Sustainability, purpose, and innovation—here’s what mattered to CFOs this week

Here’s what happened this week:

Three words describe the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report—unequivocal, inevitable, and preventable, said Emma Stewart, Ph.D., sustainability officer at Netflix. “The findings, agreed to by 195 countries, show that humanity has delayed curbing our fossil-fuel emissions for so long that we can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a short window to prevent the most harrowing future,” Stewart said. Along with discussing the report at Fortune’s recent CFO Collaborative event, Stewart also penned the piece, The Climate Science Report Everyone’s Talking About—A Summary for Corporate Executives. It delves into why the IPCC’s findings are of great significance. The piece also points to the implications of the report for corporate leaders. 

CFOs can have a “transformative impact” by “leveraging how corporate finance and investment is positioned to drive forward both a strong and sustainable business,” Sanda Ojiambo, the CEO and executive director of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, told me. I spoke with Ojiambo about the importance of sustainability the same week the IPPC report was released. We discussed the UN Global Compact’s CFO Task Force created in December 2019 by a small group of leading finance chiefs to position CFOs as “architects” in long-term sustainable value creation, she said. It’s clear that for businesses to “survive and to thrive,” they need to take a long-term view on sustainability with a focus on inclusivity, Ojiambo said.

Young consumers want brands to reflect their values, and their loyalty is shifting. A report by McKinsey & Company released on August 11 gauged the sentiment of consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and millennials and Gen Zers are switching brands the most. About 40% of Americans surveyed said they have changed brands since the onset of the pandemic, according to McKinsey. But 44% of millennial and Gen Z consumers have tried a new brand, compared to 35% of baby boomers. And young consumers based their decision on whether a company shares their values and if employees are treated well.

“Whether it’s a washing machine that you have in your house, an airplane you’re flying in, or a space shuttle going to space, we’re really in the middle of all of those design, and engineering decisions,” Nicole Anasenes, SVP and CFO at Ansys, an engineering simulation company, told me. Anasenes discussed the Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based company’s growth in the second quarter of 2021 and what’s behind it. “There are secular trends that are even more important in a world where you can’t physically be together [and] where simulation is essential to continue the rate and pace of innovation,” she said. Having worked in several financial leadership roles at tech companies, including IBM, Anasenes shared her thoughts on digital transformation at Ansys and why employee engagement is at the heart of it. 

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Thanks for reading! See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

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Big deal

A Gallup report, released on August 18, takes a look at the perspectives of U.S. workers on vaccine mandates. Overall, more than half (52%) of respondents said they are in favor of mandates, compared to 38%, who are opposed. The survey was conducted July 19-26. 

Going deeper

Here are a few Fortune reads for the weekend:

Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF looks like the Nasdaq in 2000, only more overvalued by Shawn Tully

Two years after the Business Roundtable statement on stakeholder capitalism, has anything changed? by Alan Murray and Katherine Dunn

The true cost of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, in 5 charts by Nicole Goodkind and  Nicolas Rapp

They’re 14 and 9 years old—and making $32,000 a month thanks to Ethereum by Chris Morris

Leaderboard

Some notable moves from this past week:

Joel Browning was named EVP and CFO at the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. Browning joins the Hawks from the NBA where he served as VP of its team marketing and business operations.

Julie Crawford was named CFO at Anitian, a cloud application security and compliance automation provider. Prior to Anitian, Crawford served as CFO at several technology companies including Interim CFO at Puppet, an IT automation software company.

Rich Fisher was promoted from CFO to SVP and CEO at Centene Corporation, a multi-national health care enterprise. Fisher joined Centene through the acquisition of Wellcare. He has worked over 15 years in the combined organization. Fisher served as Medicare’s CFO for the past four years.

Jim Kelly was named EVP and CFO at Novavax, Inc., a biotechnology company, which develops vaccines. Kelly joins Novavax from Supernus Pharmaceuticals, where he served as CFO. He previously spent 10 years at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, where he was CFO and treasurer. In addition, for more than 10 years, Kelly held finance roles at MedImmune (now AstraZeneca) and Biogen.

J.B. Lockhart was named the first CFO at A24, a film and TV studio, The New York Times reported. Lockhart has served as the National Basketball Association’s CFO since 2017.

Overheard

"We're doing a lot of things on the tech side that people don't understand because they think mortgage is old and sleepy."

— Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, on innovation, including allowing customers to make mortgage payments using cryptocurrency, as told to Yahoo Finance Live.