Century-old global mining-and-metals conglomerate Anglo American plc has been on a roller coaster since the end of May, when it dramatically cut off merger talks with rival BHP and instead announced a sweeping restructure of its portfolio.

Many analysts greeted the plan with skepticism. UBS downgraded London-based Anglo American from Buy to Neutral, citing the restructuring scenario and the hurdles to getting it done by the end of 2025, as management has pledged to do, and the German private bank Berenberg affirmed a Sell rating. In the two months following the announcements, Anglo’s stock price fell 18%.

The auguries worsened at the end of June, when a fire caused the shutdown of Anglo’s Grosvenor coal mine in Australia. New York-based investment bank Jefferies attributed 30% of the value of Anglo’s steelmaking coal business to the Grosvenor mine; its coal operations are one of the assets the company plans to sell as part of the restructuring. Production is not expected to resume until next year.

“Anglo’s main problem this reporting period will be with the coal operations and how it will sell a burning coal mine,” quipped Ian Woodley, portfolio manager at Old Mutual.

Three weeks later, Anglo released its latest results, and the bad news seemed to pile up further. The company took a $1.6 billion impairment based on its decision to slow the development of Woodsmith, its promising venture into organic fertilizer production in the UK. The decision, which was intended to help Anglo focus on its restructuring, swung the company from a net profit of $1.26 billion in the first half of 2023 to a $672 million loss in the first half of this year. 

“Anglo’s valuation upside no longer looks compelling on a standalone basis,” JP Morgan’s equity research team concluded, suggesting it may still be a takeover target.

The restructuring itself is a complicated affair. Aside from selling off its coal operations and executing various cost-control measures, Anglo aims to demerge Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), put its nickel mining operations on mothballs for possible divestment, and divest or demerge its fabled DeBeers diamond unit, which will move Anglo out of the diamond business for the first time in almost 100 years. The end-product, chair Duncan Wandblad forecasts, will be a leaner, more linear company, laser-focused on copper and iron ore production, which are expected to benefit from the shift to green energy, and last year accounted for 70%-plus of Anglo’s EBIDTA. 

Should the plan succeed, Anglo will be “a higher quality company,” says Morningstar equity analyst Jon Mills, “as it will be less leveraged to changes in commodity prices, led by its high-quality, low-cost, long-life copper mines, including 60%-owned Quellaveco in Peru and 44%-owned Collahausi in Chile.”

Despite the difficulties, such as regulatory approvals needed in South Africa and Botswana, Amplats having to renegotiate supplier contracts and funding lines, and De Beers struggling with a downturn in the diamond market, some analysts think Anglo can pull it off.

“The plan is viable,” says Dawid Heyl, portfolio manager at Ninety-One, a large Anglo shareholder, “and while the execution risk is real, they’ve given themselves a good amount of time to get it done.” Anglo’s stock price is still trading well above the levels it reached before BHP’s bid emerged in April, he notes, “so the market is giving them the benefit of the doubt.”

Anglo reported a modest first step in its restructuring in late July, when it finalized an agreement to sell two royalties to Taurus Funds Management for $195 million: an iron ore royalty owned by De Beers related to an Australian iron project, and a gold and copper royalty related to a project in northern Chile.

“The main risks,” says Mills, “are that it takes longer than intended, and that Anglo accepts bids for its assets that are lower than they should be as it tries to meet its target completion date while minimizing the risk of BHP returning or other suitors emerging.”

But Radoslaw Beker, director at Fitch Ratings, argues that the prices Anglo expects to reap from the assorted divestments and demergers are not overly optimistic: “If the market environment remains stable through the next year, we don’t see problems in getting their numbers. Based on the company’s announcement, and the justification for it, we think it’s achievable.”

Should it succeed, Anglo’s huge restructuring will cap a long-term trend in the mining-and-metals industry away from the diversified model that has been the company’s hallmark for more than a century.

“A diversified model was an advantage at one point,” Heyl notes, “but today, you don’t get rewarded for that, which is why Anglo has been trading at a deeper discount than other miners.”

