Strategic Leader

The recipient of this award demonstrates significant contributions to the short- and long-term success of his or her company. This CFO should clearly represent the following skills and characteristics:

1. Mindset: Possesses an agile mindset that enables them to respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs, and to drive continuous improvement.
2. Communication Skills: Ability to articulate financial concepts and data to non-financial stakeholders in a clear and concise manner. Inspires others to believe in and support the company’s mission. Transparency in all communications empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions.
3. Ethics: Upholds high ethical standards and ensures that all financial decisions and practices are in compliance with legal and ethical requirements. Creates a culture of ethical accountability where employees recognize that ethics are paramount in every decision.
4. Financial Excellence: Manages financial resources effectively, maximizing the company’s financial performance while mitigating risks. Ensures long-term strategies are in alignment with financial models. Builds a financial model that can adapt seamlessly in a volatile and unpredictable business climate.
5. Innovation: Creates innovative financial strategies and tools that help the company improve its financial performance and gain a competitive advantage. Solves problems outside the world of finance and accounting, supporting growth in a fiscally responsible manner.
6. Leadership: Leads and motivates his or her team to achieve business and financial objectives and contribute to the overall success of the company.
7. Resilience: Demonstrates personal resiliency, and inspires others to recover and learn from setbacks, emerging more capable and confident.

Team Leader

The recipient of this award recognizes there is no “I” in “Team” and prioritizes the importance of fostering a strong culture and efforts to create—and nurture—a high-performing group of employees. This CFO should clearly represent the following skills and characteristics:

1. Collaboration: Builds effective working relationships not only within finance and accounting, but cross-functionally.
2. Communication Skills: Inspires and motivates team members to achieve their potential while working in the best interests of the organization.
3. Conflict Resolution: Manages conflicts that arise within the finance team or with other stakeholders, using political skills to find mutually acceptable solutions.
4. Culture-Builder: Leads by example, cultivating respect, trust and inclusiveness within the finance team and across the organization.
5. Inclusive: Champions diversity throughout organization he or she leads, recognizes it is as a strategic imperative, thereby creating a climate where all team members are valued and given an equitable opportunity to reach their potential.
6. Mentorship: Mentors and develops team members, providing guidance and support to help them achieve their professional goals.
7. Performance Management: Creates a system that recognizes and rewards high-performing team members, while providing constructive feedback and coaching to help others improve.

Digital Visionary

The recipient of this award will have been involved in a significant digital transformation and/or innovative technology implementation. This CFO should clearly represent the following skills and characteristics:

1. Strategy: Formulates a digital strategy that aligns with the overall strategic objectives of the organization, and is able to articulate the risks, rewards and financial impact of digital initiatives.
2. Innovation: Identifies and implements new technologies that improve business operations, enhance employee collaboration, reduce costs and give their firm a sustainable competitive advantage.
3. Analytical: Leverages data analytics to gain insights into business performance, inform decision-making and drive enterprise growth.
4. Cyber-Savvy: Understands cybersecurity risks and proactively manages those risks to protect the organization from data breaches and other security threats.
5. Collaboration: Works effectively with other members of the senior management team and other functional areas across the entire enterprise to understand and prioritize the technology needs and spend across business units.
6. Ethical: Upholds high ethical standards in the use of digital technologies, ensuring that customer data is protected and that digital initiatives are conducted in compliance with legal and ethical requirements.
7. Stakeholder Management: Communicates the cost, benefits and impact of digital initiatives to stakeholders, including investors, customers and employees, and gains their buy-in and support.

Chief financial officers and other heads of finance at publicly traded and privately held organizations who have been in their role (either at their current company or another company) for a minimum of three years.

Nominations may be submitted on behalf of CFOs by peers at other firms, colleagues, business partners, vendors and customers. 

Nominating submissions should cover the applicable criteria and qualifications over the last 15 months between January 2022 through March 2023. Entries must be received by June 30, 2023 to be eligible. 

Entries will be evaluated and candidates for awards chosen by an independent selection committee made up of experienced finance leaders. Nominations will be reviewed based on the set of criteria for each unique category.

Selection Committee Members include:

• Alastair Borthwick, Chief Financial Officer, Bank of America
• Susan Diamond, Chief Financial Officer, Humana
• Jeff Epstein, Leader, Bessemer Venture Partners CFO Council; Former CFO, Oracle
• Carolina Dybeck Happe, Chief Financial Officer, GE
• Richard Puccio, Chief Financial Officer, Amazon Web Services
• Rachel Ruggeri, Chief Financial Officer, Starbucks
• Tracey Travis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies
• Dave Zinsner, Chief Financial Officer, Intel

Award honorees will be notified September 1, 2023.

All honorees will be invited to attend the December 4 Strategic CFO Forum at the Nasdaq Marketsite, where the awards will be presented. In addition, each honoree will be interviewed for a feature on StrategicCFO360.com and Chief Executive.net. Additional exposure for honorees will include press release and social media promotion.