What does the CFO of the future look like?

The CFO of the future won’t look much like the CFO of the past. They won’t blend in the background, report on numbers or run quarterly forecasts behind closed doors. They’ll be on the frontlines, influencing board-level decisions and shaping how companies think about growth, people, and performance.

The timing for change couldn’t come at a more important moment. CFO turnover continues to rise across the board. Retirement, the push for more diverse leadership, and an increasing number of CFOs eyeing the CEO seat are all accelerating the churn. As leaders with decades of experience step aside, a new generation is preparing to step in — one expected to be resilient, modern, innovative, and, above all else, strategic.

If recent trends are any indication, that CFO might not even have a background in accounting. Or an MBA. What will they have?

To answer this question, we turn to finance professionals witnessing these changes first-hand inside their organisations. Drawing from insights shared at Forge Connect, an event hosted by Rydoo and iBanFirst in Amsterdam, we map out a striking image of what the CFO of the future will look like, and what it will take to truly own the role.

Eric Kutcher, CFO of McKinsey & Company, never took an accounting course. He started in engineering at Intel before moving into finance by joining McKinsey’s compensation policy committee. After playing with balance sheets and taxes, he became a board member, and not long after, “for my sins,” he jokes, he became CFO.

Kutcher’s story is that of many others. Fewer CFOs come from traditional accounting backgrounds, and companies are increasingly open to non-linear paths. A 2022 study by Russell Reynolds Associates found that just 43% of CFOs in the S&P 2000 held CPA credentials, down from 55% a decade earlier.

This trend is sparking a debate about the skills required to be a successful finance leader. Some argue it’s no longer enough to be just good at numbers. Companies want strategic operators who sit at the intersection between finance, operations, and leadership. Interestingly, investment banking experience has also grown significantly more common over the past ten years. The old career rulebook — Big Four to controller to CFO — is losing its edge.

Moreover, although still valued, technical experience and MBA degrees are no longer necessary indicators of success. For instance, analysis by Leathwaite, an executive-search firm, reveals an openness among UK businesses to recruiting a finance leader from a non-linear background.

Companies want strategic operators who sit at the intersection between finance, operations, and leadership.

Academics echo this perspective. Mark Williams, a senior lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, describes the future CFO as someone who leads with strategy, understands risk, and embraces technology. “Yes, you need to know the numbers, but that’s just the baseline,” he says. “That alone doesn’t make a great CFO.”

In other words, the archetype is changing, whereby a breadth of diverse experience and a battery of soft skills like communication, empathy, and resilience are increasingly valued.

A third wave of artificial intelligence is coming. With it, agentic AI systems will revolutionise how information is distributed, data is analysed, and tasks are executed.

The urgency for CFOs will be to rethink entire business processes with AI. Part of that means redesigning self-service tools to supercharge efficiency and free up their teams to focus on more high-value tasks. This drive to move finance professionals toward higher-impact roles clearly explains why implementing generative AI into processes is the second-highest transformation priority for CFOs in 2025.

But how can these future finance leaders stay ahead of this technological wave? They must be ready to respond with the right combination of skills and knowledge — from data management to digital tools. They must also be equipped to work cross-functionally and with technological changes, not against them.

“The new generation of CFOs is going to be more prepared for these new technologies, because they were born in the digital era”, says Rita Piçarra, former CFO at Microsoft Portugal. “They are going to bring all the insights extracted from the data and sit at the table with the CEO, giving them solutions for their problems, showing them the right directions; where to put the money, where to disinvest or where to redeploy in order to maximise EBITDA.”

The CFOs of tomorrow are far more than financial gatekeepers. They must be versatile, multifaceted leaders who engage across multiple business functions. Among the most in-demand skills is data analysis. As finance teams continue adopting technology, especially in automation and advanced analytics, CFOs must move away from tracking cash flow and forecasting to applying digital insights across the entire business.

A recent Billtrust survey reinforces this evolution. Modern, forward-leaning CFOs are owning broader roles, with an emphasis on enterprise data and analytics, risk management, corporate strategy, M&A, and even procurement. In short, the modern CFO is becoming a central driver of business decisions across the organisation.

“They’re going to bring new ideas simply because they’re digital natives, and they have a totally different perception of life compared to the generations before,” said Sumi Ariaraj, Global Business Process Manager at ERM. “They’ll have a much higher expectation of automation and technology. And they’ll be able to drive that to new heights that we haven’t seen before.”

The modern CFO is becoming a central driver of business decisions across the organisation.

As the role expands, so must the skillset. The next generation of CFOs must understand risk, manage stakeholder expectations, and plan strategically for long-term capital investments. They’re expected to wear multiple hats across multiple functions.

Judith Naessens, CFO at BMT Group, explains this change. “People are more open-minded. You’re less narrow in your boxes. When I started, it was more boxed in…[today], you’re more connected. It’s not a little box anymore.”