Wanblad’s vision for the company “shows a real focus on metals, longer term,” says Beker, “and this is the trend that miners want to go in.”

If GIX gets the green light from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, it plans to kick off trading in 2025. And it’s a global initiative, too. Labovitz tells Global Finance that while a security must be listed on another US exchange to list with GIX, he’s already chatting up counterparts abroad.

“Conversations with exchanges and broker-dealers in Europe and Africa” about potentially bringing equity-linked products, i.e., American Depositary Receipts and exchange-traded funds, from those regions to the US markets via GIX are taking place, he explained. “We’re still in the early stages of those discussions.”

As GIX waits for regulatory approval, Labovitz is mapping out a future where saving the planet is thought of as a savvy corporate finance strategy. The following interview is edited for length and clarity:

Global Finance: Who’s expressing interest in GIX and why?

Daniel Labovitz: We have spoken with hundreds of public companies. From our conversations, it’s clear that they understand the logic and importance of sustainability to their business and their shareholders. Company leaders know that significant portions of their investor base, employees, and customers care deeply about it and are looking for evidence that companies are not just greenwashing. If a company is perceived to be greenwashing, it puts them at a disadvantage when competing for the best talent and consumers—especially younger cohorts, who, more and more, are considering a company’s values as part of their employment and purchasing decisions. Ultimately, company leaders know they will lose access to sustainability-minded investors willing to trade short-term gains for long-term sustainable value growth.

GF: What were some of the questions that get brought up?

GF: Is there data to support that?

Labovitz: There is growing evidence that focusing on sustainability leads to the company’s stock outperforming the broader market. For example, a 2022 McKinsey study found that “green leaders” in the chemicals market doubled their total shareholder return compared to “green laggards.” A 2023 study in Britain found that a board sustainability committee positively impacted market value, while a separate study found that corporate environmental commitments can play a buffering role during disruptive market events. In other words, markets agree that sustainability investments and sustainability-focused corporate governance can improve returns and lower volatility. You’d be hard-pressed to find a CFO or CEO who said “no, thank you” to either.

CEOs and CFOs also like our trading model. It will help companies generally by incentivizing market makers to post liquidity on the exchange. Once the exchange is approved for trading, we plan to seek SEC approval for a market maker support program specifically for GIX-listed companies. That program would reward companies for making up-front investments in green transition by incentivizing market makers to add liquidity in listed stocks.

GF: How does GIX hold companies accountable?

Labovitz: Investors develop skepticism toward company promises, particularly in sustainability, due to the frequent abandonment of ambitious environmental commitments. This lack of accountability often occurs once the public attention wanes. GIX, however, is uniquely positioned to bridge this “trust gap.” We mandate our listed companies to establish a robust governance infrastructure, ensuring that their promises are not just words but deeply embedded in the company’s DNA.

GF: Has something similar been done before?

Labovitz: Incentivizing good corporate governance has been a core function of stock exchanges in the US for more than 100 years. In the early 20th century, there were little standardized accounting or financial controls inside companies, and investors were not entitled to the right to receive disclosures from the company. This allowed a lot of fraud to thrive. To combat this, the NYSE told companies that if they wanted their stock to be traded on the exchange, the company would have to abide by specific corporate governance standards, implement standardized accounting, and commit to regular disclosures to investors. As a result, an NYSE listing became the gold standard for public companies, so much so that when the SEC was formed, it incorporated many of the NYSE’s governance standards into the federal securities laws and rules that we still live with 90 years later.

Sustainability reporting is in a place where financial reporting was in the early 20th century. There is a lack of standardization, insufficient mandatory disclosures to investors, and a lot of greenwashing, whether unintentional or otherwise. To date, the NYSE and Nasdaq have not adopted corporate governance standards for sustainability, so GIX is stepping up to address that gap.

GF: How do investors benefit from GIX?

