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Tag: chief financial officer

  • Schneider Electric launched in 1836 but solves 21st-century sustainability problems

    Schneider Electric launched in 1836 but solves 21st-century sustainability problems

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    Schneider Electric was founded in 1836 in France, and in the 21st century it’s one of the world’s most sustainable companies, now helping Walmart decarbonize its scope 3 emissions.

    Over the past 15 years, under CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider acquired automation, energy-efficiency, and electricity brands including Invensys, TAC, and Andover. The company has been reinventing itself from selling electrical products to digitizing and automating the infrastructure of everything from humongous factories to a house on your block.

    At a time when sustainability is top of mind, Schneider positioned itself around energy management. For example, the company acquired start-up climate-tech platform Zeigo in January. And to support its software solutions, in September, it announced a full takeover of the British software company Aveva PLC for $11 million. Schneider reported Q3 2022 revenues of €8.8 billion (about $8.57 billion), up 12% year over year, energy management was up 12.1%, and industrial automation up 12%. 

    Joshua Dickinson

    Courtesy of Schneider Electric

    Forty-one-year-old Joshua Dickinson is the new SVP and CFO for Schneider Electric North America (NAM). Dickinson, based in Dallas, began his career at the company in 2015 and was most recently VP and deputy CFO of NAM operations. He’s now responsible for all financial operations of the approximately 8.2 billion euro (FY ’21) ($7.9 billion) region. I sat down with Dickinson to talk about cost savings, upcoming projects, grappling with digital transformation in finance operations, and his leadership style.

    This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

    Fortune: What are some of the cost savings related to the digitization process?

    One of the things I get asked as a CFO in this space is, how do you reconcile the cost to become more sustainable with managing your P&L? When you look at our sustainability business, a lot of the engagements that we take on in our performance contracting business are targeting about 30% energy savings every year for that company’s operation. Once we digitize the facility, we can show people how they’re losing money, and how their operation is inefficient. And when you present that to a CFO or anyone who understands profitability, it can be a very powerful tool to incentivize them to change.

    Schneider Electric has plans to invest about $46 million in your Lexington, Ky., and Lincoln, Neb., manufacturing plants to digitize operations. Both plants are more than 50 years old. Why is the company choosing to undertake this effort?

    It’s to ensure that we’re living out our own story to have an electrified and digitized operation both in North America and globally. But then also, we use facilities like that as a showcase to customers who don’t understand the value of electrification and digitization, especially to operations. During a recent trip to Mexico, I visited our Rojo Gomez plant which was built in 1967. I was surprised to see another great example of one of our older operations that has been on a journey of electrification and digitization, and the tangible value they were experiencing in their efficiency and overall quality of operations.

    Now that you’re CFO, and Schneider will have increased large-scale projects in the U.S., what will your role be in the process?

    I would say more of my role as a CFO at Schneider isn’t necessarily being a cheerleader but making sure that the decisions that I’m making on real estate and our facilities are enabling progress. Upstream supply is a huge part of this. As a large company, a lot of our carbon footprint is with our suppliers. My job as a CFO is to make sure that ESG remains at the forefront, leveraging it, and keeping it involved in the decision-making process.

    Speaking of ESG, as public companies await the passage of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed mandatory climate-risk disclosure rule, CFOs will most likely be at the center of enhanced reporting. What’s your perspective?

    Even if the SEC’s ESG reporting rules don’t go into effect, I think we’re seeing a cultural change in the interest level and the importance of this to people. I think it’s critical that both the CFO and the CEO are fully aligned on the commitments that they’re making. Greenwashing is having a negative effect within financial institutions, but also with shareholders. People are having more and more interest in what a company is really doing about their commitments.

    As a large global company, how is your digital transformation in finance going?

    There are times we struggle with the siloed effect. When you think about the digitization journey within finance, we’re really now in a process of taking the best practices from each zone. Internally, we have the tag phrase “One Finance.” When I was recently in Las Vegas at our Innovation Summit, a few mornings I had the privilege of getting on some 3 a.m. calls, being on Pacific time, and talking with some of my European counterparts. It was an opportunity to share best practices and make decisions on what we’re going to keep from the different pieces, but then we’re going to put it on a single digital platform, a single operating structure where we’re standardizing whatever we can. 

