Good morning. Fortune announced on Tuesday that Anastasia Nyrkovskaya would take over as CEO, becoming the first woman to lead the media brand, and continuing a trend of talented CFOs ascending to a firm’s top job.
Anastasia joined Fortune in 2019 as finance chief and later added the role of chief strategy officer. She’s succeeding Fortune mainstay Alan Murray, who’s CEO stint began in 2018 and who announced in October that he planned to step down in April.
After beginning her career at KPMG in Russia, Anastasia continued her work for the firm in New York City before joining NBCUniversal, where she held senior roles in finance and accounting. She was part of the corporate strategy team handling M&A—she oversaw major acquisitions such as MSNBC.com and The Weather Channel—and helped with the formation of Hulu.
In our conversation on Tuesday, Anastasia shared, from an executive perspective, what’s distinct about leading a media brand: “The complexity of the business—understanding what drives each of the individual businesses within a media brand is very important.”
The company is editorially driven, but how it markets itself to consumers can take on many different forms. But each of those forms relies on the same key dynamic: reputation. “We are viewed as a trusted source,” she added.
After her time at NBCUniversal, she served as CFO at companies including XpresSpa Group. “A mix of experience between public and private companies is very important for people in the finance and accounting profession for their career advancement,” she said.
Anastasia returned to the media industry and worked to maintain Fortune‘s trusted relationship with readers. As finance chief and chief strategy officer, she has played key roles in the 95-year-old magazine’s digital transformation as it diversified revenue streams and expanded globally.
‘Probably the biggest skill’
Her ascension to the CEO spot is part of a larger trend: Looking solely at the S&P 500, a study by Russell Reynolds Associates found that CFOs were three times more likely to transition into the top seat in 2023 than they were in 2021. And according to the most recent volatility report from Crist Kolder Associates, based on data from 674 Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies, last year 8.4% percent of CEO roles were filled by CFOs. In 2013, that figure was 5.8%.
As CFO, and as chief strategy officer, experience Anastasia shares with other finance chiefs making the same leap to chief executive is broadening skill sets, being a strategic partner to the CEO and board, understanding the stakeholder landscape, and looking into the future of the industry. But also the ability to focus on longer-term organizational goals and make decisions sometimes with incomplete information when the data isn’t yet available.
“Operating in that universe of unknowns is probably the biggest skill,” Anastasia said. “It’s not enough just to look forward or just to look backward, you actually have to look at today, the past, and the future, and then try to make the best guess based on that.”
As CEO, she said she’s looking forward to “everything,” adding, “but probably what I’m most excited about is really to see what we’re going to do journalistically.”
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
María Soledad Davila Calero curated the Leaderboard and Overheard sections of today’s newsletter.
Leaderboard
Bart Cornelissen was named SVP and CFO of the biopharmaceutical company Xencor, Inc. (Nasdaq: XNCR). Before joining Xencor, he was most recently VP of corporate finance at Seagen Inc. Cornelissen has years of experience in financial planning for the medical sector.
Ronald L. G. Tsoumas is retiring from his position as CFO of Methode Electronics (NYSE: MEI). Tsoumas has been with the company, which manufactures custom-engineered products, for 40 years. Methode’s board has started the search process for a permanent replacement, and has appointed David Rawden, a director at consulting firm AlixPartners, as interim CFO.
Big deal
A new report in Wharton's business journal, “How Stock Price Volatility in Closely Held Firms Distorts Capital Allocation,” explains how firms with concentrated ownership fear stock price fragility and conserve cash at the expense of capital investments and R&D, according to a new study.
“When companies think that their ownership base has changed in a way that their stock prices can be subject to volatility, they will take precautionary measures to avoid the potential for downside risk,” Finance professor Itay Goldstein told Wharton's business journal about the research. “If such firms do not have sufficient cash for their future investments, they conserve cash in anticipation of a drop in their share price.” The paper states that such stock price fragility has a negative impact on capital expenditures, R&D, repurchases, and short-term debt.
Going deeper
“Pipeline of Power: How the earnings of Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company over the past decade, are helping the Saudi monarchy shake up the global economic order,” is a new Fortune report by Vivienne Walt.
Walt writes: “The state-owned energy giant pumps out oil at a rate no other single company can match—at margins that are the envy of every competitor. Its revenues, which reached $440 billion in 2023, make up about 40% of Saudi Arabia’s GDP.”
Overheard
“Most people don’t even know that these jobs exist, that we need them in the U.S., and they very much require a human person to do that.”
— Gena Smith, CHRO at LVMH North America, told Fortune. While there’s a lot of attention about how many jobs could be lost to AI and other technology, the luxury goods conglomerate is expanding their apprenticeship program because they need craftspeople to make certain upscale goods.
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