Stepping up to a leadership role as a CFO
As two global fund managers promote their chief financial officers to the top CEO role, what different skill sets do the two roles require?
Earlier this month, Schroders appointed its CFO Richard Oldfield as its new global CEO while abrdn promoted CFO Jason Windsor to the CEO role permanently.
The role of a CFO is to oversee the financial accounts and how the business is forecast to perform while the CEO is making strategic decisions and its product range.
Reflecting on the switch between the two roles, Mischa Bennett, managing director at recruitment firm Capital Executive Search, said: “The CEO role is almost exclusively about making strategic decisions, it’s quite different to a CFO role and it is a leap to move from a CFO to a CEO, the CFO would need to be incredibly commercial. Usually a CFO is tucked away in accounts too deeply to be commercial.”
Karen Frenkiel, senior manager at Pitcher Partners, said promoting an individual internally could minimise business disruption and retain business knowledge.
“Internal executive candidates are often uniquely placed to step up as CEO, often posing less risk of disruption to business continuity through their knowledge of the business. CFOs have the added advantage of financial acumen to go alongside existing working relationships internally, as well as with clients, suppliers and other external stakeholders,” Frenkiel said.
Ways that a CFO would make themselves more appealing for the top job include being a strong communicator, motivating teams, and developing an understanding of the business beyond its finances.
In the case of Windsor, he had been carrying out the CEO role in an interim capacity since May 2024 to see if he would be a good fit and abrdn said that, during the interim period, he had evidenced that “he cares deeply about our clients, customers and our people”.
Meanwhile, Lachlan Baird made the move in the other direction, moving from CEO of superannuation fund Prime Super to become CFO at Prime Value Asset Management. While this is a more unusual move, he has a background in accountancy.
At the time of his appointment, Prime Value said Baird will “play a key role in driving strategic initiatives, financial and risk management leadership, and a culture of continuous improvement to strengthen the structures, processes, systems and infrastructure of the company”.
It may also be the case that a new appointment is willing to take a smaller role with the expectation of a leadership role in the future if a succession plan is in place.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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