    If you think about it, if I explain my financial performance, say to Hilary Maxson [EVP and group CFO], using different tools and different KPIs [than my counterparts], when she’s hearing my explanation versus hearing from China or from France, that can be very confusing. And we might not be comparing apples to apples, right? I think for a while, we really held off and we were playing defense. But the leadership team right now assembled by Hilary is such a great group of people. We’re very like-minded. 

    What is your leadership style?

    I’ve got a great team and I would say that’s one of my strengths because I’m not an expert in every element of the finance function. My ability to attract talent and manage a team effectively, I think is part of my success story. It’s only been three months since I was a peer of a lot of the people that I’m leading. When you think about going from a peer and a friend to a boss, at least for me, it was a little intimidating. But that’s been one of the most rewarding parts of the last three months, just seeing the closeness and the level of talent that’s on my team. 

    I hope you enjoy your weekend.

    Sheryl Estrada
    sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

    Big deal

    PwC’s latest pulse survey, “Cautious to Confident,” finds business leaders continue to show optimism amid economic pressures. Ninety percent of executives surveyed are concerned about macroeconomic conditions. They’re also very concerned about the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle, and the higher cost of capital (both at 86%). However, the findings also showed that executives are focused on the future. Seventy-seven percent of executives are confident that they can hit near-term growth goals, and 82% are confident that their company can execute overall business transformation initiatives. The survey was conducted from Oct. 12-18 and had a total of 657 executives from both public and private companies.

    Courtesy of PwC

    Going deeper

    Here are a few weekend reads:

    “This interactive map shows the home price shift in America’s biggest housing markets” by Lance Lambert

    “3 charts that shed light on when the stock market may hit bottom” by Lucy Brewster

    “How Peyton Manning built a ‘second chapter’ from quarterback to media king without a plan” by Jane Their

    “Four ways to adjust to Daylight Saving Time ending, according to a sleep expert” by L’Oreal Thompson Payton

    Leaderboard

    Here’s a list of some notable moves this week:

    Eliane Okamura was named CFO at Ford Motor Credit Company. Okamura will succeed Brian Schaaf, CFO, treasurer and EVP of strategy, since 2018, who will retire, effective Dec. 1. Okamura has been director of automotive strategy, risk, and agile finance on Ford’s treasury team, since March 2021. She joined the company in 1995 in Brazil as an analyst and held positions including treasurer of Ford South America. 

    Todd Wilson was named CFO at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (Nasdaq: RRGB), a full-service restaurant chain, effective Nov. 7. Wilson succeeds Lynn Schweinfurth who will retire. Wilson most recently served as CFO at Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Hibar Hospitality. Before that, he was VP of finance for Jamba Juice. Wilson also served as Division CFO and VP of finance at Bloomin’ Brands Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

    Jim Benson was named CFO at Dynatrace (NYSE: DT), a software intelligence company, effective Nov. 15. Benson will succeed Kevin Burns, who announced in May his intention to transition out of Dynatrace by the end of the year. Benson most recently served as EVP and CFO at Akamai Technologies, a global cloud services, and cybersecurity leader. Before joining Akamai, he spent 20 years at Hewlett Packard Company.

    Cecilia Situ was named EVP and CFO at Santa Cruz County Bank (OTCQX: SCZC). Most recently, she was SVP and treasurer at Bank of Marin, and previously controller and principal accounting officer. She had a 14-year tenure with the company. Situ started her career in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche with a specialty in auditing community banks, real estate firms, not-for-profit organizations, and other financial service companies.

    Jeff Stafeil was named EVP and CFO at Tenneco Inc. (NYSE: TEN). Stafeil will replace Matti Masanovich, upon Tenneco’s acquisition by Apollo Funds. Stafeil will join Tenneco from Adient PLC, where he served as EVP and CFO since 2016. Before that, he worked at global automotive electronics supplier Visteon, where he was EVP and CFO. 

