Chief Financial Officer

Strategic Context Matis is a company regulated by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) as a Prestataire de Services de Financement Participatif (PSFP, no. FP-2023-19). It enables investors to co-invest in project companies, each holding a major 19th
- or 20th-century artwork, through a bond subscription, starting from €20,000. Founded in 2023 by François Carbone and Arnaud Dubois, matis operates in Europe (with France as a primary market) and in the US (building its presence), where François relocated in September 2026. Matis is moving from unitary, deal-by-deal co-investment offers to a regulated alternative investment fund (AIF). Deal-by-deal placement is due to stop by the end of 2026, and the fund launch is targeted for Q1 2027. This changes the nature of the group’s finance agenda: from financing individual project companies to running a fund-based business that speaks the language of institutional investors, with the governance, prudential and reporting standards that it implies. At the same time, matis is a multi-jurisdiction group (France, Italy, Switzerland, United States) whose international entities are funded by the French holding company while they build their own activity. Consolidated visibility on group cash and runway, the financial and tax architecture of the group, are open priorities. The finance function itself is therefore to be redefined. The current externalised finance set-up will not continue. The CFO decides what is internalised and what is outsourced (for example the financial monitoring of the fund), sets the resources required over time, and chooses the tools. The role is strategic by nature and, in its first phase, very operational. The need behind this hire is three-fold. First, to raise matis’s financial management and its ability to engage with institutional counterparts, on the corporate side and on the product itself: being the capital layer of the art market. Second, to bring asset-management expertise to the financial and tax optimisation of a cross-border group. Third, to represent the finance function at strategic level, with the ability to identify and structure operations that could prove decisive for matis’s development. The profile sought is an investment professional with a finance mandate rather than an accountant: someone from institutional asset management or wealth management, at ease with alternative assets and sensitive to entrepreneurship, who can both build and run the finance function and sit across the table from institutional investors. Mission Lead Define, build and lead matis’s finance function, and represent it at strategic level: with institutional counterparts (investors, banks, service providers and advisers), with the Board and with shareholders. Bring an asset-management perspective to the group’s financial, tax and structuring decisions. Deliver Redefine the finance function: decide what is internalised and what is outsourced, set the resource plan and the tooling, and run core processes hands-on until the team is in place. Raise the group’s financial management to institutional standard; optimise its cross-border financial and tax architecture with external counsel; identify, structure and carry to decision the operations that can shape matis’s development; and ensure that the fund’s financial governance runs without gaps. A strategic profile with an operational first phase Matis is looking for a professional from asset management or wealth management (SGP), at ease with alternative assets and sensitive to entrepreneurship. Typical current or previous roles is that of a CFO in a SGP, an institutional asset manager, a private bank or a multi-family office. The first phase is very operational: the CFO designs the finance function and, until it is staffed, runs core processes personally. Judgement, structuring ability and credibility with investors are what cannot be added later. Seniority: 10 to 20 years of experience, with senior responsibility for investment, portfolio or alternatives activity, ideally a leader ready to take a first CFO seat in an entrepreneurial setting. Must have
• Asset management expertise: mastery of traditional asset management: asset allocation, fund selection, risk budgeting, UCITS and AIFMD compliance.
• Private markets: in-depth knowledge of private equity, real estate or venture, and if possible of art and collectibles as an asset class.
• Structuring: hands-on experience structuring investment vehicles (single-asset project companies, co-investments, funds), with a sound grasp of the tax and regulatory aspects of alternative investments.
• Storytelling: ability to articulate an investment strategy convincingly to limited partners and private investors.
• Entrepreneurial drive: taste for entrepreneurship, niches and differentiated strategies; ability to build trust and rally others around a thematic investment project such as art.
• Financial management & function building: credible command of corporate financial management (budgeting, forecasting, treasury, consolidation, closings) and the ability to build a finance function from scratch: operating model, resource plan, processes and tools. Hands-on in the first phase.
• International culture: significant experience in Europe and if possible in the United States, and the habit of cross-border, multicultural environments.
• English: fluent English as a working language: a prerequisite, not a preference, given matis’s international shareholders, counsel and counterparts.
• AI: established, real-life use of AI tools (e.g. Claude) in day-to-day work: also a prerequisite. Matis is transforming its processes and operating model with AI, and the CFO must work this way and help lead the finance function into it. Strongly preferred
• Direct US exposure: US investors, US entities, US fund and regulatory frameworks, or a US-based role. Ideal given the weight of the US in matis’s development.
• Experience launching a fund or setting up a management company, or working day to day with a depositary and a fund administrator.
• Scale-up or founder-led

