Good morning. CFO turnover remains high and could get higher, especially in the technology sector, as the market allows. transaction and public services heat up.
Kelly Steckelberg is one of the most sought after CFOs. She joined Zoom Video Communications as Chief Financial Officer in 2017 and helped take the company public in 2019. Steckelberg ended her tenure at the company in October and this week will join the company Australian design startup Canva as CFO.
According to the company, Canva recently announced a new valuation of $32 billion and reached a milestone of $2.5 billion in annual revenue while remaining profitable for the seventh consecutive year.
“I have been an admirer of the team, product and mission for many years,” Steckelberg, who will be based in Austin, Texas, said in a statement last week. “Their passion, creativity, innovation and exceptional growth are the hallmarks of a truly generational company.”
Canva, led by CEO Melanie Perkinsis certainly on the rise, and with Steckelberg on board, the company could be aiming for an IPO in the near future. Some experts believe that more companies will go public next year.
“The IPO and M&A market, we are very optimistic about 2025; we think it will come back,” Madhu Namburi, head of technology investment banking at JPMorgan told Bloomberg last week. There is investor demand, he said.
Leadership consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates has released new data from Global CFO Revenue Index covering Q1 to Q3 2024. The technology industry recorded a five-year high of CFO turnover of 15.2% from Q1 to Q3.
I asked Jenna Fisher, co-head of global financial management at Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA), for her take on the data. As some companies prepare for IPOs, those that receive the highest market capitalization at launch will get experienced CFOs, Fisher said. “I think that will continue to drive the growth of technology,” she said.
Turnover in the technology sector can also be attributed to increased retirement rates, as well as high CEO turnover and lower market performance over the past two years. This means many companies are spending time thinking about how to fill the CFO role, according to RRA.
Looking at CFO turnover globally based on data from stock market index companies, a total of 224 new CFOs were appointed between Q1 and Q3 2024, just shy of record turnover witnessed during the same period in 2023, when 233 new CFOs were appointed. , according to RRA.
Other findings: The average tenure of an outgoing CFO has hit a five-year low of 5.6 years; and 52% of outgoing CFOs are retiring or transitioning to exclusive board roles, up 11 percentage points year-over-year, reaching a five-year high.
With all the turnover, CFOs will continue to be in demand.
“I sometimes joke that being a CFO is recession-proof,” Fisher told me. “In a good market, new CFO seats will be created. And in a bad market, CFOs are sometimes unfairly blamed and displaced.”
Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]
The following sections of CFO Daily are hosted by Greg McKenna.
Rankings
Shawn Munsell was appointed chief financial officer of J&J Snack Foods (Nasdaq: JJSF), parent company of brands such as Icee, Minute Maid and Dippin’ Dots, effective December 2. He will succeed Ken Plunk, who is retiring and will assist with the transition through the end of the year. Munsell comes from avocado and fruit distributor Calavo Growers, where he was CFO. He previously spent seven years at Tyson Foods, serving as CFO of Tyson’s $14 billion poultry division after serving as Vice President and treasurer.
Annette van Hoorde Promoted to EVP and CFO of Bladex (NYSE: BLX), a multinational bank established by central banks in Latin America and the Caribbean, effective April 2025. She will succeed Ana Graciela de Mendez, who is stepping down After 34 years working at the company. Hoorde joined the bank in 2005 and currently holds the position of Vice President of Finance and Asset Liability Management, a position she has held since 2019.
Great deals
M&A prospects: Bright spots, shadows on the trading horizonis a new one report from S&P Global Market Intelligence looking ahead to 2025. The environment has picked up in 2024, but deal announcements remain below pre-pandemic levels and are far from 2021’s record numbers.
However, antitrust concerns have not stopped blockbuster oil and gas mergers, with regulators yet to block an acquisition worth more than $1 billion since the end of 2023. However, a broad M&A recovery cannot happen without a pickup in the technology sector, where private equity buyouts are pursuing more deals. There are also Optimism spread that a second Trump administration could spur a surge in negotiations.
“The M&A market still has a lot of room to develop” Joe Mantone, one of the report’s authors. “Lower interest rates and a less restrictive regulatory environment will make the trading environment more favorable.”
Go deeper
Berkshire Hathaway now holds more than $325 billion in cash and cash equivalents, even as the stock market is experiencing one of its best years since 2000. Why, Luck‘S Alena Botros asked in a new way reportIs Warren Buffett sitting on the sidelines? She spoke with Cathy Seifert, director of CFRA Research, about some possible explanations for the cash hoarding.
overheard
“If you think about non-alcoholic beer like two years ago, people probably wouldn’t invest. But since we expected it to be 10 years away, we decided to invest globally. We have developed this technology quite neatly.”
—Michel Doukeris, CEO of the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), speak Luck in an interview. The younger generation drinks much less alcohol than their parents. So Doukeris can ultimately be judged on how competitive he is in one of the fastest-growing segments of the global industry: non-alcoholic beer. AB InBev’s future growth may depend heavily on the marketing of those beers.