Labovitz: Regarding value for investors, it’s important to note that even when it was the gold standard for listings, the NYSE never guaranteed that a company would be profitable and did not anoint winners and losers. To the extent it guaranteed anything, it was that investors would get quality, timely, reliable information from which they, the investors, could make informed investment decisions. The same applies to GIX and sustainability: our role is not to anoint companies as “green” or “not green.” GIX’s listing standards ensure companies give investors quality, timely, and reliable information about sustainability initiatives and performance so they can make informed investment decisions. Efficient markets need transparent information; GIX ensures investors get it. After that, it’s up to the market—not the exchange—to allocate capital where it will be most productively used.

GF: What are your next steps?

Labovitz: Our first goal is to launch the exchange and build experience and credibility running a dual listing market. It’s not a small task—several exchanges have tried to launch a primary listing business right out of the gate and not succeeded, so we wanted to learn from those examples.

The timeline for our launch depends on securing SEC approval of GIX’s Form 1 application for registration as a national securities exchange. After approval, we will need approximately five to six months to complete all the pre-launch work that can’t be done until then. That puts us on track to launch trading in the first half 2025.

Once we launch, we’ll be better positioned to evaluate what’s next, including listing green derivative products: ETFs, ETNs, index products, and ADRs, and creating markets for innovative green equity products. Whichever way we go, we promise to keep you posted.

Toward the end of July, several companies looking to go public told vastly different stories than the one billionaire Bill Ackman weaved on social media.

The hedge fund manager grabbed headlines on Wednesday, July 31, when he decided to no longer plan an initial public offering (IPO) for his firm, Pershing Square USA.

In a prepared statement on X.com, Ackman posted: “While we have received enormous investor interest in PSUS, one principal question has remained: Would investors be better served waiting to invest in the aftermarket than in the IPO? This question has inspired us to reevaluate PSUS’s structure to make the IPO investment decision a straightforward one. We will report back once we are ready to launch a revised transaction.”

The withdrawal comes shortly after the fund announced plans to raise $2 billion—significantly lower than the previously touted $25 billion.

When valuations shift so drastically, it’s usually due to “a major event” or “a failed deal, or even a market correction,” Carl Niedbala, co-founder of risk management firm Founder Shield, said.

“It’s tough to pinpoint the perfect valuation,” he added, skeptical that it was indicative of a trend. 

Indeed, Ackman’s decision to scale back IPO plans seemed evident when reports suggested that Seth Klarman, a fellow billionaire investor, appeared to be committed to investing in Pershing Square USA but ultimately rescinded.

Calls to Pershing Square were not returned.

Meanwhile, other companies enjoyed better luck.

Lineage Inc., for example, raised over $5 billion and began trading 12% above its offer price as of July 30, making it the largest IPO of 2024.

In an email to Global Finance, EY’s Global IPO Leader George Chan noted that Lineage’s success underscored a “particularly active” July.

Chan also singles out the $564 million listing of KKR-backed OneStream Inc., which priced above its initial filing range and is currently trading 40% above its offer price.

Then there’s health services provider Concentra Group Holdings, which raised about $529 million.

“Valuations are more tempered compared to the highs of 2020 and 2021,” Chan says. “This indicates a balanced approach with sustainable pricing levels.”

Thus far, he adds, it’s been a good year for IPOs, even if activity didn’t surpass 2023.

According to EY, global IPO volume fell 12% for the first six months compared to last year. IPO proceeds were also down—by 16%—year over year.

The data appears to be far from the comeback dealmakers expected when they spoke to Global Finance late last year.

“The global IPO market experienced a mild downturn due to weak IPO activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, particularly in Greater China,” he says.

“Historically, APAC has significantly contributed to global IPO activity. Therefore, the decline in IPO numbers is more indicative of APAC’s underperformance rather than the below-average performance of other regions,” Chan adds.

However, he points to two other regions that witnessed a significant increase in IPO activity during the first half of 2024: the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA).

EMEIA saw a 45% increase in IPOs and an 84% rise in proceeds, while the Americas experienced a 14% increase in IPOs and a 75% increase in proceeds.

