Last year saw more resignations from chief financial officers than any other year, with the pandemic having adverse effects on corporate balance sheets, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (Jan. 18).
In 2020, there were 37 companies in the S&P 500, including big names like General Motors and HP, that said their CFOs would quit. The number was 27.6 percent higher than the previous year.
The average annual number of CFOs to leave their jobs was 25 over the past decade, the Journal reported, citing data from MyLogIQ. The resignations were usually voluntary, not terminations — though WSJ notes that the language from corporate filings isn’t always obvious.
In the early days of the pandemic, experts thought the opposite of this would happen and executives would keep their places.
But for some CFOs the pandemic began to compound issues they were already having, including high workloads and long hours. The pandemic forced finance chiefs to gather billions to shore up their companies’ liquidity, help through the various economic turbulences and also deal with employee layoffs and furloughs, according to the news outlet.
They also had to shut down operations, cut budgets and rapidly get used to the “new normal” as the pandemic continued for months. As they began working from home, WSJ writes, they had to deal with all the various adjustments like lockdowns, new hiring, talent retention or real estate organization. Those challenges ended up leading some CFOs to quit.
Last September, PYMNTS wrote that the priorities of a CFO have taken on new importance as they become vital to the digitization efforts as companies adapt to new technology. According to Steven Lord, a CFO and provider of CFO consulting services for startups at Burkland Associates, the CFOs also ended up during the pandemic handling the task of helping companies shift their business models.
He said the role of the CFO was becoming one in charge of “connecting the dots” between portals to help collect data flowing in and out.
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