CFOs on the Move - Q2 2024 Unwrapped

The second quarter of 2024 witnessed significant CFO movements, with major companies across various industries announcing key appointments and transitions in their finance leadership.

From major tech companies such as Spotify to consumer brands like KFC and Fortune Media, companies sought to enhance their financial expertise by bringing on seasoned professionals with diverse backgrounds. Notably, Heathrow Airport’s CFO, Javier Echave, transitioned to the COO role, underscoring the cross-functional nature of modern executive roles.

There were also first-time appointments at start-ups growing ever-closer to that IPO, OpenAI among them. The shakeups extended to sectors like media, where Fortune Media appointed Anastasia Nyrkovskaya as its new CEO, marking a significant milestone as she becomes the first woman to lead the company. Meanwhile, in the fast-fashion industry, British retailer ASOS welcomed Dave Murray as their new CFO.

As mentioned, there is a growing trend of CFOs moving into president or CEO roles, reflecting the growing trend of financial leaders taking on broader executive responsibilities. For example, Ross Tennenbaum of Avalara also transitioned to the role of president this quarter, highlighting the evolving career paths of financial executives.

As companies navigated an ever-changing landscape, the importance of strategic financial leadership became paramount. From guiding crucial transactions and transformations to spearheading operational efficiencies, the incoming CFOs faced numerous challenges and opportunities in shaping the financial futures of their organizations.

Stay tuned for a comprehensive look at the high-profile CFO transitions that marked the second quarter of 2024, as we delve into the backgrounds, motivations, and implications of these pivotal appointments.

April

(April 2) Heathrow Airport, the largest international terminal in London, has announced its CFO Javier Echave will replace the airport’s departing COO. Echave, who also serves as co-chair of the UK CFO Leadership Network, will take on the COO role after eight years in the CFO role.

(April 4) Christian Luiga, formerly of Saab, will take over as Spotify’s CFO at some point in Q3. Luiga has nearly three decades of CFO experience in technology and manufacturing. He also serves on multiple boards for companies based in Sweden where Spotify is headquartered. During the transition period, Ben Kung, Spotify’s vice president of FP&A, will serve as interim CFO.

Read The CFO’s analysis of Spotify’s profit formula here.

(April 10) Alex Barsk was named finance chief of KFC Global, a Yum! Brand subsidiary fast-food restaurant chain, effective June 1. Barsk joins KFC from its sister brand Pizza Hut, where she was most recently global chief financial officer. She joined Pizza Hut in 2015 and has held leadership roles across strategy, finance, development, and supply chain.

(April 10) Fortune Media appointed Anastasia Nyrkovskaya as its new chief executive officer, becoming the first woman to lead the 95-year-old business media brand. For the last five years, she has been the company’s chief financial and strategy officer. Before joining Fortune, she held CFO roles at beauty subscription company Birchbox and health and wellness service provider XpresSpa Group.

(April 16) Ross Tennenbaum, CFO of cloud-based tax compliance automation provider Avalara, was appointed president. Tennenbaum joined the company five years ago and has been CFO since 2020, helping to scale Avalara’s business to exceed $1 billion in revenue last year.

(April 18) Versapay, an accounts receivable software company, announced that Ed Neumann is its new CFO. Neumann succeeds Russell Lester, who held the role from September 2022 through March of this year. The company noted that Neumann is a seasoned “growth CFO,” and has held past roles at Workrise, Borderfree, Lightspeed Commerce, and Shopkeep.

(April 17) British online fast-fashion retailer ASOS named Dave Murray as CFO, effective April 29. Murray was most recently finance chief of MatchesFashion, a luxury e-commerce platform, and before that, he held senior finance roles at luxury e-commerce company Farfetch. Earlier he worked at Amazon in the U.K., most recently as European finance director for Amazon logistics, and spent 10 years working at Sainsbury’s, most recently as head of retail finance.

(April 23) Greenhouse hired Paul Todgham as the hiring platform’s new finance chief. Todgham was most recently CFO of Cognex, a machine vision and barcode scanning solutions provider. Before that, he worked at Levi Strauss & Company for six years in several senior leadership roles, including leading finance for the company’s global supply chain, distribution, merchandising, planning, design and marketing teams.

(April 29) Daniella Turenshine was appointed finance chief of beach footwear and apparel brand Reef. Turenshine was most recently chief financial officer of medical apparel and scrubs maker FIGS, a role she held for over two years.

May

(May 1) Manchester United has appointed Roger Bell as it’s new CFO as Cliff Baty will leave the club at the end of the season. In March 2016, Baty was appointed chief financial officer and he has been on the board of directors since December 2017. Before joining the club he was CFO and a member of the Board of Directors of online gambling company Sportech. Bell, who was most recently CFO at petrochemicals giant INEOS. Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of INEOS, bought a 25% stake in Manchester United in February.

(May 3) A+E Networks promoted David Bank to finance chief. He has worked as the network’s EVP, chief strategy and corporate development officer since joining in 2019. Before that, he was executive vice president of investor relations at CBS for over three years.

(May 6) UPS chief financial officer Brian Newman will leave the company on June 1 to focus on his health. The company has started a search for his replacement. Newman joined UPS in 2019 from PepsiCo, where he worked for 26 years.

(May 6) Till Streichert was appointed CFO of airline Lufthansa, effective September 15. Streichert is currently chief financial officer of Madrid-based Amadeus IT Group. He has held several global executive and financial management roles at various companies in his more-than-20-year career, including T-Mobile in the UK, the Boston Consulting Group, Vodafone Romania and Vodacom South Africa.