experience:
has built something from a limited base and thrives in ambiguity.
• Exposure to the art market, collectors, or art-related investment structures.
• Comfort operating in a bilingual French/English environment. Personality & cultural fit
• Entrepreneurial and hands-on: wants to build a function and a business, not administer one.
• Builds trust quickly with institutional and private investors; precise, discreet and credible in front of an investment committee.
• Rigorous with numbers and structures, and comfortable defending an independent financial view while taking direction from the founders.
• Ego-light and team-first; premium standards on every deliverable, from the Board paper to the investor document. Finance Function Design & Build (~20%)
• Redefine the finance function at matis: what is internalised and what is outsourced, domain by domain (for example the financial monitoring of the fund), with the criteria, cost and risk of each choice.
• Manage the transition from the current externalised finance set-up to the target model, without disruption to closings, treasury or fund reporting.
• Build the multi-year resource plan: roles, sequencing, profiles and budget, starting with the first in-house hires.
• Select, deploy and integrate the finance tool stack (accounting, spend management, consolidation, reporting; alongside existing tools), and document processes and controls.
• Select, contract and steer the providers retained (fund administration, accounting, tax): scope, service levels, quality and cost. Strategic Finance & Institutional Dialogue (~20%)
• Be the senior voice of finance with institutional counterparts: shareholders and Board, banks and lenders, prospective institutional investors, family offices and foundations, auditors and advisers.
• Corporate side: build and present the group’s financial story, business plan and funding trajectory to the standard institutional counterparts expect.
• Product side: build, with the CIO and the Capital formation Directors, the financial narrative of art as an alternative asset class (return profile, liquidity, valuation, risk, reporting), so that it holds up in front of an institutional investment committee.
• Contribute to investor conversations within the regulatory perimeter set out in Section 6: presenting offering terms and taking subscriptions remain with the regulated entities and, in the United States, the placement agent. Cross-Border Financial & Tax Architecture (~15%)
• Optimise the financial and tax architecture of the group across France, Italy, Switzerland and the United States: intercompany flows and service agreements, funding of subsidiaries, cash positioning, withholding and repatriation questions, with external tax and legal counsel.
• Analyse the tax and regulatory position of the fund and its investment vehicles for investors in different jurisdictions, and bring a clear view to structuring decisions.
• Build and maintain a consolidated monthly view of group cash and runway across all entities. Structuring & Strategic Operations (~15%)
• Identify, assess and structure operations that could shape matis’s development: new investment vehicles and co-investment structures, bond and financing structures, strategic partnerships, and corporate financing (equity or debt).
• Own the financial modelling, valuation work and business cases behind these operations, and carry them to Board decision with the Chief of Staff and International Development and external counsel.
• Frame the financial parameters of new fund launches: business plan, fee model, launch budget, cash model and break-even analysis. Fund Financial Governance & Prudential Oversight (~15%)
• Own the fund’s financial governance framework: annual financial calendar, procedures, delegation matrix (matrice de pouvoirs), committee calendar and consolidation of deliverables.
• Monitor regulatory own funds (fonds propres réglementaires) where applicable, with forecasts, cash stress tests and alerts on funding needs.
• Own the depositary relationship (service quality, SLAs, fee control, incident review) and the control of fees and expenses charged to the fund. The depositary produces the reporting and raises anomalies; finance analyses and escalates.
• Track fundraising, commitments, capital calls, distributions and liquidity forecasts. Appendix A maps the full set of missions. Hands-On Planning, Reporting & Control (~15%)
• Until the team is in place, run personally the budget, reforecasts, monthly P&L and a rolling 12–18 month treasury plan, and the monthly management dashboard (AUM, fundraising, portfolio, cash, fees, valuation, incidents, budget and financial risks).
• Coordinate the accountant, statutory auditor and tax adviser: closings, audit file and follow-up of recommendations; review the consistency of investor reporting and financial communications.
• Put in place financial internal control: payment procedures, segregation of duties, reconciliations, delegations, evidence retention and incident follow-up. Compensation considered
• Base

salary:
commensurate with experience, benchmarked against senior investment and alternatives professionals in institutional asset management, private banking and multi-family offices in Paris; to be finalised with the CEO and the Chief of Staff and International Development.
• Objectives-based bonus: tied to milestones (group financial management, architecture, structuring operations, fund governance).
• Long-term incentive: equity or BSPCE in Matis Holding SAS, consistent with matis’s approach for senior hires; quantum to be defined with the candidate.
•

Benefits:
mutuelle and prévoyance, tickets restaurant, RTT and standard French paid-leave entitlements, hybrid working, and an annual development budget. Location & travel
• Based in Paris (matis’s Paris headquarters).