“In stark contrast, APAC witnessed a 42% decline in the number of IPOs and a 73% drop in proceeds,” Chan says.  

Ryan Coombs, a partner in O’Melveny’s Capital Markets Practice, agreed that July was “a positive start to the second half of the year.”

“I don’t think the global IPO statistics reflect the health of the US IPO market,” he adds. “Year-over-year, the trends suggest there will be more US IPOs in 2024 than in 2023.”

Coombs says the US election and interest rate changes may impact the second half of the year. But he expects the same energy in the US IPO market in the first half of 2024 to carry through to the second half of 2024.

“I think the US IPO pipeline will continue to reflect the market’s preference for businesses with quality financials and demonstrated growth opportunities,” he said.

Numerous Indian companies and multinational subsidiaries in India are heading for IPOs in the next few months, as funding capital projects amid India’s infrastructure boom takes precedence over other corporate finance activities.

Vodafone Idea (Vi), India’s third-largest telecom services operator (213 million subscribers), has just completed mega rounds of capital raises so far in 2024, with the final piece, equipment-vendor financing, concluding on July 18. The company has major obligations on capex, debt service, 5G spectrum purchases, dues to equipment vendors, among others, and has designed a capital-raising plan using multiple corporate finance levers in 2024, including asset sales, follow-on public offers, preferential equity sales to a company promoter, and equity allotment to equipment vendors, all of which have been completed for now.

No company’s struggles epitomize the impact of cutthroat competition in the Indian telecom market more than Vi’s. As its larger Indian rivals, Reliance Jio (484 million subscribers) and Bharti Airtel (382 million subscribers), have already completed 5G rollouts across the country, Vi is not even out of the gate yet. Vi will commence its 5G rollout in the next few months, expecting to spend $3 billion to $4 billion. While Hyundai India’s IPO later this year is on track to set a record, it is Vodafone Idea (Vi) that will have ended up raising the largest amount of money, INR 360 billion ($4.3 billion), in corporate India in 2024.

Unlike its larger and well-capitalized rivals, Vi has never turned a profit, largely due to hyper-competitive pricing of telecom services, making its recently demonstrated capital-raising prowess remarkable. According to a June 2024 presentation by Vodafone, Indians consume 20 gigabytes of data per month, which is the highest in the world but pay the lowest data costs in the world, at an average of $2.10 per user per month. This price per gigabyte is certainly cheap compared to Brazil at $5.70 and China at $6.60 per user, but astonishingly low when compared to the US consumer’s monthly cost of $45.60 per user.

According to Vi, tariffs in India have risen by just 4% in 11 years and suggest that a hike is long overdue. This combination of expected revenue increase from higher tariffs, the launching of 5G services, and supportive government policies (reduced spectrum costs, longer amortization of dues, and conversion of debt owed to the government to equity) have likely buoyed the confidence of investors and led to several successful issuances of new equity.

On July 18, Vi confirmed that it issued the first tranche of common stock to its equipment suppliers, Nokia Solutions and Networks India (NSNI) and Ericsson India, as part of its equipment-vendor financing plan. NSNI was issued 256.7 million shares and 158.4 million shares to Ericsson, raising a combined $80 million. This tranche is part of a larger issue of 1.03 billion shares to NSNI and 633 million shares to Ericsson; the combined value of this complete issue is $300 million. Following the completion of the full allotment over time, NSNI will hold a 1.5% stake and Ericsson will hold a 0.9% stake in Vi. This allotment of shares follows the $250 million worth of equity sold to the Aditya Birla Group, one of the promoters of the company; Vodafone Plc is the other promoter; both holding a combined 37.3% stake. The largest shareholder is the government of India, holding a 23% equity stake. The Indian government became a majority shareholder after Vodafone Idea opted to accept a government plan to convert the interest it owed on its debt to the government into equity instead of paying the interest in cash. Vi has a total of $26 billion in outstanding debt, almost all of it owed to the Indian government for spectrum purchases.