    Andrew Lazarus was named CFO at Validity, a provider of data management and email marketing success solutions. Lazarus will leverage his experience in finance and investor relations to scale the company for its next stage of growth. Previously, he has served as CFO at several companies, including Electric, Pilot Freight Services, and BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.

    Overheard

    “I heard about the blue tick for a while, but I learned about the $8 thing at the same time you did. Anything that can reduce the bots on Twitter is fantastic.”

    —Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pumped $500 million into Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter, commented during Web Summit this week about Twitter’s intent to start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as part of an $8-a-month subscription, Fortune reported. 

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    Sheryl Estrada

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  • Twitter’s Ned Segal confirms exit, changes bio to ‘former CFO and current fan of Twitter’

    Twitter’s Ned Segal confirms exit, changes bio to ‘former CFO and current fan of Twitter’

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    Twitter chief financial officer Ned Segal confirmed his exit from the social media giant on Friday through Twitter.

    Segal changed his bio to “former CFO and current fan of @Twitter” and tweeted that Thursday was his last day, concluding his five-year stint with the company.

     

    He described his journey at Twitter as the “most fulfilling” year of his career. His tweets came hours after Musk indicated the completion of the $44 billion acquisition deal.

    Reportedly Segal and other two executives of Twitter Inc including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal and legal Vijaya Gadde have been fired by the world’s richest man who is not at the helm of the company.

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  • How AllianceBernstein’s Kate Burke pivoted from HR to CFO

    How AllianceBernstein’s Kate Burke pivoted from HR to CFO

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    Kate Burke, the CFO, and chief operating officer at AllianceBernstein, always had aspirations to be in a C-suite role, but her road was unexpected.

    I sat down with Burke to ask her perspective on the economy and to discuss her journey to becoming finance chief. Burke was appointed CFO at the global investment management and research firm AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB) in July, succeeding interim CFO Bill Siemers, who returned to his prior role as corporate controller and chief accounting officer. As CFO and COO, she oversees aspects including finance, strategy, operations, corporate communications, legal and compliance, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, and corporate citizenship, to name a few.

    Both researchers and many CFOs I’ve spoken with describe the evolving finance chief role as including a heightened focus on operational change, business strategy, and employees. Burke has a resume with experience in all of these areas.

    A focus on talent

    One of her first jobs was in investor relations at Tommy Hilfiger, says Burke, who earned an MBA at Northwestern University. She joined Bernstein Research in 2004 in institutional sales, which would eventually lead to becoming the head of human capital and chief talent officer in 2016 for AllianceBernstein. 

    “It was really a remarkable transition point for me,” Burke says. She worked with talent across the firm in the areas of investment, distribution, sales, and operations, and kept in mind “the financial acumen that I had established at Bernstein Research,” she says.

    An example? Burke would talk to the human capital team about “the concept of a return on invested capital, and I said, we have to think about the return on invested time,” she explained. The goal was to create a mindset of: “Every time you ask a person to do something, are you asking them to do something that creates value?” she says.

    Kate Burke, CFO and COO at AllianceBernstein

    Courtesy of AllianceBernstein

    How do you measure return on invested time? The process is more conceptual than a precise science, Burke says. They consistently used surveys to track engagement. “Are they getting purpose out of their work?” she explains. “Do they understand the firm’s strategies? Are you being supported by the team in your business?” Her team reviewed the findings along with retention metrics, Burke says.

    At an asset management firm, the ability to “align your people and the organizational strengths with your strategic initiatives to drive long-term success” is essential, she says.

    Burke moved on to the chief administrative officer role in June 2019 and then became COO in July 2020. “I was able to leverage the experiences of knowing all of the talent and the positives and challenges that existed throughout the organization,” she says.

    One major project was the four-year endeavor of moving AllianceBernstein’s corporate headquarters from New York to Nashville. The office opened in May. As COO, “running the day to day is part of it,” Burke says. “But a lot of it goes into planning for the future.” She also served as head of wealth management before taking on the CFO role.

