CORPORATE FINANCE
process they will face when stepping up to their first Main Board role . A financial management career for a listed CFO role needs to be built to answer the questions a CEO will pose ( do you have commercial and operational P & L experience to be my partner in setting strategic goals ); the Audit Chair ( will you give me comfort in your technical financial management skills to assure that the business will not have to restate its numbers ); and the Chair ( do you keep my CEO ‘ in check ’, and will you let my Audit Chair rest easy at night ).
There are a number of roles within the finance function I strongly encourage women to take en route to Board , to gather experience against the above criteria . I also urge women to do more external networking . I ’ ve set up bi-annual women ’ s networking lunches giving senior female talent the opportunity to hear how experienced finance leaders have successfully developed their careers . These have been well-received and have now broadened out to both our Regional CFO and Financial Services Practices to help deepen the advice shared .
When selecting a headhunting firm , I would urge that you ask what they are doing to support the D & I agenda during the pitch process . Your candidate list might well be diverse , but if you see that those who are looking likely to be shortlisted are all nondiverse , check why , and what can be actioned based on feedback .
Cristina Catania Talent attraction is the first step to sustaining a pipeline to fill CFO roles long term . For finance , there is a need to create multiple role model examples to inspire young women to join this career path , which is increasingly at the centre of key company decision-making . We know from our study that when employees believe that their company offers both fairness and
47 June 2021