CFOs on the Move - Q3 2024 Unwrapped
The CFO reports on some of the biggest CFO appointments across the second quarter of the year
The CFO reports on some of the biggest CFO appointments across the second quarter of the year
The third of 2024 witnessed significant CFO movements, with major companies across various industries announcing key appointments and transitions in their finance leadership.
n the tech sector, there were significant changes at major companies: Apple announced Luca Maestri’s transition from CFO, with Kevan Parekh set to take over in 2025. Zoom’s CFO Kelly Steckelberg resigned, while Salesforce’s CFO Amy Weaver stepped down. Microsoft appointed former GE CFO Carolina Dybeck Happe as COO.
In retail and consumer goods, Target appointed Jim Lee as CFO, while Estée Lauder named Akhil Shrivastava as their new finance chief. Etsy’s CFO Rachel Glaser announced her retirement, and Sephora North America promoted Delphine Herve to CFO.
The financial sector saw changes with UPS promoting Brian Dykes to CFO, and Royal Bank of Canada naming Katherine Gibson as permanent CFO after serving in an interim capacity. Meanwhile, in the food and beverage industry, Chipotle’s long-time CFO Jack Hartung announced his retirement, while Tyson Foods named Curt Calaway as their new CFO.
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.
(July 9) Chipotle’s finance chief, Jack Hartung, is retiring. Hartung, who has been chief financial officer since 2002, will retire on March 31, 2025. Adam Rymer, who joined the fast-casual restaurant chain in 2009, was appointed Hartung’s successor, effective January 1, 2025. Rymer has been Chipotle’s vice president of finance since 2020 and has been mentored by Hartung. Previous roles at the company include senior director of FP&A, field finance and treasury and director of FP&A.
*Hartung later postponed postponed his retirement and announced he would stay on at the company as president of strategy, finance and supply chain. The change of plans comes after the fast food chain’s CEO, Brian Niccol, announced his departure to take over as CEO of Starbucks.
(July 9) UPS promoted Brian Dykes to chief financial officer. He will be responsible for UPS’ financial strategies and will lead the global finance organisation. Dykes, 46, has spent more than 25 years with UPS, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Global Finance and Planning, since April 2023. Prior to that role, Dykes held positions of increasing responsibility within the Company’s finance and accounting, corporate treasury, mergers and acquisitions, business intelligence, and business development functions, both in the U.S. and internationally.
(July 10) Gordon Brooks was named interim CFO of Eli Lilly, effective July 15. Brooks has worked at the pharmaceutical company for the last 29 years, most recently as group vice president, controller and corporate strategy. Ashkenazi will remain at the company to facilitate the transition of her responsibilities through the end of July, according to the filing. The exec is set to begin her new role as CFO at Google’s parent company Alphabet on July 31, Alphabet said in a June 5 release.
(July 10) Catherine Dunleavy was appointed CFO and chief operating officer of haircare company Olaplex, effective August 13. Dunleavy brings more than two decades of experience driving the strategy and performance of premier consumer brands. Most recently, she served as President, and, prior to that, as Chief Financial Officer at Away, following tenures at Nike, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and GE. In her new role, she will oversee the breadth of OLAPLEX’s business operations, aligning all functions to most effectively execute on the Company’s strategy and drive results.
Yoana Land has reportedly joined Jaya Apparel Group, the owner of Cinq-a-Sept and Likely, two women’s fashion designer brands with private equity backing, as CFO. Prior to joining Jaya Apparel, Land was a divisional CFO at L’Oreal for over a decade. She worked in four different CFO roles at L’Oreal, most recently as Transformation CFO of L’Oreal North America.
(July 17) HSBC promoted its chief financial officer, Georges Elhedery, as the chief executive of Europe’s largest bank, effective September 2. Elhedery succeeds current CEO Noel Quinn, who will retire on September 1. Elhedery joined HSBC in 2005 and was appointed to the Board and as Group Chief Financial Officer in January 2023. He previously served as Co-CEO of Global Banking & Markets, where he also led the Markets & Securities Services division. He led the Group’s Middle Eastern, North Africa and Turkiye region as CEO from July 2016 to February 2019.
(July 18) Puttshack promoted its CFO, Logan Powell, to chief executive officer. Powell previously served as Global President and Chief Financial Officer of Puttshack since 2019. He succeeds Joe Vrankin, who oversaw the company’s growth in the U.K. as CEO and subsequently brought the concept to the U.S. in 2021. Powell and Vrankin have collaborated on this transition, as Vrankin will be moving on from the company.