    Asking the right questions

    Burke says she’s had “a very strong mentor in Seth Bernstein, our CEO.” In taking on expanded roles over the past 18 years, “I was inheriting very strong teams that had deep subject matter expertise,” she says. Burke’s number one learning tool? “The willingness to recognize what I don’t know and ask questions,” she says. 

    The idea is, “‘Look, you know, more than I do, there’s a reason why you’re the subject matter expert,’” she says. Burke’s questions started from “a 10,000-foot level and then I’m going to work my way down into the details,” she says. Her questioning, in turn, helped team members to keep the business strategy in perspective, she says. “In my capacity, from human capital, to COO to CFO, I’ve worked very closely with our finance department,” Burke says.

    Her priorities in stepping into the CFO as the COO? “I took over [the CFO role] mid-year, in a year that’s been challenging for the markets to say the least,” Burke says. Managing investments that “we were committed to make from a strategic standpoint against the day to day business, and understanding the impact it was going to have on our operating leverage, was paramount,” she says. 

    Regarding the economy, “I think we’re going to continue to be in a challenging inflationary environment, which creates a higher probability of a recession going into next year,” Burke says. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing somewhat being priced into the markets now is that concern. We still generally believe you could see more Fed action. Between now and certainly November will be an interesting time to see what comes through.”

    See you tomorrow.

    Sheryl Estrada
    sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

    Big deal

    “The Pursuit of Effective Workplace Learning,” a study by Emergn, a global digital business services firm, gauges the signifance of learning and development (L&D) programs in the battle for talent. Workplace training can be a useful tool to recruit and retain top talent in an organization, the research found. More than half (55%) of professionals stated that learning and development (L&D) programs increased job satisfaction and employee morale. Also 75% said that strong workplace training would have a high impact on their decision to remain with an employer instead of seeking other opportunities. Emergn partnered with independent research firm Researchscape to survey more than 1,200 professionals from the United States and the United Kingdom.

    Courtesy of Emergn

    Going deeper

    The 2022 “Women in the Workplace” report from McKinsey & Company in partnership with LeanIn.Org released this morning, found that more women leaders are leaving their companies. For every woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company, according to the report. Almost half (43%) of women leaders are burned out, compared to 31% of men at their level. A “broken rung” at the first step up to manager continues holding women back, the research found. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry level to manager, just 87 women are promoted, and just 82 women of color are promoted. Companies are also at risk of losing young women. Fifty-eight percent of women under 30 said advancement has become more important to them over the past two years, compared to 31% of women leaders. The findings are based on data from 330 companies and and a survey of more than 40,000 employees.

    Leaderboard

    Edith Hsu was named the first-ever CFO at PowerToFly, a diversity recruiting and retention platform. Hsu brings over 20 years of finance experience to the company, having worked with Fortune 500 companies and startups to scale operations and velocity. Before joining PowerToFly, she served as VP of finance at Kigen, which she spun out from Arm, a technology provider of processor IP. Hsu has also held multiple senior finance positions at growth-stage and venture-backed startups. Amy Kim was named PowerToFly’s first chief revenue officer. Kim built her career in B2B tech and digital media across tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Siebel Systems. Her work at early-stage companies has focused on scaling sales teams as they expand go-to-market strategies.

    Robert Leibrock was named SVP and CFO at Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions. Carolyn Nash, who was appointed to the SVP and CFO role in April 2022, has been named the company’s SVP and COO, effective immediately. Nash will continue reporting to Red Hat’s president and CEO Matt Hicks. Leibrock will report directly to Nash. Leibrock brings 20 years of experience in both the financial and operational space to Red Hat. He has spent much of his career at IBM, most recently serving as assistant controller. He also played a key role in IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, responsible for the overall project office, finance and operations functions, and driving offering synergies, according to the company.

    Overheard

    “Given dismal productivity growth, likely caused by quiet quitting, wage inflation will have to come down significantly if sustained months near 2% inflation is to be attained. I do not understand the basis for believing this is likely without a meaningful recession.”

    —Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who previously served as president of Harvard University and chief economist at the World Bank, tweeted on Monday his concern that “quiet quitters” are hurting U.S. worker productivity, Fortune reported. 

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    Sheryl Estrada

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