SEC Names Gabriel Benincasa as First Chief Risk Officer

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced it has named Gabriel Benincasa as chief risk officer, a position created by Chairman Jay Clayton to strengthen the SEC’s risk management and cybersecurity efforts. Benincasa is the first person to hold the position.In a statement, the SEC said...

By Lauren Muskett • March 1, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending March 1

Citigroup announced that Mark Mason, finance chief of its institutional clients group, will take over the top finance spot following the retirement of John Gerspach this month. Gerspach joined the bank in 1990 and became CFO in 2009.Kaiser Aluminum promoted Neal West to chief financial and accoun...

By Joan Urdang • March 1, 2019

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Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

On the Go: The Quiz

Controlling travel costs may not be the first thing on a CFO’s mind, but large companies spend several hundred million dollars annually on business travel. Airfare, hotel stays, rental cars, and meals quickly add up. Take a crack at our quiz on travel costs, based on information provided by Busin...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Feb. 28, 2019

House Committee Probes Credit Reporting Agencies

The House Financial Services Committee pressed the country’s major credit reporting agencies about their business practices, amid calls for legislation to reform the industry.“Our nation’s consumer credit reporting system is broken,” Representative Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 27, 2019

The Other Side of the Network

“It sounds sort of scary,” says Sam Srinivas, referring to the new approach to cyber risk management he’s helped develop at Google. “But it’s even more secure.”Hit by a wave of phishing attacks around 2009, the internet giant decided that, rather than merely bolster its firewalls and construct ne...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 27, 2019

Judge Signs Order for Musk to Respond to SEC Contempt Motion

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a motion in federal court that would require Tesla CEO Elon Musk show why he should not be held in contempt for violating a settlement deal that required him to get approval before sending tweets about the company.On February 19, Musk tweeted that ...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 26, 2019

Let’s Get Digital

Digital transformation has no definitive playbook.Indeed, it’s hard to even pin down a definition of the term. Going digital is a lot more than just taking advantage of information technology; it represents a change in activities, processes, competencies, and models, according to i-SCOOP. Those c...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 26, 2019

Ready for a Recession?

Tension between superpowers. Tariffs. Rising interest rates. Volatile markets. Stagnant wages. Brexit. A flattening yield curve. Most of all, a 10-year run of relatively stable economic growth that is long overdue for a correction.“There will be a recession because there has to be,” says Robert A...

By David McCann • Feb. 26, 2019

Ford Probing Problems With Fuel Economy Claims

Ford Motor Company said it has hired outside investigators to examine its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures. The move comes after employees, last fall, raised concerns the automaker relied on incorrect calculations used to translate test results into the mileage and emissions data submi...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 22, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Feb. 22

Avis Budget Group named John North III to head finance, effective March 18. He takes over from interim CFO Martyn Smith, who will take on an advisory post for at least six months. Previously, North was CFO and chief accounting officer at Lithia Motors.Mike Nelson has been appointed to lead the fi...

By Joan Urdang • Feb. 22, 2019

Kraft Heinz Discloses SEC Probe, Shares Tank

Kraft Heinz shares plunged in extended trading Thursday after the food giant disclosed a regulatory investigation of its accounting practices and a $15.4 billion goodwill impairment charge.Investors got a dose of bad news in Kraft Heinz’s fourth-quarter earnings report, which also showed it swung...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 22, 2019

Sales Calls from Inside Prison Walls

As a lead-generation company, Televerde’s business is obviously very sales-oriented. CFO Jill Barnard says she works very closely with the sales organization to tailor the firm’s approach on behalf of specific customers and to develop a broad menu of pricing options.Still, she doesn’t any have in...

By David McCann • Feb. 21, 2019

6 Tips for Establishing a Data-Driven Culture

By now, most companies have accepted the wisdom that advanced analytics is a key to their success, if not now then in the not-too-distant future.But as is true for many enterprise-wide transformations, implementing data analytics won’t achieve success if it’s viewed as just an IT project, notes a...