Vi’s initial issue of common stock to NSNI and Ericsson India and earlier to one of its two promoter groups, Aditya Birla and Vodafone Plc, while dramatic, has come after two still larger capital raises this year. In April, Vi first raised $2.2 billion in a follow-on public offer (FPO), which is a subsequent offer of shares to the investing public by a listed company, and then in mid-June sold 487 million shares representing an 18% stake in Indus Towers, one of the world’s largest telecom tower operators also listed in India, raising $1.8 billion. The block sale of Indus Towers stock will be used to reduce its outstanding debt by that amount. Following this equity sale, Vi now holds just a 3.1% stake in a company that it once held a 21.5% stake in, along with Bharti Airtel, India’s dominant telecom provider, which now owns 49% of Indus Towers.

The list of such exchanges is growing, and the trend is global. For example, the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ECSE) is the Caribbean’s major regional stock exchange, designed to attract companies with regional interconnectivity and regional investors. Companies such as Grenada Electricity Services from Grenada and the Bank of Nevis from St. Kitts and Nevis found their listing home there.

Recent discussions about a new stock exchange in the US state of Texas, which would compete against the triumvirate of US exchange operators—the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and CBOE—have amplified the trend.

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), to be based in Dallas, will be initially funded with a $120 million investment. In recent years, anti–New York sentiment around issues such as compliance requirements and environmental, social and governance rules has triggered a backlash among many businesses. This, among other factors, has led to the current Texan proposal.

Major liquidity providers, such as BlackRock and Citadel Securities and many Texas-based Fortune 500 companies, are backing the proposed all-electronic bourse.

The TXSE founders applied for US Securities and Exchange’s approval, which is currently pending. The new exchange would give companies a reduction in the high listing requirements often associated with the established exchange operators. Texas is perceived as a business-friendly, low-tax state with limited regulatory requirements, and the entrepreneurs behind this venture hope to bring this type of thinking to the stock exchange space while reducing red tape. Texas’ specialization in the energy sector, meanwhile, would provide energy companies with another avenue for corporate finance solutions.

The traditional partnership structure has reached its limits: It is capital-constrained. Much of the profits go back to partners each year, and the company has retirement obligations for former partners. At the same time, accounting firms must heavily invest in artificial intelligence tools to deepen their consulting business and grow profits.

Sensing opportunities for consolidation, private equity (PE) firms have purchased shares in five of the top 26 US accounting firms in recent years. Tower Brook Capital invested in advisory and accounting expert EisnerAmper. New Mountain Capital took an interest in Citrin Cooperman, and Parthenon Capital got involved with Cherry Bekaert.

In February 2024, Baker Tilly US signed a $1 billion deal with Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners. Shortly thereafter, the American branch of Grant Thornton, the world’s seventh-largest accounting firm, announced an investment by New Mountain Capital. These financial alliances have proven beneficial, as seen in the case of Citrin Cooperman, which has completed 17 acquisitions since New Mountain Capital’s capital injection, to become a $600 million powerhouse.   PE firms’ appetite for accounting firms is not limited to the US. It has a global reach, as seen in the UK, where Hg and PAI Partners are now shareholders in Azets, one of the top 10 UK accounting firms. Azets, in turn, has acquired 90 local providers. Waterland Private Equity took stakes in two other UK accounting firms, Moore Kingston Smith and Cooper Parry

The heightened level of regional consolidation, especially among Danish and Norwegian savings banks, has produced more than 50 mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the first half of 2024. This trend is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year. Moreover, digital banks’ growing presence and competitive impact forcing high-street banks to overhaul their business models and practices to create partner groups to drive domestic and Nordic growth.   

Insurance group Sampo’s $4.73 billion takeover offer for the Copenhagen-headquartered Topdanmark reflects heightened interest by banks in growing through M&A deals that have a regional focus. The offer obtained foreign direct investment regulatory clearance in July. Sampo is on track to complete the transaction in September.

