Part-Time Operating Leadership in Canada. Named leadership. Defined decision rights.
Part-time operating leadership may be proposed after the named operator, actual capacity, responsibilities, and commercial terms are confirmed.
Seats are placed and overseen by the firm's principal, working directly with the CEO or owner who owns the outcome: Ghaleb El Masri. Every seat has a named operator and a named successor at hand-off - the point is that the function survives the engagement.
Senior operators in the specific seatTwo to four days per week embeddedOwns a scorecard, not a slide deckNamed successor at hand-off
A real seat. Not another advisor.
A fractional executive holds decision authority, joins your leadership cadence, and leaves with a named successor in place — at a fixed monthly retainer confirmed in the written scope.
The principal takes the seat with sign-off, hiring authority, and accountability for outcomes. A retained advisor lurking on the sidelines with a monthly call is a different product.
Two to three days a week, present at leadership meetings and the uncomfortable one-on-ones. The work that actually moves the function cannot be done monthly.
Every engagement comes in with an exit plan. Either we stay, hand off to a full-time hire — we define the role and manage the transition; the search is run by you or a recruiting partner — or build the team underneath to absorb the role. Dependency is avoidable, not inevitable.
Four roles. Each filled by a real operator.
Which fractional C-suite role fits your gap — COO, CTO, CRO, or Managing Director? The founder-set standard: each seat is filled by a senior operator with a record in that specific seat, proposed by name before you commit. We do not provide fractional CEOs, and a generalist does not fill a CTO seat.
Fractional COO
Operating-model build for $5M–$50M companies scaling past founder-led operations. Cadence, scorecard, leadership-team build-out, cross-functional decision rights. The most common engagement.
Fractional CTO
Technical leadership for non-tech founders or post-acquisition platforms. Architecture decisions, engineering-team build, vendor and outsourcing strategy, technical due diligence for the next raise or transaction.
Fractional CRO
Commercial leadership: pipeline discipline, segmentation, channel mix, comp design, and the first or second VP of Sales hire. Right when founder-led selling has hit its ceiling but full-time CRO economics don’t yet work.
Fractional Managing Director
Country-level or business-unit leadership — most often for foreign-headquartered companies running a Canadian subsidiary, or a parent company spinning up a new line of business that needs a real operator in seat.
The arithmetic that favours fractional.
Fractional vs full-time executive: a start date confirmed in the written scope versus a 6–9 month search — and a fixed retainer that is typically a fraction of full-time total cost of ownership once salary, equity, benefits, and search fees are counted.
A fractional principal’s start date is confirmed in the written scope; a full-time hire typically takes 6–9 months including search, negotiation, and notice period. The compressed timeline is often the deciding factor when the gap is acute.
A fixed monthly retainer, typically a fraction of the fully loaded cost of a full-time equivalent once salary, equity, benefits, ramp, and search fees are counted. The arithmetic favours fractional below the $25M revenue mark for many operating seats.
A bad full-time hire at this level costs the search, the ramp, and the unwind — often more than a year. A bad fractional engagement is a quarter and a fixed fee. The optionality cost of choosing wrong is dramatically lower.
Whether a seat is the answer — or something else is.
A fractional seat is the right instrument for a narrow set of situations. Here is where it fits and where it does not.
- A specific function has outgrown its current leader, and the business is $5M–$50MOne of four seats — COO, CTO, CRO or Managing Director — filled by a senior operator two to four days a week, owning a scorecard rather than advising the person who owns it.
- You need the function run now and the permanent hire made properly laterA seated operator holds the function while the search runs at its own pace, and hands over to a named successor. The point is to stop the search being made under time pressure.
- The role is not yet a full-time role but the accountability already isBelow roughly $25M in revenue many of these functions do not justify a full-time executive salary, while the decisions they own cannot wait for one.
- A transition needs an experienced hand for a defined windowA departure, an integration, a system replacement, a step change in volume — bounded work with a scorecard and an end date.
- You are looking for a fractional CEOWe do not offer one. A company with an absent chief executive has a governance problem, and a part-time CEO makes it harder to see rather than easier.
- The seat needs deep domain specialism we do not holdA generalist does not fill a CTO seat. Where the function needs specific technical or regulatory depth beyond our bench, we say so at the fit conversation and do not staff it anyway.
- The real problem is the reporting line, not the capacityIf the function is failing because of unresolved authority above it, dropping a senior operator into it will not fix that and will burn the operator. No engagement starts where the fit conversation shows this.
- You need a full-time presence five days a weekThat is a permanent hire. Fractional buys seniority you could not otherwise afford, at a cadence — not a discount on a full-time executive.
- You want an interim who will also run the back officeA seated operator directs vendors and builds the function. We do not run payroll or act as employer of record, on this practice or any other.