By David McCann • Feb. 20, 2019

U.K. Committee: Facebook ‘Intentionally and Knowingly’ Broke Laws

U.K. lawmakers said Facebook “intentionally and knowingly” violated data privacy and competition laws and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg showed “contempt” toward Parliament by not appearing before it.The comments came in a report from the U.K. Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee ...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 18, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Feb. 15

Victory Capital Holdings promoted Michael Policarpo to CFO and chief administrative officer. As head of finance, he succeeds Terence Sullivan, who is leaving the firm on March 1. Policarpo has been at the company for 14 years, serving as CFO from 2013 to 2017 and most recently as chief operating ...

By Joan Urdang • Feb. 15, 2019

Cognizant Settles Foreign Bribery Charges

Cognizant Technology Solutions has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice said Gordon Coburn, the former president of Cognizant, and Steven Schwartz, the...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 15, 2019

Retail Sales Tumble in December

U.S. retail sales fell 1.2% month-over-month in December, according to the latest figures from the Commerce Department. It was the largest decline in more than nine years and warned of a sharp drop in economic activity at the end of 2018.“What I find particularly concerning was the pullback in di...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 14, 2019

Basketball CFO Takes His Shot at Real Estate

When is a sports-team CFO not a sports-team CFO? When he or she is attending to the team’s various other businesses.In the past decade-plus it’s become a trend for sports franchises to spearhead real estate development in the area surrounding their stadium or arena, and to pursue other business p...

By David McCann • Feb. 14, 2019

Mastercard CFO Martina Hund-Mejean to Retire

Mastercard’s chief financial officer Martina Hund-Mejean will retire in 2019 after 11 years in the role. Chief financial operations officer Sachin Mehra will succeed Hund-Mejean as CFO on April 1, and will report to Ajay Banga, the company’s president and CEO.Hund-Mejean joined the company in 200...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 13, 2019

Companies Are Worried About Employee Retention, But Don’t Plan to Raise Pay

Sixty-six percent of companies said employee retention is a major concern, but a large majority of them don’t plan to raise compensation in a meaningful amount amid concerns the economy might be headed toward a recession, according to a survey from PayScale.Sixty-nine percent of companies said th...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 13, 2019

Sprint Sues AT&T Over 5G Branding

Sprint has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against rival AT&T alleging its rival has misled consumers by leading them to believe they were using 5G wireless networks, a technology that has not yet been widely deployed.“By making the false claim that it is offering a 5G wi...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 8, 2019

Why Risk Management Should Be a Higher Priority

In 2014, the U.S. onshore oil industry faced a crisis. A rise in overseas production drove prices so low that most of the industry was operating at a loss. Many observers expected it to collapse, or at least shrink substantially. But that’s not what happened.Far-sighted U.S. shale producers saw t...

By David McCann • Feb. 8, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Feb. 8

Julie Shiflett has been named CFO and treasurer at RLH (Red Lion Hotels). She held the top finance spot at the company previously, from 2010 to 2014, before leaving to become a principal at NorthWest CFO.Sanmina, a provider of integrated manufacturing solutions, said that David Anderson, who head...

By Joan Urdang • Feb. 8, 2019

The CFO’s Crucial Role in Digital Transformation

All signs point to a tsunami of digital opportunities washing over big companies this year and beyond. It’s already forcing a profligacy of spending on artificial intelligence, Internet of Things embedded wireless sensors, and other technologies emanating from digital R&D labs everywhere.In f...

By David McCann • Feb. 7, 2019

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Feb. 1

Finance chief Deepak Ahuja is retiring from Tesla in the coming months. He previously served in the top finance spot from 2008 until he left the firm in 2015; he then rejoined the company two years later. Zach Kirkhorn, vice president of finance, will take over as head of finance.Chief accounting...

By Joan Urdang • Feb. 1, 2019