Insight Articles | CFO & Audit Chair

The role of CFO in PE-backed companies continues to evolve from accountant to business leader. A group of PE CFOs joined to discuss the biggest challenges facing their success today.

How private equity needs to assess potential chief executive officers and chief financial officers.

Private companies - maintain the status quo or support a tide of change?

140 UK Audit Committee Chairs share what it takes to become an Audit Committee Chair—and succeed in the role.

The days when the main function of Audit Committees was to put a “stamp of approval” on companies’ financials are long gone. Heightened risk awareness and increased regulation means that Audit Committees must now take on a much more proactive role in detecting, understanding and acting on risk – be it financial, macroeconomic, regulatory, legal or cybersecurity-related.

Within the executive committee, there is no relationship more important than that between the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer. Because of this, when hiring a CFO, particular attention must be paid to the fit between the candidate and the chief executive. In our experience working with boards and CEOs making CFO appointments, strong CEO-CFO relationships exhibit three qualities.

Over the past 15 years, the role of chief financial officer has evolved considerably. While the CFO may still carry the original mandate of master technician and “accountant-in-chief ”—and must do so under heightened regulatory and investor scrutiny—that is only a fraction of what the role entails today.

A strong relationship between a public company’s chief financial officer and its audit committee is critical if the board is to provide appropriate risk management and compliance oversight.

When Egon Zehnder launched the 25 by 25 initiative last September, aiming to quintuple the number of female CEOs in UK FTSE 100 companies within a decade, we committed to the same target in finance. Given that men and women now enter the profession in almost equal numbers, this should be an achievable goal but, critically, it depends on overcoming obstacles which confront many women mid-career.

The airline industry is facing a number of global challenges. Kokkong Chan, Egon Zehnder, Sydney, and Christoph Wahl, Egon Zehnder, Berlin, summarize these challenges and their implications for talent management.