Rent-a-CEO: Why More Fashion Brands Are Hiring Part-Time Executives

Six years after Desiree Rogers bought beauty brands BLK/OPL and Fashion Fair she says she’s finally cracked the code on hiring the best executive talent: offer them part-time positions.

Over the past year, Rogers, who co-owns the brands with Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, has leaned into flexible hiring — adding a part-time marketing lead for Fashion Fair and bringing in a chief of staff for parent company Black Opal on a short-term contract, which was later extended. A BLK/OPL marketing head who joined in October and is only signed-on through the end of the year.

“It’s a very volatile marketplace — there’s a tremendous amount of change and impact,” said Rogers. “I want to maintain as much flexibility as I can in my staffing.”

Fractional roles — where seasoned executives are hired on a part-time or short-term basis — are still most commonly used as a stopgap when a CEO is poached by a rival, or the CFO goes on maternity leave. But, increasingly, some companies are treating temporary leaders like true insiders, brought in to handle volatile situations like tariffs, or lay the groundwork for new initiatives that others will see through. In October, women’s clothing brand Lulus, appointed a fractional CFO, tasked with “accelerating growth momentum, improving operational efficiencies and driving long-term shareholder value.”

The practice is common enough that there are now recruiting firms like Chief Outsiders and The Board that specialise in placing fractional leaders in marketing, finance, and sales roles. Executives they work with are often mid or late-career, and looking to do meaningful work on a flexible schedule.

“You have [access] to people that would have been out of reach if you’re trying to hire them full time,” said April Uchitel, a former chief executive at the luxury beauty retailer Violet Grey who founded The Board in 2021 and counts Moda Operandi, Farfetch and Tamara Mellon among her clients.

Why Hire a Fractional Exec

For fashion firms, the appeal of fractional executives comes down to flexibility, cost control, access to top talent and more recently, a course correction from post-pandemic hiring sprees, said Lauren Lotka, founder and CEO of executive search and talent consultancy Lotka & Co.

The model is also popular among founders still figuring out what kind of senior help they actually need. Uchitel said it’s common for a brand to assume it needs a chief marketing officer, only to discover they really could use a brand manager or content strategist. Temporary executives also help small firms prepare to raise funding or arrange a sale.

After a few hiring missteps — and as the larger beauty slowdown weighed on her brands — Black Opal’s Rogers said she has become more deliberate about how she builds her full-time team. Fractional roles, especially in fast-moving areas like marketing and social media, are helping her stay nimble while keeping the focus on long-term growth, she said.

Who Makes a Good Fractional Exec?

The best fractional executives are typically leaders with a decade or more of experience — often at large, profitable companies — who have managed teams and significant budgets. Many have grown weary of corporate bureaucracy or could use flexible arrangements while they raise children or care for aging parents, Uchitel said.

BLK/OPL’s new marketing hire, Lydia Smith, spent several years as Victoria’s Secret’s chief diversity officer and, before that, served as director of diversity and inclusion at Kohl’s. When she exited Victoria’s Secret in January, Smith said she was disillusioned with some aspects of corporate life but torn between pursuing another corporate gig or starting her own business.

For her, fractional work offered a middle ground.

“I still get the benefit of being part of a team, developing strategy and doing the things I loved about my leadership roles in the past,” she said. “And I have the flexibility of being able to be present for my family.”

Good fractional executives also tend to be entrepreneurial, able to juggle deadlines and manage their time in a way that delivers results quickly. Many share another trait: they’ve shed the corporate clout-chasing mindset.

“There’s no longer bringing an ego … where [people] are vying for a title or an end of year bonus — all the things that drive some of the [workplace] politics,” Uchitel said.

Fractional leaders do sometimes end up sticking around.

That was the case for Kimberly Minor, a veteran retail executive who joined the high-end athleisure brand Bandier at the height of the pandemic in July 2020 as fractional chief culture officer. She was tapped to co-create a business strategy alongside a fractional chief operating officer, Bandier hired her in a permanent role as brand president in 2022. (Bandier announced via Instagram in January that it had paused its operations.)

“The board [said], ‘this is a great strategy but it doesn’t work if there’s not someone who’s full time and focused on executing the strategy you created,’” she said.

Minor added that, in her experience, marketing lends itself more naturally to a fractional role than operations-heavy positions.

“Marketing … is more conceptual,” she said. “If you are an operator, you’re responsible for all of the bottom line [and] it’s really difficult to pop in and pop out.”

How to Find a Fractional Executive

Companies should approach the search, hiring and onboarding with the same care and thoroughness as any full-time role, experts say.

Uchitel’s The Board has a network of roughly 250 fashion, retail and tech professionals who can be placed individually or assembled into “dream teams” for specific projects, she said. It operates as a hybrid — part membership community, part agency — helping brands figure out what kind of expertise they actually need.

Rogers, who said she’s had the most success finding part-time leaders through her personal network, typically starts with a three-month contract — long enough, she’s found, to gauge whether both sides are on the same page and equally invested.

In most cases, fractional pay is calculated from an hourly rate that scales up to a monthly fee based on an estimated weekly workload, Smith said. Contracts often span three to six months, with built-in checkpoints. Some deals are structured around deliverables — say, a full marketing strategy — and the contracts expire when the work is done.

At BLK/OPL, Smith – who will earn a monthly rate — will set marketing strategy for the brand known for its contour sticks and foundations and get in the weeds of execution, too. By December, Rogers expects her to deliver marked growth in Blk/Opl’s sales, social media impressions and consumer engagement.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Fractional models remain likely to work best as “a bridge” — not “a long-term fix,” said Lotka. Companies should avoid treating the model as a workaround when they can afford or genuinely need full-time leadership, or leaning on part-timers who “aren’t always positioned to invest in team culture and development,” she said.

“It just needs to be balanced,” Lotka added. “You need to build on that bridge going forward.”

“Fractionals” can also clash with full-time staff or even external partners if they’re perceived as lacking authority or out of the loop.

“We don’t necessarily announce to our partners, this person is fractional,” Rogers said.

Rogers said she’s also struggled in the past with fractionals who treated the job as a low-stakes side gig or one project among many.

“They’re doing this and then running off to the next thing,” she said. “That’s not how beauty works. You have to be in love.”

Smith — who’s on her second fractional gig and also building her own business on the side — said fractional leaders should make sure companies are “super clear” during onboarding, laying out in detail the scope of work, the metrics they’ll be measured against, and whether expectations are actually feasible within the contract period.

Both sides should keep an open mind and expect some trial and error — and even an “adjustment” period, Uchitel said.

“You have to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and be a little bit scrappy,” Smith said.