Roles and Responsibilities of a CFO
The Chief Financial Officer has a wide range of responsibilities, beyond the scope of managing the company's finances, many of which Paul discusses in this video. Paul also discusses how the role of the CFO has increased in importance in recent years.
Overview
A CFO is the Chief Financial Officer of a company. Their primary responsibility is to manage the company’s finances, however since the turn of the new Century the role has steadily evolved to be central to a company’s strategic and tactical financial planning, often being perceived as the number 2 alongside the Chief Executive, and increasingly having operational responsibilities beyond core Finance areas, often managing 5-6 non-finance departments e.g. Procurement and Information Technology.
Key learning objectives:
When does a company need a CFO?
Why has the role increased in importance and scope in recent years?
What are the key aspects to the role beyond management of the company’s finances?
Summary
Expert
Paul Nichols
Paul is a Chartered Accountant having qualified with Price Waterhouse in 1998 and has since spent over 20 years in commercial finance roles. Early in his career, Paul undertook a 10-year spell at De Beers, setting up the company's UK Business Partnering function. Following this, in 2011 Paul became European Finance Director of Coach Inc, responsible for their expansion into Europe. Finally, Paul became CFO of Chesneys Lts in 2016, coinciding with the company receiving private equity investment.
