Ex-CEO Returns to Finance Roots at Zoom Video

Kelly Steckelberg was a career finance executive and CFO when she was tapped to be chief executive of her former employer, a mightily struggling consumer Internet company.Kelly Steckelberg She proceeded to execute a deft turnaround over two and a half years — and yet now she’s again a finance chi...

By David McCann • April 27, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 27

Finance chief Forbes Alexander will retire from Jabil on Aug. 31, and Michael Dastoor will take over for him the following day. Dastoor joined the product-solutions firm in 2000 as regional controller for Asia Pacific and was promoted to controller in 2004.Roland Caputo Roland Caputo has been cho...

By Joan Urdang • April 27, 2018

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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

Study Details Alarming Risks to Knowledge Assets

IT security professionals continue to be hard-pressed to stay ahead of malicious hackers, but at least they’re growing more aware of the risks to their companies’ knowledge assets.A large majority of them acknowledge it’s likely that high-value assets of their companies have been breached. Eighty...

By David McCann • April 26, 2018

PCAOB Questions Its Own Relevance

“Based on your interactions with, or monitoring of, the PCAOB, what is the most pressing constraint to the PCAOB’s relevance in the capital markets?”That’s just one of the self-probing questions the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is asking in a new online survey.The organization is con...

By Vincent Ryan • April 25, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 20

PerkinElmer has chosen James Mock to lead the finance function, effective May 1. Mock, who will succeed the retiring Andy Wilson, formerly was vice president, corporate audit staff, at General Electric.Christopher Micklas has been named to the top finance spot at Houston Wire & Cable. Micklas...

By Joan Urdang • April 20, 2018

Private Companies: Let the Good Times Roll

What a difference a year can make. Top executives of privately held U.S. companies, interviewed during the first quarter, were decidedly more upbeat about the business environment than they had been just 12 months earlier.As a group, they grew markedly more buoyant in their expectations for the U...

By David McCann • April 19, 2018

Square Root Costing: A Better Method

Most companies do not truly know where they make money.This may be a shocking statement, but upon reflection it should ring true. If your company is like many others, you know your overall costs, but you do not know your costs at a more granular and actionable level.You know how much overall prof...

By Stephen A. Wilson and Andrei Perumal • April 19, 2018

Add Supply Chain Expertise to the C-Suite

In many — perhaps most — companies, no one has been given the title and role of chief supply chain officer (CSCO) and there is no supply chain expertise in the C-suite.By default, the chief financial officer often takes on that responsibility. The CFO probably does not have the time nor the exper...

By Chuck Franzetta • April 13, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 13

Neiman Marcus Group has named Adam Orvos to lead the finance function, effective April 25. He takes over from interim CFO Dale Stapleton, who will stay on as chief accounting officer. Previously, Orvos was CEO at Total Wine & More.Maarten Jager Maarten Jager has been chosen to head finance at...

By Joan Urdang • April 13, 2018

Broadcom Earmarks $12B for Stock Buyback

Broadcom shares surged in Thursday’s extended trading session after the chip maker announced it would buy back up to $12 billion of its common stock.The buyback had been expected on Wall Street since Broadcom last month dropped its offer to buy Qualcomm after the deal was blocked by President Don...

By Matthew Heller • April 13, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 6

Karen Hoguet (pictured) has announced that she will retire as CFO of Macy’s in February of next year. An external search is under way to find a successor to Hoguet, who has headed finance since 1997. Once that person has been found, she will transition to an advisory role until her retirement.Ado...

By Joan Urdang • April 6, 2018

WageWorks to Restate Results, CFO Resigns

The chief executive and the CFO of WageWorks have resigned after an internal investigation that found a “material weakness” in the employee benefits company’s financial reporting.CEO Joe Jackson and finance chief Colm Callan handed in their resignations on Thursday as WageWorks announced it would...

By Matthew Heller • April 6, 2018

What’s Life Like for an Industry-Switching CFO?

Count Fredrik Eliasson as one who thinks CFO skills are highly transportable across industries.Fredrik Eliasson Not everyone agrees. Indeed, it’s fairly common for finance executives to stay in a single industry for their entire careers. For others, the time comes when they just want a change.Eli...