Five moves. No shortcuts.
The written scope identifies the proposed principal, diagnostic and matching steps, operating cadence, expected mandate horizon and handoff. Availability and dates are confirmed before acceptance.
- 01
Intake & scope
We begin with a fit and scoping review for the seat (COO, CTO, CRO, CHRO, or Managing Director), the time commitment, and the outcome required. If the mandate advances, the written scope confirms the proposed lead, commercial model, timing assumptions, decision rights and measures.
- 02
Diagnostic & match
Two-week diagnostic where we meet your team, read your books, and review the operating cadence. We then propose a named principal with an operating record in that seat — assessable before you commit — not a junior re-badged for the engagement. If the fit isn’t right, we say so — no engagement starts.
- 03
Embed
Principal in-seat two to four days per week. Joins your weekly leadership meeting as a peer, owns a defined scorecard, hires and fires inside the function, and signs vendors with you. Accountable, not advisory — you are engaging an executive, not a deck.
- 04
Operating rhythm
Nine to fourteen months of active work. Operating system installed, team hired and calibrated, decisions tracked, board-grade reporting cadence live. The principal’s job is to make their seat increasingly unnecessary by the back half of the engagement.
- 05
Hand off
Successor named — internal promotion when possible, external when it has to be — and onboarded before we exit. The operating system stays documented and in use. We leave on a defined date and schedule a 90-day post-engagement check-in to make sure the rhythm holds.
Know which seat you need? A named principal is proposed after a two-week diagnostic — start date confirmed in the written scope.
Four seats. Real outcomes.
Fractional CHRO Scales People Ops at a Growth-Stage Fintech
Fractional CHRO rebuilt HR foundations for a 150-person fintech scaling toward 300.
Fractional COO Scales a Fertility Clinic Network 3→6 Locations
Fractional COO built investor-grade operations enabling a clinic network to grow from 3 to 6 locations in 14 months.
Fractional CRO Identifies $500M in Client Savings at Mining-Tech Firm
Fractional CRO restructured revenue operations and surfaced nine-figure savings for clients.
They sat at our exec table from week three. By month nine we had a CHRO of record, an org our investors trusted, and a successor ready.
What CEOs ask before they hire a fractional executive.
What roles do you fill? What does a fractional C-suite engagement cost? How quickly can someone start? How is it different from hiring a consultant? Answered directly below.
- Which fractional C-suite roles do you fill?
- We embed fractional COO, CTO, CRO, and Managing Director. The founder-set standard for the bench: each role is filled by a senior principal with an operating record in that specific seat — proposed by name, so you can assess the record before you commit — not a generalist rebadged as an executive. We do not provide fractional CEOs.
- What does a fractional C-suite engagement cost?
- Retainers depend on the seat and the time commitment (usually 2–4 days per week) and are quoted as a fixed monthly figure in the written scope — no hourly meter. Fully loaded, a fractional seat is typically a fraction of the cost of a full-time equivalent once salary, equity, benefits, and ramp are counted. For pricing context across the broader HR consulting market in Canada — fractional, retainer, project, and embedded models — see our [2026 HR consulting pricing guide](/blog/hr-consulting-canada-services-pricing-what-to-look-for).
- How quickly can a fractional executive start?
- Start timing is confirmed in the written scope. A full-time executive search typically takes 6–9 months; a fractional principal is proposed by name after a two-week diagnostic, so fit is confirmed before you commit.
- Will a fractional executive stay long enough to build something lasting?
- Engagements typically run 9–14 months — long enough to install an operating system, hire the team, and identify a successor. We design every engagement to end with a documented system and a named successor, internal or external.
- How is a fractional C-suite different from a consultant or advisor?
- Advisors recommend. Operators decide. Our principals sit in your weekly leadership meeting, own a scorecard, hire and fire, and sign vendors with you. You are engaging an embedded accountable executive — not a deck.
Three free tools to size the decision.
HR Cost Calculator · Ontario
Free Ontario HR cost calculator — annualized risk and opportunity cost of missing HR across turnover, compliance, productivity, and recruitment.
Fractional vs. Full-Time Executive Calculator · Canada
Free Canadian fractional vs. full-time executive calculator — side-by-side cost, capacity, and 3-year total cost of ownership for COO, CFO, CHRO, CTO.
Leadership Pipeline Assessment · Canada
Free Canadian leadership pipeline assessment — bench-strength score with named succession priorities, development gaps, and a first-90-day roadmap.
From the same family. Often scoped together.
Tell us which seat is empty. 30-minute call.
Tell us which leadership gap is affecting the business. We will reply within one business day and confirm whether an initial fit conversation makes sense.