“Topdanmark is a perfect fit for Sampo. Our strategies have further aligned as pure property and casualty insurers in recent years,” said Sampo Group CEO Torbjörn Magnusson at the time of the announcement.

Meanwhile, Danske Bank is exploring ways to recalibrate its business model to create mortgage loan product partnerships with rival Danish banks. Carsten Egeriis, Danske Bank’s CEO, says the bank needs to change how it does business to retain private and corporate customers in the face of “disrupters expanding their range of offerings” in the Nordic retail lending space. 

Swedbank formed a strategic product-distribution partnership with the Helsinki-based asset manager and life insurance provider Aktia Bank in another significant Nordic cross-border collaboration. The deal expands the Swedish bank’s corporate offerings in Finland while enabling Aktia to ally with Swedbank to provide compatible customer-tailored finance offerings.

In other noteworthy Nordic cross-border events, the Norwegian marine insurer Gard Forsikring expanded its market reach by acquiring the global Marine and Energy unit of Denmark-based Codan (part of Alm. Brand Group) in a deal worth $234 million.         

Adnan Bokhari knows how to balance a ledger. He’s a practicing CPA who was named CFO of JA Worldwide, a global nonprofit youth organization, about a year ago. His wife is also a CFO and a CPA. But their three kids? They have zero interest in following in their parents’ footsteps. It’s not just a case of rebellion, either. Bokhari has noticed a broader trend: Fewer and fewer young people are interested in his line of work.

“The risk/return matrix is not appealing,” Bokhari remarked during a recent webinar with The CFO Alliance, a peer group of some 9,000 finance pros.

Chief financial officers arguably have never had a bigger role. They oversee the entire financial operations of a company: from strategic financial planning and risk management to advising on investment decisions and ensuring regulatory compliance. And they typically boast a deep understanding of accounting principles, analysis, and business strategy—essentials in guiding an organization toward its goals.

There’s just one problem, Bokhari says: “We’re competing with glamour.”

Indeed, it’s hard to make accounting sexy when “Instagram influencer” is a viable career option.

CPAs, or certified public accountants—a prerequisite to becoming a CFO—meanwhile, are battling a low-compensation perception. If becoming a CFO is the goal, the average salary—at least within a private company generating less than $20 million in annual revenue—is $194,000. After all those grueling years of education, a CPA might well hold their paycheck up to those of other professions and think, “Was it worth it?”

As Bokhari puts it, “If you look at all the other professions that require similar years of formal education and the other barriers that are associated with it, [or] you get to the point of actually becoming an accountant and you compare yours with the salaries of others starting professions, it’s not exactly equitable at all.”

Many of the participants on the CFO Alliance webinar nodded. Bokhari’s observations, they agreed, highlight a serious issue in the corporate finance world: making numbers cool again. Until that is resolved, it seems the dream of inspiring a child to become a future CFO remains just that: a dream.

Bokhari isn’t alone. A recent survey conducted by the CFO Alliance of 450 CFOs revealed a surprising twist in their nightly worries. When asked, “What keeps you up at night?” the top concerns weren’t just usual suspects like revenue and operational efficiency. The true monster under the bed was hiring and retaining employees.

Over 50% of the respondents confessed that they are not just crunching numbers but also doing succession planning and ramping up their mentoring efforts. As it turns out, teaching the next generation of finance whizzes is a priority, but mastering the art of mentorship and delegating duties to up-and-comers is proving difficult—especially when they don’t want to show up to the office.

That’s just the post-Covid way, Joel Quall, CFO of tZERO, a financial blockchain technology company, laments. “A mere four years ago, everyone went to the office five days a week,” he recalls. “Now you have a different culture that—right, wrong, or indifferent—don’t want to come to the office every day. They want to be hybrid, or they want to work from home entirely, a hundred percent of the time.”

The situation is worse if a company pays exorbitant rent for a metro-area office and no one shows up, Quall adds. “There has to be a happy medium. It’s been a struggle to get everyone to come back to the office.”

