The dual role of chief financial officer and chief operating officer is becoming more common, and the experiences of two industry-leading executives demonstrate that the CFO and COO positions can be complementary.
When Gina Goetter joined Hasbro—the largest publicly traded toymaker in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world—in 2023, she was hired as both CFO and COO, a combination that immediately drew her interest. It was her second CFO role, following her time at Harley-Davidson.
Earlier in Goetter’s career at General Mills, she developed the view that finance is inherently operational. “I was kind of born and bred into this mindset that every operational decision is linked to a financial one—they just go hand in hand,” she explained during a panel session at the Fortune COO Summit on Tuesday.
Hasbro has the same philosophy, Goetter said. “When you’re working with a company that is manufacturing a product, that is making real cost decisions—real investment decisions—there is no path that isn’t either operational or financial,” she said.
Panelist Amrita Ahuja, CFO and COO of Block, a Fortune 500 fintech company, shared that during the first half of her career, she was much more of a generalist, starting in strategy and corporate development. The second half of her career focused on finance, where she developed strong analytical skills and a passion for driving insights from data.
Ahuja joined Block in 2019, later adding COO responsibilities in 2023. The company offers customers financial options such as payment plans through Afterpay, various lending choices for Square sellers, and the ability for Cash App users to split paycheck deposits among cash, Bitcoin, or stocks.
In addition to overseeing finance, Ahuja leads the legal and people functions, oversees communications and policy, and serves as chair of Square Financial Services, the company’s industrial bank.
Of the dual CFO-COO role, Goetter explained: “It’s very blended. You can’t do one without the other, and I find combining them actually creates a lot of simplicity across the organization.”
Are there some complexities in serving in the dual role? “The tension in the role is aspiration and discipline,” Ahuja noted. As CFO, you advocate for growth while ensuring responsible capital allocation, she explained. As COO, you enable the business to move quickly but responsibly. “No COO role is alike,” she said.
Some large companies are going beyond the dual CFO-COO role and combining the functions to create a hybrid position. Bridging finance and operations is strategic in an increasingly complex business environment.
You can watch the Fortune COO Summit panel session here.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Martin “Marty” Layding was appointed CFO of Vera Bradley (Nasdaq: VRA), effective June 12. Layding has served as a CFO in various organizations including as divisional CFO for Tapestry’s Coach brand in addition to CFO roles at several private equity backed firms, including for the Supreme Brand. Vera Bradley's current CFO Michael Schwindle has announced his departure from the company, effective June 30, and will work with Layding during the transition period.
Kevin Wall was appointed CFO of Stax Payments, Inc., a payment technology provider. Wall has over 15 years of leading finance organizations at payments companies, including CFO of Paysafe Group’s payments processing division and leadership roles at Fidelity Information Services (FIS).
Big Deal
Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan, has released its 2025 “Defined Benefit CFO Survey: New Findings in Pension Risk Management,” which gauges how finance executives are navigating the complexities of pension plan management.
Half of CFOs surveyed indicate they do not plan to terminate their defined benefit (DB) plans in the near future, suggesting a strategic approach to long-term pension management. More than half of the respondents are considering changes to their plan designs in 2025, exploring hybrid structures and flexible arrangements such as cash balance plans.
Meanwhile, risk transfer is still a key theme, with over 70% of organizations reporting they expect to offer lump-sum payments within the next two years, and more than 60% have either completed or are considering transferring retiree obligations to insurers through annuity purchases.
The findings are based on a survey of 173 CFOs and senior finance executives.
Going deeper
Fortune has released the 2025 list of Europe’s Most Innovative Companies. For the first time, Fortune analyzed the top companies across the continent in partnership with Statista to find the standouts that are driving progress with success. Led by L’Oréal, Unilever, and Rolls-Royce, the 300 companies represent many different sectors. Together, the companies on the list employ around 17 million people and brought in just under $8 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with a median revenue figure of $14 billion.
You can review the complete list here.
Overheard
“Treat learning as a lifelong pursuit, because in AI, what’s cutting-edge today may be table stakes tomorrow.”
—Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi told Fortune in an interview. Ghodsi met his six other cofounders on the campus of UC Berkeley, an experience that was paramount to building the $62 billion data software company.