Inside the CFO Leadership Council’s 20-year bet on the modern CFO

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The CFO Leadership Council celebrated its 20th anniversary during its annual member conference in Boston this week, marking two decades of growth for an organization founded on the belief that CFOs would eventually be asked to do much more than finance and accounting.

When the council launched in 2006, many finance conferences focused heavily on technical accounting issues and developing finance skills. Discussions around leadership, communication, executive influence and emotional intelligence occupied far less space within the profession’s networking associations.

Jack McCullough, president of the CFO Leadership Council, believed that would eventually change as companies demanded more from their finance chiefs, who were becoming increasingly involved in strategic decision-making across the enterprise. That, he says, is why they launched the organization in the first place.

“We sort of saw the need for CFOs who were more than just past-looking CFOs,” McCullough said.

The council began as a Boston-based network serving finance executives, particularly those working in venture-backed companies. McCullough said many professional groups at the time were geared toward larger public companies, and conference agendas often felt disconnected from the day-to-day realities facing CFOs in the mid-market, venture-backed space faced.

McCullough explained how finance leaders could find plenty of sessions on accounting standards and compliance requirements back then, but fewer opportunities to discuss the broader challenges emerging within the profession. That gap, McCollough explained, created an opening for a different kind of organization.

“There was the feeling that they weren’t really serving the needs of CFOs,” he said. “The panel discussions were cleverly disguised sales pitches.”

That philosophy shaped many of the council’s earliest programs. Long before it was common practice to discuss the non-financial elements of the CFO role, the organization hosted sessions focused on interpersonal communication skills, personal branding development, the CEO-CFO relationship and more. The topics occasionally drew skepticism from attendees and trade association leaders at the time who viewed these topics as outside the traditional responsibilities of a finance executive. McCullough said he viewed them as essential skills for a profession that was steadily expanding beyond its accounting roots.

“I was mocked for having an emotional intelligence program,” he said. “And I’m confident we were the first group ever to do a program on the CEO-CFO relationship.”

The criticism never altered the council’s direction. McCullough believed CFOs would eventually need a broader set of leadership skills than many finance organizations were discussing at the time.

“We read the writing on the wall,” he said. “It wasn’t going to be a backward-looking job forever.”

Looking back, many of those conversations sound strikingly familiar. Throughout this year’s conference, speakers and attendees discussed a profession that increasingly expects CFOs to influence decisions outside of finance. Many speakers held dual titles outside of their CFO role that extended into operations. The growing prevalence of CFOs taking on work outside of finance, many taking on the dual title of CFO and COO, commonly referred to as COFO, reflects how organizations are redefining the position and broadening its scope.

The CFO role evolves

The evolution of the CFO role remains one of the defining themes of the profession. Jim Waddell, vice president of finance and chief accounting officer at GCP Applied Technologies, a Saint-Gobain company focused on construction products and specialty building materials, and an adjunct professor of finance at Bentley University, said many finance professionals spend years developing deep technical expertise in accounting and controls before discovering that the CFO role demands a different set of capabilities. 

Many finance professionals spend years developing deep technical expertise in accounting and controls before discovering that the CFO role demands a different set of capabilities, Waddell said. 

“A CFO role is a completely different animal,” he said.

McCullough reached a similar conclusion after surveying CEOs, investors and board members about the qualities they value most in finance leaders. McCullough said one of the biggest misconceptions about the CFO role is that technical expertise alone is enough to succeed. Over the years, he said has watched many highly capable accounting and finance professionals struggle to make the transition into broader executive leadership positions.

According to Waddell, this is where organizations like the CFO Leadership Council play a huge role. He said one of the council’s biggest strengths is its ability to help finance leaders develop skills that aren’t always built through accounting and finance work alone.

When asked about the value of professional organizations for his students, Waddell said such groups will likely continue to play an important role in helping finance leaders develop after they leave the classroom. He compared the value of organizations like the CFO Leadership Council to the benefits he has gained from teaching, noting that both create opportunities to strengthen skills that become increasingly important as executives move into broader leadership roles.

“It’s a really good skill to have to be able to present in front of a variety of people,” he said. “I’m a lot better [business leader] for having practiced that.”

A community built by CFOs

While the council’s programming evolved alongside the profession, McCullough said the organization’s greatest achievement had virtually nothing to do with conference agendas or chapter expansion.

Over time, the relationships formed among members became the foundation of the community, he explained. CFOs turned to one another for advice during crises, sought feedback during career transitions, helped each other find new jobs and developed professional relationships that often last for years.

“It’s the members,” he said, when asked what has kept him motivated for two decades in the same role, an almost unheard of accomplishment in the CFO world. “It’s just the deep friendships that I’ve formed and just the ability to help them become better CFOs or get their first CFO job.”

One of the clearest examples emerged during the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. Within hours of the bank’s failure, McCullough explained how veteran members began contacting him with concerns about first-time CFOs who suddenly faced questions about liquidity, payroll and banking relationships. The council quickly organized a virtual discussion where experienced finance leaders could share guidance and practical advice.

More than 250 executives joined the session, many of them representing venture-backed companies with significant exposure to the bank. The conversation became a real-time example of the community McCullough had spent years building. “It was just the CFOs helping each other,” he said.

The same dynamic often appears during pivotal career moments. McCullough recalled helping a finance executive prepare for final interviews for her first CFO role at a venture-backed company.

She initially asked for introductions to a handful of experienced finance leaders who could help her prepare for conversations with investors. Instead, dozens of members volunteered their time. The resulting discussions gave her insight into board expectations and investor priorities. And, McCullough said, she got the job.

Paying it forward

For Brian Beaupre, CFO of Teikametrics, those stories illustrate the organization’s lasting value in his world, too. Beaupre first became involved with the council in its early days while working at NetSuite and remained an active member of the Boston chapter as his career progressed. Those experiences, he said, played a meaningful role in helping him navigate his path to his first CFO seat back in early 2022.

Today, he sees part of his responsibility as helping the next generation of CFO Leadership Council members navigate similar challenges. Beaupre said the organization’s impact often becomes clearer over time for members, as professional relationships evolve into mentorships and members face challenges others in the network have already experienced.

“I owe quite a bit in terms of my professional growth and development,” Beaupre said. “[And] I believe the value here isn’t to interact only when you need something, it’s because you want to learn, you want to grow, and most importantly, you want to pay it forward to your fellow and future CFOs.”

That idea, McCullough said, has remained at the center of the organization. While the topics dominating conference agendas have shifted dramatically since 2006, the council’s mission has remained largely unchanged. 

“[Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame player] Ted Williams had a hitting coach,” McCullough said. “I wasn’t exactly an elite CFO. I was a serviceable CFO, but it turns out I’m really good at helping other CFOs become their best version of themselves.”