(July 18) Global news agency the Associated Press appointed Charles Pavlounis as its new finance chief. Pavlounis joins AP from Argus Holdings, LLP, where he served as executive vice president and chief business development officer. Previously he was executive vice president of business development and CFO of CBS News, where he directed all financial matters and identified new business development initiatives, including content development, audio streaming, and new revenue streams with strategic partners.
( July 22) Drew Shearer was promoted to finance chief of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Shearer, who will take over as CFO on October 1, has been with the company for nearly 30 years. He joined the studio in 1996 as Director of Internal audit for Sony and has since held roles of Finance Director and Divisional CFO of Sony Pictures Television’s global businesses before being promoted in 2014 to Executive Vice President, Group Divisional Chief Financial Officer. Prior to SPE, Shearer worked for the Audit practice of Deloitte & Touche LLC in Detroit, Michigan.
(July 23) Akhil Shrivastava will take over as finance chief of beauty giant Estée Lauder on November 1. Since joining ELC in 2015, Akhil has held several senior finance roles within the Company. He was recently named ELC’s Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller, a role that oversees Corporate Accounting and Financial Planning & Analysis, the International and Online Finance organizations, Pricing and Value Chain Finance, serving on both the Finance & Strategy Leadership Team and Executive Leadership Team. He also oversees the Operational Excellence pillar as part of the Profit Recovery and Growth Plan focused on driving strong inventory, cash, and cost improvements for the Company.
(July 29) Tim Foote, CFO of BlackBerry’s cybersecurity division, was promoted to company chief financial officer. Foote joined the Company following BlackBerry’s acquisition of Good Technology in 2015 and brings more than 20 years of experience across a number of senior finance leadership positions. While at BlackBerry, Foote’s roles have included managing the Company’s international finance operations, Vice President of Investor Relations and, most recently, CFO for the Cybersecurity division.
Read more about what lies ahead for Blackberry’s CFO here: What lies before BlackBerry’s new CFO? – The CFO (the-cfo.io)
(July 31) Etsy’s finance chief Rachel Glaser will retire after a nearly 40-year career in strategic finance roles. Glaser will stay in her current role until a successor is appointed and will remain with the company in an advisory capacity through June 30, 2025. Since joining Etsy in 2017, Rachel has led Etsy’s strategic finance, corporate development, accounting, SEC reporting, investor relations, and other core functions. She has played a key role in scaling Etsy’s core marketplace and expanding Etsy into a House of Brands.
(July 31) Anders Malmström will succeed John Dacey as group chief financial officer of Swiss Re. Malmström will join Swiss Re in early 2025 from Athora Holdings, a leading European savings and retirement services group, where he has served as Group Chief Financial Officer since May 2021. Prior to Athora, he was Senior Executive Vice President and CFO of Equitable Holdings in New York. Before that, he was Senior Executive Director and CFO at AXA US, member of the executive board and Head of the Life business at AXA Winterthur and held senior leadership roles at Swiss Life Group.
(August 1) Video game platform Roblox’s finance chief Michael Guthrie is leaving the company to pursue personal interests. He will stay on at the firm while a successor is found before stepping down. During the company’s Q2 earnings call, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said Guthrie had chosen to step down from the role to “pursue his personal interests and focus on his next chapter”.
( August 5) ZoomInfo’s vice president of FP&A, Graham O’Brien, was appointed interim chief financial officer, effective September 6. O’Brien brings extensive expertise in financial planning and analysis, accounting, and driving strategic corporate initiatives. At ZoomInfo, he serves as Vice President of FP&A, overseeing financial forecasting, budgeting, and reporting processes. Previously, O’Brien held roles at DiscoverOrg, RainKing Solutions, and Kaseya.
(August 19) Markus Neubrand is stepping down as CFO of apparel maker and retailer Guess after a year in the role. Neubrand joined from luxury fashion brand MCM Worldwide, where he was global CFO. The Switzerland-based company said Dennis Secor, currently executive vice president of finance, will once again step in as interim CFO
(August 21) Kelly Steckelberg is resigning as CFO of video communication firm Zoom. Steckelberg has been finance chief since 2017 and led its IPO in 2019. Steckelberg is staying at the company through Q3 earnings. Zoom has already started the search for her successor.
