From creating competitive advantage to SPACs, here’s what mattered to CFOs this week

Here’s what happened this week:

Doximity, a telehealth and networking platform for doctors, debuted June 24 on the New York Stock Exchange. “The physician is at the core of what we do,” Doximity CFO Anna Bryson said. “They’re our largest investor in the IPO.” The platform, which is like a LinkedIn for doctors, has 1.8 million members. “Our customers include all the top 20 pharmaceutical manufacturers, and all of the top 20 health systems as well,” Bryson said. As an IPO option, instead of offering friends and family stock shares, “we had over 10,000 physicians participate in our reserved share program” at $26 a share, she said. 

Medtronic, a medical device company co-founded more than 70 years ago by the inventor of the battery-powered pacemaker, has powered through the pandemic. The company reported FY 2021 revenue of $8.188 billion, an increase of 37% over the previous year. A focus on the long term helped Medtronic come out of the pandemic “even stronger,” said Karen Parkhill, EVP and CFO at the Global Fortune 500 company. Parkhill, who previously worked as an investment banker for almost 20 years, explained how she ran stress scenarios to help the company navigate the pandemic. Parkhill talked about why she is an executive sponsor of Medtronic’s employee resource groups the PRIDE Network and Women’s Network. 

“If you’re going to capitalize on digitization and automation, it starts at the core of data,” IBM SVP and CFO Jim Kavanaugh said. The Fortune 100 company, led by CEO Arvind Krishna, is focused on helping its clients and partners accelerate their digital transformations and its own. “When you take a look at finance, what we’ve been doing is optimizing all of our data on one standard data architecture, one standard for governance rules,” Kavanaugh said. At IBM, the chief data officer, chief analytics officer and CIO all report to Kavanaugh. “Internally at IBM, we had to figure out how you create sustainable competitive advantage for the long term,” he said.

On July 1, Astra Space, which launches satellites, began trading on Nasdaq. The company, formed in 2016, didn’t take the traditional IPO route. Astra announced in February it would merge with Holicity, Inc., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by Craig McCaw, Bill Gates, and others. Holicity’s shareholders voted on June 30 to approve the merger. Going public via a SPAC was “a very expeditious way to raise money,” Astra CFO Kelyn Brannon said. The funding helped to “accelerate our business plan by having the capital sitting on the balance sheet,” Brannon said. Why is the company attractive to investors? “The space economy is really a massive opportunity,” she said.

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Quick note: In observance of the Fourth of July holiday, you’ll receive the next CFO Daily on Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend and see you next week.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

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Big deal

A report published by Information Services Group (ISG) found that enterprises have increased their adoption of cloud computing services. The global technology research and advisory firm's ISG Index indicated spending on infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) reached a new global record of $7.2 billion of annual contract value (ACV). A new high of $3.5 billion of ACV was reached in the Americas, according to the index.

Going deeper

Here are a few good Fortune weekend reads:

Everything to know about inflation and why it’s suddenly surging by Shawn Tully

Silicon Valley is backing a new cryptocurrency from OpenAI and Y Combinator alum Sam Altman by Chris Morris

Child tax credit payments begin on July 15—this tool helps determine if you’re eligible by Lance Lambert

J.Crew’s CEO wants to rekindle your love for prep by Phil Wahba

Leaderboard

Some notable moves from this past week:

Susan Diamond was named CFO at Humana Inc., a health and well-being company. Diamond was serving as Humana’s interim CFO and segment president for the home business. She joined Humana in 2006 and has served in various leadership roles.

Scott Dussault was named CFO at Workhuman, a performance management platform. Dussault joins Workhuman with more than 20 years of operational and financial leadership experience. He was previously EVP and CFO at Demandware.

Rebecca Garbrick was named CFO and treasurer at Forward Air Corporation, a freight and logistics company, effective July 4, 2021. Garbrick joined Forward in 2020 as VP and controller before assuming the role of chief accounting officer in March 2021.

Andrew Lucas was named CFO at Synovos, a global supply chain management company based in the U.S. Lucas joins Synovos from RS Components in Germany.

Brian West was named EVP and CFO at The Boeing Company, effective August 27, 2021. West has served as CFO at Refinitiv since 2018. He was previously CFO and EVP of operations at Oscar Health Insurance and CFO and COO at Nielsen.

Overheard

“Everyone is just buzzing about the week off and how refreshing it was and how much it allowed them to really recharge.”

—Bumble President Tariq Shaukat on the response of employees returning to work after the company provided a week off to battle "COVID burnout," as told to Fortune.