34% of Exiting CFOs Now Land President or CEO Roles

Thirty-four percent of CFOs who left their roles in 2024 moved straight into a President or CEO position, up from 20% the year before, according to Russell Reynolds Associates' 2024 Global CFO Turnover Index. The same shift shows up from the other side of the desk: a Boston Consulting Group survey of roughly 500 chief executives found more than a quarter see their own CFO as the biggest threat to their job, ahead of every other C-suite role.

Two numbers, one story. The CFO seat has stopped being a purely financial function and has turned into a proving ground for the top job.

One finance chief who made the jump has now written the playbook. The author joined Dreamix in mid-2022 as its first CFO after a decade in corporate banking, and became its CEO in September this year. In between came a buy-side acquisition, a sell-side acquisition, a Deputy CEO role and an EY CFO of the Year award. None of it would have mattered, the author writes, without five specific moves.

Why does the growth record matter so much?

Protecting margins is the natural CFO instinct, and it is the instinct that keeps you a CFO. The data behind that is uncomfortable for the profession. Spencer Stuart's research on CEO performance found former CFOs are on average slower to drive top-line growth than CEOs from other backgrounds, and only 8% of CEOs promoted from the CFO role take their company into the top quartile for revenue growth.

Boards know this, the author writes, and it is the objection a candidate must disprove with evidence rather than reassurance. The author's version: leading a buy-side acquisition that accounted for half of Dreamix's growth that year, bringing in new clients through personal networks, and doing the unglamorous work of finding out whether sales or marketing actually moved revenue so the budget followed the results. "A CFO who only talks about spend will always sound like a CFO, no matter how good the numbers are."

What changes when you act like an owner?

Most CFOs weigh in once a decision has already taken shape, checking whether the company can afford it. The shift is joining the conversation while the decision is still forming — sitting next to the CEO on the first draft of an idea rather than the final version. The author did this at Dreamix well before any title justified it, and without being a shareholder.

The promotion math rewards it. McKinsey found more than 90% of CFOs who became CEOs were promoted from within, meaning the board had years of watching to decide whether they were running the finance function or thinking about the whole company. Russell Reynolds adds that in many companies the CFO has already become the de facto COO, with IT, legal and facilities reporting in.

Should a CFO run something outside finance?

Yes, and the evidence is blunt. McKinsey found three-quarters of former CFOs promoted to CEO in the FTSE 250 had spent time outside the finance function. Former CFOs interviewed by Spencer Stuart put it more directly: get away from the spreadsheets, get in front of customers, sit in the commercial negotiations.

The author's version was the acquisition and the sale, because a transaction touches every function and someone has to own the result.

How do you prove you think like a CEO?

Financial reporting looks backward by design. At Dreamix, the author took revenue from €7.25 million to €25 million and EBITDA margin from 11.2% to 18.8% — accurate numbers that said nothing about where the company should go next.

The first real test came in 2022. With central banks raising rates, the author argued that startup clients, then more than 40% of revenue, would struggle to raise money, and that Dreamix should move toward enterprise clients. It changed sales, marketing, delivery and hiring. By the end of 2024, startups were 18% of revenue, while software companies that stayed heavily exposed to startups struggled with falling revenue and late payments.

The advice: write a one-page view of where the company should be in three years and share it with the CEO before anyone asks. "A CFO who has never been wrong in public has never committed to anything."

When should the trust-building start?

Years before the decision. In the author's case, the deciders changed halfway through: the 2024 sale to Synechron brought new shareholders, and the trust that led to the CEO role two years later was built at the negotiating table. Russell Reynolds notes boards are increasingly appointing CFOs as CEOs-in-waiting, and want someone who can present the company, hold their own with investors and act as a thought partner to the CEO.

The payoff continues after promotion. McKinsey found former CFOs were almost twice as likely as the average CEO to run a strategic review in their first two years. The analytical habit is already there; the candidate only has to add the commitment.