New data from executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles reveals signs of a decline in a focus on cross-industry CFO hires. So far in 2024, about 61% of firms in the Fortune 1000 hired cross-industry CFOs. In 2023, 91% of firms hired a CFO from a different industry, according to the analysis. I sat down with Alyse Bodine, Heidrick & Struggles’ global managing partner of the Financial Officers Practice, to find out more.

Oftentimes, the skill sets of finance chiefs can be fungible across industry sectors, Bodine said. Over the past few years, many organizations have looked for a nuanced perspective or are reevaluating their business model, so they had a desire to bring on a CFO from outside the sector. However, one reason this practice is starting to decline is market uncertainty this year, and factors like the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and elections worldwide. The board wants a CFO who can make an immediate impact, Bodine said. 

Some of the firm’s large clients are even considering CFOs who’ve worked in the same sector at smaller-scale companies, she said. The ability for the CFO to come up to speed and make an impact would arguably happen in a shorter time period compared to someone coming outside the industry, Bodine said.

“Anecdotally, even clients that we’re working with in the private equity sector, or even those at smaller entities that we don’t track, are following a similar trend,” Bodine said. 

There are also many instances where an organization runs an external search, but discovers there’s an internal candidate who is “absolutely the right one to step up into that lead role,” she said. Heidrick & Struggles has “engaged deeply” with its clients on this front around succession planning, Bodine said. The firm is seeing a number of internal promotions occur. It could even be an employee who had experience in a different sector but joined the company as a junior employee, then learned the industry ropes over the years, she said.

Regarding signs of a decline in cross-industry hiring, “outstanding CFOs” who have demonstrated an ability to work across industries and do so successfully, are seemingly an exception, as companies want to hire them, Bodine said. Overall, when organizations do wish to hire talent working outside of the sector, they look at industries that have similar qualities and characteristics, she said. This could be an exec who is well-versed in heavy R&D or regulatory focus, for example. 

One instance that comes to mind for me this year is tech giant Alphabet Inc.’s hiring as its new CFO Anat Ashkenazi, a longtime finance chief at the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co.

Does Bodine expect the slowdown in cross-industry CFO hires to continue? “I do think that similar industry hiring this year is probably something that we’re going to continue to see,” she said.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Richard Kraemer was named senior EVP and CFO at Fulton Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: FULT), effective Sept. 3. Kraemer replaces interim CFO Betsy Chivinski, who will retire from Fulton at the end of the year. Kraemer has more than 20 years in the financial services industry, most recently serving as chief banking officer overseeing commercial markets for another bank.

Paul Lundstrom, CFO at Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX), will step down as CFO, effective July 31, to pursue an opportunity outside of the company. Jaime Martinez will assume the role of interim CFO. Martinez has over 20 years of experience with Flex and has held various finance leadership roles. Flex has initiated an executive search process to identify a permanent CFO.

Big Deal

The SS&C Intralinks 2024 Artificial Intelligence in M&A Report explores why dealmakers use AI to facilitate mergers and acquisitions. The findings are based on a survey of 300 global M&A dealmakers from 225 corporations and 75 private equity firms. 

The majority of participants (97%) believe AI will profoundly impact their operations and how they run M&A processes. More than 40% say they’ve already invested in AI training for deal teams. And, about a third of the respondents intend to consider restructuring deal teams and their responsibilities. Respondents named predictive analytics and generative AI as the most valuable AI tools for M&A, followed closely by machine/deep learning.

However, talent and skills are seen as the biggest obstacles to AI adoption in the next 12-24 months, according to the report. 

“M&A professionals believe AI is going to change every aspect of dealmakers’ work,” Bob Petrocchi, co-head of SS&C Intralinks, a software provider, said in a statement. 

Going deeper

Reinventing with a Digital Core, a report by Accenture, analyzed findings from 1,500 technology executives in 19 industries across 10 countries. The findings suggest that an advanced digital core for companies is necessary for ongoing reinvention across the business. This requires practices such as using the right mix of cloud-first infrastructure and corresponding practices, and data and AI for differentiation, with security at every level. Accenture’s study outlines three suggested steps to achieve a digital core. 

Overheard

“The expectation is that it will cost us around 10 million (euros).”

—Air France-KLM’s CFO Steven Zaat said on Thursday that last week’s global technology outage could cost the company about 10 million euros ($10.85 million), Reuters reported.