If Jeff Kindler can do it, Dave Brennan can do it. The AstraZeneca ceo is reportedly poised to hire an outsider as cfo in hopes of finding someone with “fresh management ideas,” The Financial Times writes. Pfizer, you may recall, recently hired a veteran cfo of the shrinking telecom wars, Frank D’Amelio, as cfo in a clear nod to the need for a sharpened pencil who can simultaneously cut fat with one hand while rubbing Wall Street’s back with the other.

And AstraZeneca finds itself in a similar position - recently lab failures, a quick need for new meds and big cutbacks. So Brennan et al have been working with SpencerStuart, the brand-name headhunting firm, to find candidates beyond the wide world of pharma. AstraZeneca executives have conducted several interviews with frontrunner candidates and a decision is due soon, the paper writes.

All this activity follows the abrupt departure of Jon Symonds, the long-standing finance chief who quit in June to join Goldman Sachs. The departure came two years after Symonds was passed over as AstraZeneca’s ceo in favour of David Brennan. Given that Symond’s new mandate includes expanding private equity investment in the pharmaceutical sector, might he view his former employer as a likely target for a merger or buyout?

In any event, his resignation was a blow to AZ, because Symonds was respected in the financial community for driving down costs – helping to maintain earnings at a time of setbacks in the company’s pipeline of new drugs – and for communicating effectively with investors, the Times notes. And his resignation caught AZ execs by surprise and has led to a four-month search internally and externally to find a replacement.