By David McCann • April 5, 2018

Complying for Security’s Sake

Navigating the untamed frontier of cybersecurity compliance is no easy task. Whatever the root cause — the intricacies of global trade, the ever-expanding digital sphere, outsourcing data to a distant “cloud” — traditional jurisdictional boundaries are only growing blurrier (or crumbling altogeth...

By Andrew Douthwaite • April 4, 2018

SEC Says Centra Tech ICO Was a $32M Fraud

The co-founders of a blockchain products company have been charged with spinning a “web of lies” to raise more than $32 million from investors through an initial coin offering that was endorsed by boxer Floyd Mayweather.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that the Centra Tech...

By Matthew Heller • April 4, 2018

Companies Transition into Social Enterprises

It’s no secret that today’s customers and employees are increasingly attracted to companies with a strong social ethos. But a new, massive study of the topic paints a vivid picture of just how crucial social capital has become.Deloitte surveyed more than 11,000 business and human resources leader...

By David McCann • April 3, 2018

Accounting Changes Boost Salesforce Outlook

Salesforce on Monday raised its first-quarter and full-year guidance due to its adoption of new revenue recognition rules.Jan. 1 was the deadline for most public companies to implement the new rules — codified as ASC 606 and ASC 340-40 — both of which address the accounting for contracts with cus...

By Matthew Heller • April 2, 2018

Lease Accounting: What’s the Holdup?

With about nine months to go before the new lease accounting standard for publicly-traded companies must be adopted, only about one-fifth of finance leaders surveyed by the Deloitte Center for Controllership say they are “prepared” or “very prepared” to comply with it. (See infographic, “Lease Ac...

By Vincent Ryan • March 30, 2018

How CFOs Can Better Support Board Directors – and Vice Versa

Has there ever been a time when boards of directors were more in need of the sharp, fact-based counsel of a value-savvy CFO?With market forces intensifying, technology creating broad-scale digital disruption, and systemic threats looming in the form of cyber and geopolitical shifts, even the best...

By Frithjof Lund, Justin Sanders, and Ishaan Seth • March 30, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending March 30

CommScope, which provides infrastructure solutions for communications networks, has appointed Alexander Pease to the top finance spot, effective April 2. He takes over for Mark Olson, who is retiring from the company. Pease previously headed finance at Snyder’s-Lance.Jill Robinson has been named ...

By Joan Urdang • March 30, 2018

CFOs Can Help Ensure Board Diversity

For many businesses, fiscal-year 2019 already looms, demanding that CFOs reassess the budget and outline new plans to capture growth in the year ahead. While that can often be a tedious and painstaking process, it offers CFOs an opportunity to revisit current operational strategies and explore ne...

By Mike Fucci • March 29, 2018

Retirement Readiness Takes a Big Dip

The steps companies are taking to promote retirement readiness among employees don’t seem to be having much — or any — impact.Despite the generally strong performance of financial markets, the proportion of employees with a positive outlook on retirement tumbled sharply between 2015 and 2017, acc...

By David McCann • March 28, 2018

Tech Priorities for CFOs: Data Management, Analytics, RPA

CFOs have a lot on their plates, but some tasks matter more than others. This year, it seems, the enterprise is relying on finance to deliver some critical objectives. And first among the objectives is supporting the enterprise’s need for information and analytics, according to to The Hackett Gro...

By Vincent Ryan • March 26, 2018

Fed Rate Hike Could Be First of Four in 2018

The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to the highest level since 2008 as it continues to move away from fiscal stimulus amid a strengthening economy.The increase in the benchmark federal-funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 1.5% to 1.75% had been widely expected and...

By Matthew Heller • March 22, 2018

J&J’s Dominic Caruso to Step Down as CFO

Dominic Caruso, Johnson & Johnson’s longest-serving CFO who presided over three of its largest acquisitions, will retire in September and be replaced by Joseph Wolk, vice president of investor relations.Caruso has served as finance chief of the consumer products giant since 2007 after joining...

By Matthew Heller • March 21, 2018