More CFOs Are Transitioning to CEOs: Fortune Asks Cowen Partners What It Takes to Get There
Good morning. Elevating CFOs to the top job is a practice that is gaining steam in corporate America and, as Fortune’s recent “9 CFOs ready to make the jump to CEO” list suggests, the trend is likely to continue. But the C-suite trend of CFO-to-CEO didn’t happen overnight—its growing popularity is the result of several factors.
For starters, companies are looking for leaders who can navigate an increasingly unsteady economic climate. But there’s also been an evolution at the corporate level that has seen the role of CFO change from a back-office function to a leader of company strategy. For example, drugstore giant Rite Aid, which emerged from federal bankruptcy protection, needed a new leader. And so it turned to its trusted CFO Matt Schroeder, naming him CEO in September.
Shawn Cole, president and founding partner of executive search firm Cowen Partners, is also finding that companies are hiring CFOs as CEOs who have operational acumen of the core business and strategy experience. “CFOs have become real strategic partners to CEOs, and I would call them ‘truth-tellers,’” he said.
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