You need a well-structured IPO team that includes executive leadership, legal and financial advisors, underwriters, and specialists in investor relations, tax, and compliance.
This guide walks you through the exact personnel and advisors required to manage the IPO process with control and speed. You’ll see how to align these roles, what each function is accountable for, and how to create a team that supports long-term public-company success.
What internal executives must be involved in an IPO?
You cannot complete an IPO without a high-performing executive leadership team, led by a CEO and CFO with clear public-market readiness.
Your CEO is the face of the IPO. They lead investor meetings, articulate the vision, and reinforce strategic growth themes. Your CFO manages the audit process, builds out financial infrastructure, and presents your numbers with credibility. A CHRO ensures your human capital disclosures align with evolving governance expectations. A CMO owns the brand narrative across digital and investor-facing channels.
If your board lacks public company experience, you must add independent directors. They demonstrate governance maturity to institutional investors and ensure you’re operating within public-company standards.
Why is the underwriter such a critical partner?
Your lead underwriter sets the deal’s terms and pricing strategy. They build the book, market your shares, and provide direct access to institutional buyers.
They also guide you on valuation, share allocation, and market positioning. Firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan typically serve as lead underwriters, managing roadshows and building syndicates to ensure liquidity at launch. Their analysts may also initiate coverage post-IPO, reinforcing investor confidence.
Secondary banks in the syndicate help broaden demand, but they rely on the leadership and data modeling of the primary underwriter.
What legal roles are required during the IPO?
You’ll need experienced IPO legal counsel who understands securities disclosure, regulatory filings, and board governance.
They’ll manage the drafting of your S-1 registration statement, respond to regulator comments, and structure your IPO entity correctly. They also ensure all board and shareholder approvals are obtained and manage the legal interface with underwriters and auditors.
Strong counsel also prepares your company for long-term obligations like proxy filings, compensation disclosures, and quarterly 10-Q filings. Firms like Latham & Watkins or Cooley often specialize in these mandates.
Why is the CFO’s accounting infrastructure a top priority?
You cannot go public without GAAP-compliant historical financials and audit readiness.
Your finance team must prepare and defend three years of audited financials, develop Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), and install controls that pass scrutiny. This includes quarterization of results, technical memos for revenue recognition or leases, and preparing financial statements under PCAOB standards.
You may also need to hire external IPO consultants or a Big Four accounting firm to support with SOX readiness, IPO modeling, and drafting of F-pages for the prospectus.
What does an investor relations (IR) advisor do during IPO?
IR advisors shape your investment story and coordinate external messaging during the most high-stakes public phase of your business.
They draft and rehearse your roadshow presentation, align talking points between the CEO, CFO, and bankers, and coordinate earnings call readiness. Once public, they manage buy-side relationships and analyst engagement to drive valuation support and trading stability.
They also maintain the narrative alignment across press releases, investor days, and institutional meetings. Your IR advisor is your link between capital markets and company leadership.
Do you need tax and risk consultants for IPOs?
Yes. These roles often get overlooked until late in the process, but they can make or break IPO readiness.
Tax advisors review your entity structure, deferred tax assets, and public-company implications for global operations. Poor tax planning can lead to negative surprises at pricing. Risk advisors lead the build-out of SOX 404 compliance systems, implement internal controls, and prepare your team for audit committee governance.
If your business is scaling quickly, it’s smart to use transformation specialists to handle systems upgrades, ERP integration, and board reporting automation.
How should you coordinate the entire IPO team?
You need a dedicated program manager—often your CFO, COO, or an external IPO advisor—who aligns workstreams, manages documentation, and enforces deadlines.
Weekly IPO readiness meetings should include internal leaders, bankers, counsel, and project managers. Use structured IPO calendars, document trackers, and role clarity to ensure efficiency. Time lost in coordination becomes a risk to filing windows and pricing windows.
Build your internal and external team with absolute clarity on deliverables, sequencing, and governance protocols.
Key Team Members Needed to Go Public
- CEO and CFO with investor presentation capability
- Independent directors for public board governance
- Lead underwriter and secondary syndicate bankers
- IPO-experienced legal counsel for filings and structure
- Accounting firm or consultants for audit, SOX, MD&A
- Investor relations experts for roadshows and messaging
- Tax, controls, and risk advisors for compliance and structure
- Program manager to align timelines and communications
Who Should Be on an IPO Team?
- CEO and CFO
- Independent directors
- Lead and co-managing underwriters
- Legal counsel and regulatory advisors
- Auditors and accounting experts
- Investor relations and comms
- Tax and internal controls consultants
In Conclusion
Assembling the right IPO team isn’t optional—it’s mission critical. You must surround yourself with functional experts who know how to execute under compressed timelines and high public scrutiny. A disciplined team architecture enables faster filings, smoother audits, stronger investor engagement, and better long-term valuation performance. Get your team right, and the rest follows with momentum.
If you’re interested in leadership insights, career advice, and lessons from building a global business presence, check out Glen Leibowitz’s articles on Quora.
Glen Leibowitz is a CFO and financial executive with 20+ years in capital markets and fintech. Currently CFO at Bitcoin Depot, he previously held roles at PwC and Apollo Global Management and served as CFO of Acreage Holdings. He specializes in IPO readiness, SOX compliance, and finance transformations. A CPA, he holds a B.A. in Accounting from Queens College (NY).