Even when the talent roster is in place at the office, too often a tech-savvy team appears perfect on paper but lacks the crucial skills higher-ups would like to see.

Recall the many high-profile CFO announcements from the past year: SoundCloud’s Drew Wilson departed amid rumors of a potential $1 billion sale of the Berlin-based streaming company. Dennis Weber became CFO of Swiss International Air Lines, effective May 1. And Marc Page will take the role at London-based Metro Bank Holdings starting September 2.

Turnovers and new arrivals like these are happening at a rapid clip, underscoring just how tight the job market is at the CFO level. That’s also the case for steppingstone roles, such as vice president and executive vice president. The likelihood of these candidates getting hired or promoted should hinge not just on their qualifications to perform the function but also on their ability to create tangible value within the company, says Christian DeChurch, CFO of Centri Business Consulting.

Many finance and accounting professionals, however, are only “technicians.” That means “they’re really good with numbers but not able to connect the numbers to a strategic vision or value creation plan,” DeChurch adds. “Also, the pace of play these days is too fast, and waiting until you have all the answers will only put you more behind.”

Going forward, the best candidates will likely have a knack for wielding emerging tech. Automation tools and artificial intelligence will revolutionize talent acquisition and development strategies by radically expanding the CFO skillset.

“I believe it will have a major impact,” DeChurch predicts, starting from an implementation perspective as it pertains to finance and accounting—the CFO’s bread and butter.

“In order to become better operators, businesses are transforming their current tech stack into something more meaningful,” he says. “Secondly, the data output from the new tech stack will need an analyst mindset, not number crunchers. This will be new for many who are used to debits and credits, and now must tell the story through the numbers and explain the ‘why’ throughout the business.”

DeChurch posits a simple reason why CFOs across the globe are stressing out over hiring and retention. It’s “because many folks think of themselves as ‘the boss’ and not a mentor,” he tells Global Finance. “Work, like many other things in life, is an apprenticeship model with mentors and mentees. If people don’t sign up for your program or a mentee quits your program, then you need to look in the mirror.”

Many companies have used mentorship programs to foster leadership development to great effect, including Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and General Electric. If that doesn’t work, it’s on you, DeChurch concludes flatly.

“I don’t believe people are afraid to work hard and go above and beyond, but they want and need guidance, a voice, and an ownership or accountability stake in the project,” he says. “There are no bad teams, only bad leaders. We are responsible for mentoring folks into today’s demands and transforming them into analysts, [teaching them about] being more strategic and adding real equity value, what it means to project manage an IT implementation, how to have hard conversations, how to negotiate critical agreements, and everything else that might come out of left field.”

For Robin Helfer, a former CFO of clothing company Ashley Stewart, mentorship starts at the college level, because fewer students overall want to study accounting and finance.

“We’re seeing more people go toward other majors that really didn’t exist years ago, like business analytics, as an example,” she says. “And I’d say in general, attracting accounting talent is just an issue, because you need additional credits in order to be certified. I think that is a hindrance as well.”

But while the lure of new, trendy majors is a serious problem, she isn’t waving a white flag. Helfer is a committee member at her alma mater, Binghamton University, and its School of Management Alumni Advisory Board, which is tasked, among other issues, with keeping the talent pool from drying up. 

“It is one of the major obstacles that we, as CFOs, face,” Helfer says. “We have to figure out a way to continue to attract talented students into the accounting major so that it’s ultimately feeding the talent pipelines for our organizations.”

Global Finance: You have served at various companies. How much of a CFO’s role is company-specific?

Alan Taylor: The role of CFO has consistent responsibilities across companies. You have a responsibility to help allocate resources in the best way possible. You are the chief resource allocator, and that is a fun responsibility in general. At Weave it has been unique because we’re building something that people really want, addressing a significant need, and the growth has been incredible. Experiencing this growth over the past eight years has been rewarding.

GF: What has been your biggest challenge?

