Split Oak Advisory Group

Built for founders
who need more than
a consultant.

Executive-level finance and operations leadership — embedded inside your business, taking real ownership, and driving the results that matter. For founder-led companies in food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing.

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Split Oak Advisory Group vertical logo in warm brass
Strength · Resilience · Clarity · Discipline
CFO · CEO Dual executive capability
Food · Bev · CPG · Manufacturing Deep industry focus
San Antonio, Texas Serving nationally
Warm brass split-oak tree emblem on white
What We Believe

Finance is a
leadership tool.
Not just a report.

Most founders don't need more data. They need someone who can look at the numbers, understand what they mean for the business, and help make better decisions faster — then stick around to make sure those decisions actually land.

Split Oak Advisory Group was built for exactly that. We work exclusively with founder-led businesses in food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing — industries we know from the inside — as true operating partners, not outside advisors.

How We Engage

The right level of support for where you actually are.

Every engagement is structured around what your business needs — not a packaged methodology. We scale up or down as the situation demands.

01

CFO Advisory

Ongoing financial leadership, and the systems beneath it. You get the reporting, forecasting, and cash discipline of a full finance function — a real CFO in the seat on a steady basis, whatever the payment structure, focused on margin, liquidity, and the decisions that build enterprise value.

  • FP&A, budgeting & financial modeling
  • Cash flow & liquidity management
  • Management reporting & KPI dashboards
  • Cost accounting, standard costing & BOMs
  • Controls, month-end close & ERP systems
  • Capital raise prep & lender readiness
  • Covenant monitoring & board reporting
02

CEO Advisory

Executive leadership when the ship needs steadying — a turnaround, a stalled stretch, an owner pulled too thin. We take the operating seat and stabilize the business, buying the ownership team time and relief: room to build a dedicated team, or to coach the leaders on the floor into bigger roles.

  • Turnaround & operational stabilization
  • Cash & margin triage
  • Cost structure & rightsizing
  • Interim leadership through a gap
  • Coaching & developing onsite leaders
  • Org design & succession planning
  • A clear path to hand off or transact
03

Interim & Project Leadership

Full-time or defined-scope leadership through the moments that decide everything — a capital raise, a sale, a diligence sprint, a leadership gap. We take ownership of the work and run it from the inside: defensible financials, a managed data room, and the process carried alongside your banker to close.

  • Transaction & diligence readiness
  • M&A modeling & valuation support
  • Capital raise & lender packages
  • Data room build & management
  • Leadership gap coverage
  • Integration & post-close planning
  • Board, investor & banker coordination
Who We Serve

For founders who have built something real and need a trusted operator beside them.

We work exclusively with founder-led and owner-operated businesses — the people who built it and still have skin in the game.

Scaling Past the Founder's Bandwidth

The business has grown beyond what one person can manage alone. The finances are complex, the team is stretched, and the systems haven't kept up. We build what you need to get to the next level.

Navigating a Transaction or Capital Raise

A sale, acquisition, or fundraise is on the horizon. The financial complexity is real, the stakes are high, and you need someone who has done it before — and can lead the process from the inside.

Stabilizing After Rapid Growth or Disruption

Something shifted — fast growth, a leadership change, a market disruption. The business needs to get clean, get stable, and get focused. We come in, take ownership, and drive the work.

Industries We Know

Food Manufacturing Craft Beverage Beer & Spirits Consumer Packaged Goods Wholesale Distribution Contract Manufacturing Perishable Goods Cold Chain
"We don't advise from the outside. We get in the building, take ownership, and drive results."
Our People

Advisors who have held the seat.

Every engagement at Split Oak is led by a principal who has served in the role they're advising on — not studied it, not modeled it, but actually run it, with real consequences attached to every decision.

That's what we mean when we say we're operators, not observers. The judgment, the instincts, and the credibility we bring to a client engagement come from having been in the room when the decisions that actually matter get made.

Additional principals are engaged on a selective basis for specific engagements requiring specialized expertise. All client work is led directly by a Split Oak principal.

LJ Govoni
Founder & Principal — Split Oak Advisory Group

LJ brings more than a decade of operating experience as a CFO, COO, and President across private equity-backed and founder-led businesses in food manufacturing, craft beverage, and CPG. He has led financial turnarounds, closed multiple capital raises, guided acquisitions through due diligence and close, and built finance organizations from the ground up inside real businesses operating under real constraints.

M.Acc, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
MSF, University of Tampa — John H. Sykes College of Business
Tampa Bay Business Journal 40 Under 40 — 2023
Food Manufacturing · Craft Beverage · CPG · Distribution
Connect on LinkedIn Full Bio & Press →
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About Split Oak

Operators,
not observers.

There's no shortage of consultants who will study your business, build a presentation, and tell you what needs to change. Split Oak is something different. Every advisor we put in front of a client has held the seat — CFO, COO, President — inside real businesses, with real stakes, where the decisions they made determined whether the company made payroll, closed the deal, or survived the year.

We don't advise from the outside. We get in the building, take ownership of the function, and drive results the same way we would if it were our own business on the line. Because at some point in our careers, it was.

That distinction matters more than it might seem. An operator who has managed cash through a crisis thinks differently about liquidity than one who has only modeled it. An operator who has closed a capital raise under pressure thinks differently about transaction readiness than one who has only advised on it. The judgment that comes from having lived it — that's what Split Oak brings to every engagement.

What That Means in Practice

01

We Take Ownership

Not just accountability — actual ownership

When Split Oak takes on a function, we run it. We don't produce recommendations and hand them back. We build the systems, manage the process, and stand behind the results the same way a full-time executive would.

02

We Know What's Hard

Because we've done the hard parts ourselves

Closing a capital raise at midnight. Rebuilding a finance organization under a board deadline. Managing cash through a supply chain disruption. We've been there. That changes what we prioritize and how fast we move.

03

We Work Alongside Founders

Not above them, not around them

Founders don't need someone to manage them. They need a trusted operator beside them — someone who respects what they've built, challenges what needs to change, and is fully invested in the outcome.

04

We Leave the Business Stronger

Every engagement ends with more capability, not more dependency

The goal of every Split Oak engagement is to build something that lasts — systems, teams, and financial infrastructure the business owns and operates long after we're gone.

Contact

Let's start with a conversation.

No sales process. No pitch deck. Just a direct conversation about where your business is, where you want it to go, and whether Split Oak is the right fit to help you get there.

Rooted in values. Focused on legacy.

Tell us about your business.