(August 27) Sonia Webb was appointed finance chief of accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly, effective September 18. Webb was most recently chief financial officer of Microsoft services provider Avanade — a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft. Before that, she worked at Accenture in several roles over her 22-year tenure, including finance director of North America and managing director of finance, communications media and technology for North America.
(September 3) Polestar named Jean-Francois Mady chief financial officer effective October 21. He brings 25 years of experience from senior, leading roles in automotive finance and financial services across Europe, China, Asia and India. Most recently he was Senior Vice President of Global Accounting Operations and Finance Transformation at Stellantis Group. He has also held several leadership roles at PSA Group. Mady will assume responsibilities from Per Ansgar, who joined Polestar in January 2024 as CFO on a transitional basis.
(September 12) Royal Bank of Canada’s interim CFO Katherine Gibson will take on the role permanently. Before being named interim chief financial officer in April, Gibson was senior vice president of enterprise finance and controller. Gibson joined RBC 22 years ago and has held a range of senior positions, including vice president of enterprise optimization and senior director of finance. She replaces Nadine Ahn, who was fired over an undisclosed personal relationship with another employee, which supposedly led to preferential treatment. She has denied the allegations.
(September 12) Delphine Herve was promoted to finance chief of beauty retailer Sephora North America, effective April 2025. Herve has worked at the retailer since 2014 and has been senior vice president of finance, FP&A for North America since 2022. Before that, she worked at Sephora’s parent company, luxury products group LVMH, as an internal auditor for its spirits division Moet Hennessy. Herve succeeds Christophe Le Boterff, who is retiring. Le Boterff has been Sephora’s CFO of North America since 2017.
(September 12) Carolina Dybeck Happe, GE’s former CFO, has been appointed chief operations officer at Microsoft. Dybeck Happe worked at GE from March 2020 until September 2023. She continued to work at the company as senior vice president where she helped complete its spin-off of GE Vernova, its energy infrastructure unit, in April 2024.
(September 18) Wiley’s CFO Christina Van Tassell will leave the publisher on October. 1. Van Tassell, CFO since 2021, joined from Dow Jones where she held the same role. Before that, Van Tassell held CFO roles at Xaxis and Centurion Holdings. Christopher Caridi, corporate controller and chief accounting officer, will take over the additional role of interim CFO, effective Sept. 18. Caridi joined the company in 2017 from Thomson Reuters.
(September 18) Keith Walsh will take over as chief financial officer of AIG on October. 21. He succeeds Sabra Purtill, who has been CFO since January 2023. Walsh joins the global insurance organisation from Marsh McLennan, where he has worked for the last seven years as chief financial officer of Marsh. Before that, he was vice president and head of investor relations for Marsh McLennan Companies. Walsh earlier spent 14 years as an equity research analyst at Citi where he covered the insurance sector.
(September 19) Target appointed Jim Lee as its new finance chief, effective September 22. Lee brings more than 25 years of experience in finance, strategy, team and culture leadership at PepsiCo. Most recently as the company’s deputy chief financial officer, he oversaw its global tax, treasury, investor relations and environmental, social and governance reporting functions, and led the finance teams for PepsiCo’s international business, comprising approximately $35 billion in revenue. Prior to that, as senior vice president, finance, of PepsiCo Beverages North America, he led financial planning and analysis, and finance functions for brand and innovation, franchise bottlers, supply chain and business development.
(September 24) Grammarly appointed Navam Welihinda as finance chief. Welihinda will lead Grammarly’s finance organization and corporate development efforts. Most recently, Welihinda served as CFO at HashiCorp, where he led the company’s December 2021 IPO.
(September 26) Markus Neubrand, who announced his departure from Guess in August, has been appointed CFO of Puma. He will succeed Hubert Hinterseher who has agreed that he will step down as CFO on September 30, 2024, and will leave the company on December 31, 2024, after a successful and smooth transition of his duties to his successor.
(September 24) Sonalee Parekh will take over as finance chief of Asana on September 11. Parekh brings more than 25 years of experience in the technology and banking sectors to Asana, having previously held executive finance roles at leading public companies including Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at RingCentral and Divisional CFO, Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). At Asana, Parekh will oversee the global finance organization and play a strategic role in supporting the company’s next phase of growth and innovation.