(May 7) Susan Healy was named finance chief of footwear company Crocs, effective June 3. Healy joins the company from car auction marketplace IAA, where she was chief financial officer. While at IAA she led its $7 billion merger with Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers.

(May 8) Emily Reuter, who is currently vice president of finance of Instacart, was promoted to chief financial officer of the grocery delivery platform. Reuter joined the company in January from Uber, where she worked for over nine years.

(May 10) Ford has announced its succession plan for its current CFO John Lawler, who is stepping into a new vice chair role in 2025. Sherry House, who most recently served as finance chief for Lucid Motors, will be joining the company in June as VP of finance, and will assume the CFO title in early 2025.

(May 16) Charles Schwab’s finance chief Peter Crawford is retiring after a 22-year career at the brokerage firm, including seven years as CFO. Crawford will be succeeded by Mike Verdeschi, who will join the company on May 20 as deputy CFO and managing director and will matriculate to CFO after a transition period with Crawford. Verdeschi was most recently treasurer of Citigroup, where he worked for over 30 years. While at Citigroup he held several leadership roles, including chief investment officer and head of rates portfolio management.

(May 21) Anthropic appointed Krishna Rao as the AI startup’s first chief financial officer. Rao joins the company from sportswear retailer Fanatics Commerce, where he was finance chief. Before that, he also held the CFO role at at health care payments and patient engagement platform Cedar. He previously worked at Airbnb as global head of corporate and business development and led corporate and operations FP&A.

(May 22) Paul Vogel was appointed finance chief of global apparel and footwear company VF Corporation, effective July 8. Before joining VF Corporation, Vogel worked at audio streaming subscription service Spotify, where he worked for eight years and was most recently CFO.

(May 23) Ralph Lauren promoted Justin Picicci to chief financial officer. Picicci joined Ralph Lauren in 2006 and has held several senior finance leadership roles. He was most recently enterprise CFO, a role that was a part of the company’s multi-year succession process. Picicci has also worked as the company’s Asia Pacific CFO; global company controller and head of procurement; and North America CFO.

(May 28) Google Fiber, Alphabet’s residential and business internet provider, appointed John Abbot as its first chief financial officer. Since January 2023, Abbot has been CFO of AI business Dataminr. He has previously held the top finance spot at Datto, Cumulus Media, Telx Holdings, and Insight Communications.

June

(June 3) Scott Haralson was named finance chief of rental car company Hertz. Haralson has worked at Spirit Airlines for the last 11 years and has been chief financial officer since 2018. Before that, he held several key financial leadership roles, including finance director at Dish Network, director of financial planning and analysis at Frontier Airlines and director of finance at US Airways.

(June 4) Edmund Reese was named CFO of professional services firm Aon, effective July 29. Since 2020, Reese has been CFO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, a global fintech leader with technology solutions that power trading and investor communications. Before that, he worked at American Express, where he last worked as senior vice president and CFO of its largest business unit,

(June 7) Alphabet, the holding company of Google, named Anat Ashkenazi as its new CFO, effective July 31. Ashkenazi has worked at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for over 23 years, most recently as CFO. Ashkenazi replaces long-time finance chief Ruth Porat,

Read about Alphabet’s growth plans, and the financial growth strategy Ashkenazi inherits from Porat. 

(June 12) OpenAI appointed Sarah Friar as its new finance chief. Friar was most recently chief executive officer of Nextdoor, social networking service for neighborhoods, and was previously CFO of financial services platform Square. Earlier in her career, she worked at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Salesforce.

Could OpenAI’s new CFO schedule an IPO later this year? Read The CFO’s latest analysis: 

(June 18) Saab has announced that Anna Wijkander, currently the deputy CFO and head of corporate control, will become the company’s new CFO and a member of Saab’s Group Management starting September 9.

(June 18) CoStar Group, a commercial and residential real estate information provider, appointed Christian Lown as chief financial officer, effective July 1. Lown joins the company from home loan giant Freddie Mac, where he has been chief financial officer for the last four years. He previously was CFO of Navient Corporation and spent 11 years at Morgan Stanley.

(June 25) Todd Link was appointed chief financial officer of insurance and reinsurance partner Vantage. Link has worked in the insurance and financial industries for the last 30 years, most recently as CFO and chief operating officer at Beacon Capital Partners, a private real estate investment firm.

(June 26) Spices, seasonings and condiments maker McCormick promoted Marcos Gabriel, its senior vice president of global finance and capital markets, to CFO, effective December 1. Gabriel joined McCormick in 2017 as CFO, Americas and has also held the role of chief transformation officer.

(June 26) HP  announced that Karen Parkhill will join the company as Chief Financial Officer on August 5, 2024. Tim Brown, who has been serving as interim CFO, will return to his role as the head of Print Finance. Parkhill, has spent the past 13 years serving as the CFO for well-established, publicly traded companies. Parkhill joins HP from Medtronic, a leading global healthcare technology company with more than 95,000 employees across 150 countries, where she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2016.

Read how HP’s former CFO Marie Myers spearheaded a company-wide digital transformation.

(June 26) In August, Anaïs Lempereur will take over as finance chief of Hallmark Media, which operates cable networks Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery and Hallmark Family and subscription streaming service Hallmark Movies Now. Lempereur joins the company from Paramount Global’s Pluto TV, where she was CFO.

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