Where Have All the Chief Financial Officers Gone?

[Rose Siding]

snip>
"Every C.F.O. has been pushed at times to take something that is clearly black and white and color it a shade of gray," Mr. Goldman, 46, said. "But when the chief executive is shot at, he uses the chief financial officer as a human shield. Being a C.F.O. has become one of the riskiest jobs in America."

The push for better ethics and transparent accounting in corporate America, including the drive to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley law in 2002, has had an unexpected side effect: more finance chiefs are calling it quits.

"Coping with the pressures of Sarbanes-Oxley even as they try to guide companies through a recession has put an enormous strain on C.F.O.'s and their staffs," said Julia Homer, editor in chief of CFO magazine.

It has also taken the fun out of the job. "Sarbanes-Oxley has turned C.F.O.'s into scorekeepers rather than players, and they just can't be strategic anymore," said Eleanor Bloxham, co-president of the Corporate Governance Alliance, a consulting firm in Westerville, Ohio.

E. Peter McLean, a vice chairman at Spencer Stuart, the executive search firm, said that this year through mid-November, 62 chief financial officers at Fortune 500 companies had left their jobs; by year-end, he expects that total to reach nearly 70, a number that would mirror last year's. Over the last three years, more than 225 C.F.O.'s of the Fortune 500 companies have left.
........
........CFO magazine recently asked 227 finance executives how their work lives had changed in the last two years. The results portray a severely disgruntled group: 68 percent said the pressures on them had increased; 53 percent said they were working more; 61 percent groused that they had more work than their colleagues; 63 percent thought that work-related stress had had a deleterious effect on their health.

http://nytimes.com/2004/11/28/business/yourmoney/28cfos.html

[Spinzonner]

1. "Gone for lawyers every one"

[sally343434]

2. I'm sure they're crying all the way to the bank

These people, with their obscenely inflated 9-digit incomes, just can't catch a break, can they?

[Old and In the Way]

3. There's another side to this coin.

That's the incessant demand to meet Wall Street expectations. Gets pretty damn near impossible to meet stockholders demands month over month without resorting to creative accounting to meet the numbers. I suspect that is as much or more of an issue for the CFO than complying with federal accounting regulations.

[lovuian]

4. no its Sarbanes Oxley thats the trouble!!! CFO's are scared!!!

it doesn't allow cheating and this is driving the CFO's crazy!!!

Its been talked about getting rid of it but alas ENRON has left everybody with a major Billion dollar headache and Prison terms

It really isn't worth it!!!

[hedda_foil]

5. gone to the Caymans every one.

When will we ever learn?
Oh when will we ever learn?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. Being a CFO is one of the riskiest jobs in America?

How FUCKING out of touch IS this guy? No, dude, being a POLICE officer is risky. Being a firefighter is risky. Repo-ing cars is risky. Hell, teaching in some inner city schools is risky. Being a US servicemember right now is about one of the damn riskiest of them all.

A CFO? Fuggedaboutit. I'll take that risk, buddy. Shaking my head at how completely out of touch some people can be. He needs to get out more, clearly.

[aquart]

7. Well, I hope they've gone straight to Hell

walking two steps behind their CEOs.

Does that mean I'm religious?

[daleo]

8. Interesting phrasing - what does Julia know that we haven't been told

"Coping with the pressures of Sarbanes-Oxley even as they try to guide companies through a recession has put an enormous strain on C.F.O.'s and their staffs," said Julia Homer, editor in chief of CFO magazine.