Taylor: The biggest challenge is managing this exceptional growth. Scaling and balancing resources is critical. I’ve made mistakes by under resourcing some groups and over resourcing others and erring on both sides is a problem. People generally respond well to frugality, but there’s a limit. Adequate resourcing is essential to avoid stifling productivity. You’ve got to get people adequate resources; you can’t starve them.

GF: What is the thing you spend most of your time on?

Taylor: As a public company CFO, I focus on reporting earnings and engaging with investors. It involves communicating our story, delivering results and maintaining credibility with investors and analysts, which helps establish us as a trusted investment. You become the face of the organization; you develop a level of credibility that helps the organization to be a trusted ticker symbol.

GF: Is it true that the role of the CFO has become more strategic over the years?

Taylor: Absolutely true. We recently introduced a Strategic Annual Plan Process [STRAP], which is a three-year forecast, updated annually. In the fall, the first year of the plan becomes our annual operating plan for the following year. Although the software industry evolves rapidly, and three years out is a very long time, this forward-looking approach provides valuable direction and helps us remain agile. This kind of strategic planning is essential for our role as CFOs.

GF: How do you see artificial intelligence (AI) affecting your work?

Taylor: AI’s potential is immediately apparent in several areas. It excels at fact-checking and data verification, traditionally the responsibility of CFOs. AI performs these tasks quickly and accurately, improving efficiency. Financial reporting tools like Workiva are integrating AI, enhancing the preparation of documents such as 10-Ks and 10-Qs, incorporating risk factors and issues from other companies.

There are tough aspects that will become clearer in the future. Operationally, AI promises substantial efficiency improvements. Reports indicate a 25%-30% increase in coding efficiency for product development teams. The finance team must drive the planning process to realize these efficiencies.

GF: What keeps you up at night?

Taylor: Security and phishing. As the allocator of resources, protecting them is vital. Ransomware attacks and system hacks pose existential risks, threatening customer trust and operational integrity.

GF: What advice do you have for aspiring CFOs?

Taylor: At the end of the day, the key thing you take with you from different job experiences are the relationships. Our CEO Brett White often says, “Be kind to people, be tough on the business,” and that is a critical attribute. Caring about people and supporting their success is essential, especially for finance staff. As a CFO, the most valuable resource is people, and they must be treated with respect and consideration. I’m the chief resource allocator, and the best resource you have in any business is the people. You have to care about them.

The deal comes in the wake of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin’s bullish statements on Japan back in June 2023 and Citadel’s reopening of an office in Tokyo (the firm originally closed its Tokyo office in 2008 after Lehman Brothers shuttered).

At the time, Griffin, speaking to the NIKKEI, noted: “It’s actually a very exciting time to be involved in Japan because of this shift in Japanese companies being much more focused on generating success for their shareholders and growing their businesses globally.”

Established in 2021, Energy Grid is a provider of risk management solutions to Japanese businesses, helping them navigate price volatility in the energy sector, in particle the electricity market. 

Citadel’s commodities division led the deal. The large alternative investment team has experience mitigating commodity supply and demand risks, including volatility in natural gas and electricity.

“Energy Grid has cemented its reputation as a trusted partner to the Japanese power industry,” said Sebastian Barrack, head of commodities at Citadel, following news of the partnership.

“We will strengthen this partnership by integrating Citadel’s experience in customer-led transactions and risk management with Energy Grid’s local expertise,” Barrack added.

Yohei Jozaki, CEO of Energy Grid, said, “This strategic transaction with Citadel marks a pivotal moment for Energy Grid to build on our success and realize our vision of building a stable and efficient power market in Japan.”

Looking ahead, Jozaki expressed an intention to leverage Citadel’s reputation in finance and operations “to expand trading volumes and offer longer-term risk management opportunities to more market participants.”

Japan is the world’s fourth-largest importer of oil, much of it coming from the Middle East. Moreover, the country’s electricity sector was disrupted in 2011, following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster, which saw electricity generation via nuclear drop from 25% to a fraction of supply today.