This evolution also demands a new way of working. CFOs can no longer operate in silos; they must lead cross-functionally, fostering collaboration across teams and departments. And to do that effectively, strong people skills are key.

Indeed, a recent study emphasised how successful CFOs must be strong communicators and powerful collaborators.

“The new gen CFOs are the new gen managers”, says Surojit Banerjee, who has worked as a Program Manager of Finance and Technology at FedEx. “They are digital savvy. They are more open to new, innovative ideas to go beyond the call of duty and experiment with something new. You can only taste success if you fail in your way, so they are going through their journey where they are developing themselves, testing their boundaries, learning and implementing new changes.”

Sandy Cockrell from Deloitte believes this transformation will continue to evolve, so much so that CFOs are becoming “chief catalyst officers,” shaping strategy and propelling businesses forward. Ultimately, CEOs are looking for CFOs who can deliver results like a business unit leader, only from the finance seat. And with the pace of change and disruption accelerating, the need for adaptable, visionary CFOs who go above and beyond the numbers has never been greater.

Unsurprisingly, many finance chiefs now view the CFO position as a stepladder to the CEO. Roughly half of CFOs aspire to become chief executive, reflecting how a broader CFO scope provides general management experience.

And what are some of the leadership attributes that will be needed?

“They will be great listeners,” predicts Arian Musa, Digital Strategy Manager at Eraneos. “That’s what we’re going to see from them.”

For finance leaders, the scope of what’s possible has never been broader. The skills in demand, the knowledge to be gained, and the roles worth gunning for have all expanded beyond what the job used to be.

But this transformation doesn’t come without friction. CFOs face significant hurdles. From unifying information systems to developing teams and balancing core finance tasks with operational responsibilities, they have a lot on their plate.

A lack of data skills is a shared frustration among finance leaders. While in practice, a CFO must be able to take granular financial analysis and frame it as a strategic story for investors or management, the reality looks altogether different. Deloitte’s 2023 CFO Signals survey shows a stark gap in talent, with many finance teams lacking experience using advanced data analytics to build and depict insights in a helpful way for the business.

“There’s a lot more data available,” Naessens explains, “but to really find the value-adding data and the good insights… that’s more difficult.”

Aaron Levine, a finance transformation lead at Prophix, shares this frustration. “There’s data everywhere. Product, services, they all have their own tools. The number one challenge is getting a handle on all of this data and then bringing it together into a single source of truth.”

AI adoption is another challenge. 71% of CFOs report they have yet to integrate AI tools into their finance or accounting operations. What’s more, there is a significant gap between awareness and action, with 53% of CFOs recognising AI’s transformative capabilities, yet only 3% have fully deployed GenAI initiatives.

And then there’s time, or rather, the lack of time.

CFOs are expected to be everywhere at once: owning capital allocation, leading digital transformation, managing investor relations, and keeping their eye on risk. Yet, core finance tasks are still very much part of the job. If anything, reporting cycles are racking up, with new regulatory frameworks coming into place like ESG mandates.  All of this creates a leadership strain. And as CFOs push for innovation, they also need to protect their people from burnout.

While the future of finance is promising, it’s also incredibly demanding. To navigate transformation, CFOs will need to build the right team to weather these challenges and ensure the finance team is ready for what’s next.

To keep pace with how the CFO role is changing, companies need to take a fresh look at how they’re hiring and upskilling their finance leaders. Understanding what the next generation of CFOs should look like is one thing, but actually preparing someone to step into that role is a different challenge altogether. It’s up to today’s CFOs to play an active role in developing future finance leaders. That means identifying individuals with strong potential, assessing where they need to grow, and creating meaningful opportunities to build their skills across the business.

In many cases, this could involve moving top performers out of their comfort zones and exposing them to new areas of the organisation. To truly prepare for the top job, emerging leaders need broader experience, including working in different business units and functions. The most effective approach to succession planning is one that puts people at the centre, both the leaders guiding the process and the individuals being groomed for future roles. This cultivates a sense of shared responsibility in influencing the next wave of CFOs, helping, in turn, to create dependable talent and leadership.

To realise this, companies can provide incentives and clear expectations for current CFOs and finance leaders to develop their successors actively. One way to do this is by tying leadership KPIs to talent development outcomes. The result is an organisation strategically working toward spotting and nurturing talent to take the next CFO seat.

As we look to the future, tomorrow’s CFOs will hold more power and influence than their predecessors. They will move away from crunching numbers and serve as strategic drivers within their organisations. In many ways, the stakes have never been higher to ensure the right finance leaders are driving such initiatives.

As the world responds to mass technological changes and the AI revolution, it will be paramount for the next generation of CFOs to lead effectively against disruption. Companies must prepare accordingly, from investing in leadership training to modernising their systems and way of thinking in terms of what the role of a finance leader should encompass.

“The CFO of the future is already with us,” Arian Musa reminds us. “The generation is now getting ready to take up the torch once they get a chance to do so.”