CFO Dive

Join us for CFO Live 2025: The Future of Finance! Join the CFO Dive and CFO.com editorial teams for our virtual half-day event exploring critical challenges facing today's finance teams. 🔹 Discover how finance chiefs can collaborate with IT leadership 🔹 Explore ROI challenges of agentic AI solutions 🔹 Learn strategies for building next-generation accounting teams 🔹 Network with industry experts and fellow finance executives Today's CFOs are at the fulcrum of an ongoing evolution. Whether navigating new technologies or training the next generation of finance leaders, prepare for the future that's just over the horizon. Register now: https://lnkd.in/ewN5N6cw #Finance #CFO #Finance #VirtualEvent

Join us for a half-day virtual event on September 24, where finance executives and business leaders will connect with the CFO Dive and CFO editorial teams to discuss the latest strategies for navigating the ever-growing challenges facing today’s finance teams. Register for free now: https://lnkd.in/gNKkV6AS #CFOStrategy #Finance #CFO

Warner Bros. Discovery, which is expected to be split into two companies next year, said Wednesday that finance veteran Brad Singer will assume the role of CFO of Warner Bros., which will be formed as a result of the separation. Singer most recently served as partner and chief operating officer of ValueAct Capital before retiring in 2021, during which time he also served on the boards of Rolls-Royce Holdings and Motorola Solutions. He also previously served as CFO of Discovery Communications, a predecessor to Warner Bros. Discovery, before the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022. “Brad was instrumental in driving significant value creation and growth during our time together at Discovery Communications, and I’m thrilled to be reuniting with a trusted leader whose financial expertise and strategic vision have consistently delivered results,” David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a press release. #CFO https://lnkd.in/gRVuqR64

Companies that offer family-friendly, work-from-home flexibility reduce the financial and career penalties that a woman with a child faces in “family un-friendly” occupations such as finance and business, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The work-from-home trend has increased the range of family-friendly occupations, transforming “a set of high-paid, high-growth careers into occupations that are more reconcilable with mothers’ home lives,” the researchers said. “This expansion of family-friendly occupations promises to reduce gender inequality in the labor market,” they said. #womeninbusiness https://lnkd.in/gBh-vb_E

The steady forward creep of artificial intelligence is “pushing for a different skillset in the finance function,” accelerating the ongoing evolution of CFOs to strategic advisors, said Jennifer Warawa, general manager of controllership at insightsoftware. The technology is changing the role of the finance chief, enabling access to insights in a way that puts accounting or finance leaders in a “great place to be more of an advisor inside the company and be more futuristic,” Warawa said in a interview. Additionally, as finance leaders integrate AI into some of the more routine, lower value processes inside of the function, such as automating accounts payable or receivable, that frees up more time for the individuals who were previously in charge of such processes. #AI https://lnkd.in/g_tuFiG4

The accounting talent shortage that has hamstrung the industry and many finance teams in recent years — and sparked a nationwide groundswell of support for Certified Public Accountant licensing reform — is showing some signs of easing. The rising use of automation and generative artificial intelligence that make it easier for finance teams to complete work faster and with fewer people, along with companies’ growing appetite for outsourcing accounting to firms in such countries as the Philippines, are driving the shifts in the accounting labor landscape, according to Jack Castonguay, PhD, CPA Castonguay, an associate professor of accounting at Hofstra University in New York. “We started to see easing within the last 12 months,” Castonguay told CFO Dive. #accounting #CPA https://lnkd.in/gg_vjGJb

One in four businesses lost over $1 million from a single fraud incident in the past year as such campaigns grow in speed and complexity, cybersecurity firm Trustmi said in a report released Wednesday. More than 80% of enterprises were targeted by fraud at least once during the period, with nearly half suffering a direct financial loss, according to the research. Generative artificial intelligence has only lowered the barrier for attackers to run sophisticated campaigns at scale, allowing them to convincingly mimic trusted vendors, employees and executives while jumping between systems to avoid detection, the report said. “GenAI has weaponized fraud into a coordinated business attack,” Trustmi CEO Shai Gabay said in a press release. “Attacks now cross multiple systems, exploiting every gap between teams and tools.” #fraud https://lnkd.in/g5aMbbB5

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have prompted companies to ratchet up their year-ahead price increases, creating an “elevated risk” of a widespread surge of inflation, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said. Import duties may jolt the economy much like the pandemic-induced supply shocks that triggered high, broad-based inflation early this decade, the economists said. Companies that must pay tariffs have increased year-ahead price growth by 0.7 percentage points, while those facing spillover costs — but not direct costs — from tariffs plan an additional 0.3 percentage points in price growth, they said in a report. “The possibility of seemingly one-time tariff-related price increases becoming a full-fledged inflationary impulse — like the episode we lived through just a few years ago — is elevated,” the Atlanta Fed economists said. #tariffs https://lnkd.in/gMsbmiWT

While women take an average of three years longer to reach the CFO seat than men, they tend to help boost revenue and shareholder value once there, OneStream Software found in a study. Case in point: When women are appointed to the CFO seat at underperforming companies, those businesses see a 10% increase in revenue growth on average compared to the performance under their previous finance chief, “The Glass Chair: Unlocking the value of women in finance” released Wednesday said. The bump in performance could be partially due to women in top finance roles tending to fall into a persona the study deemed as a “financial guardian” — a leader focused on financial governance, strategic leadership and team development. That detailed-oriented approach is crucial to being able to boost performance: understanding “what the required shareholder value is, what the required execution processes are, and having those different seats is really important to being able to turn around a company,” Pam McIntyre, senior vice president, corporate controller for OneStream, said. #women #CFOs https://lnkd.in/gsccVcPA

Brown-Forman’s finance chief Leanne Cunningham informed the company on Aug. 21 that she plans to retire on May 1, according to a Securities Exchange Commission filing Monday. The 155-year-old spirits company makes longstanding brands including Jack Daniel's whiskey and Fords Gin. The departure comes after the Louisville, Kentucky-based spirits company, which is scheduled to release its fiscal Q1 results on Thursday, undertook a restructuring plan in fiscal year ended April 30 which included reducing its worldwide headcount by about 12% and closing its Louisville-based Brown-Forman Cooperage, with some of the actions to be completed by the end of fiscal 2026, according to the company’s 10-K filing on June 10. #leadership #spiritsandalcohol #alcoholindustry https://lnkd.in/eiYMykaH