownership group truly need, getting to know the people involved and finding an executive whose experience, temperament and motivations align with both.

He earned his degree in management science from the University of California, San Diego, where he competed in rowing and served as team captain. A longtime competitive rower, Scott also founded a training business based on his passion for the sport, eventually building a team that worked with athletes who went on to national championships and USA National Team competitions.

Scott and his wife, Kenzie, live in Reno with their dogs, Scout and Bucket. When he isn’t working, he can usually be found building something in his woodworking shop, playing basketball, following the Cleveland Cavaliers or skiing (when there is snow on the ground).