CFO Edge: Where to Spend, What to Shelve, How to Scale ⚙️

Author

Vanessa Carter
October 17, 2025

In partnership with

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Stop manually tagging feedback in spreadsheets. Keep all customer interactions in one hub and turn them into clear priorities that drive roadmap, retention, and revenue.

Hey there, CFOs! 💼

Today’s edition is about control and clarity. We look at a CFO-to-CEO move that sharpens capital discipline at a biotech, a major not-for-profit naming its next finance chief, and fresh survey data on what is crowding your agenda right now.

Expect practical signals on where to deploy dollars, how to read leadership shifts, and which priorities deserve time this quarter.

📰 Upcoming in this issue

  • 🧬 From CFO to CEO: Gene Mack Bets Big on Winnable Science

  • 🏥 CommonSpirit names Michael Browning as CFO

  • 📊 CFO Priorities Are Piling Up

  • CFO + CISO: Turn Security Into a Value Engine

  • Global Outlook: Resilience With Fragile Floors

  • Mid-Market CFOs: Readiness, Retention, and Realism for 2026

🧬 From CFO to CEO: Gene Mack Bets Big on Winnable Science

A numbers-first leader just took the helm at Gain Therapeutics with a simple promise: fund what can hit, shelve what cannot, and strike deals that speed the path to patients. If he sticks the landing, investors get clarity and near-term proof.

Key Takeaways:

  • 📊 Follow the Data: Align spend to programs with the best risk-adjusted odds, with clear go or no-go gates at each dataset.

  • 🧪 Pipeline, Sharpened: Concentrate resources on lead assets that can deliver meaningful clinical readouts and de-risk the platform.

  • 🤝 Deal Where It Counts: Partner late-stage and commercial work to bigger balance sheets, keep core discovery tight and in-house.

  • ⏱️ Milestones That Matter: Publish a near-term catalyst map, tighten timelines, and report progress with metrics investors can track.

🏥 CommonSpirit names Michael Browning as CFO

CommonSpirit Health tapped Michael Browning, EVP and CFO of OhioHealth, to become its next senior EVP and CFO effective January 2, 2026. He succeeds Daniel Morissette, who retires at the end of October.

Key Takeaways:

  • 📅 Start Date Set: Browning takes the helm as CFO on January 2, 2026, following Morissette’s retirement.

  • 🧭 Seasoned Operator: He brings three decades in healthcare finance and most recently served as EVP and CFO at OhioHealth.

  • 🧩 Continuity and Scale: The transition comes at one of the nation’s largest nonprofit systems, based in Chicago with more than 140 hospitals and 700 care sites.

  • 📊 What to Watch: Expect signals on capital allocation, debt management, and margin improvement as leadership shifts from an outgoing CFO to a finance-first successor.

📊 CFO Priorities Are Piling Up

A new Deloitte survey says finance chiefs are juggling cost control, AI bets, cyber risk, and talent while still delivering growth. The job is shifting from “scorekeeper” to strategist in real time.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🧮 Costs vs. Growth: CFOs are cutting noncritical spend while protecting growth engines like product, data, and customer success.

  • 🤖 AI With Guardrails: Most plan to fund automation, forecasting, and copilots, paired with clear governance, model risk checks, and ROI gates.

  • 🛡️ Cyber and Compliance: Rising threats and rules keep security, controls, and reporting modernization high on the agenda.

  • 👥 Talent and Operating Model: Finance is upskilling for analytics and AI literacy, redesigning workflows to move faster with fewer handoffs.

Why It Matters

Each story points to the same playbook. Allocate to programs that can hit near-term proof, watch leadership changes for clues on capital and margin strategy, and upgrade finance for AI, cyber, and talent without starving growth engines.

Action this week: align spend to milestone gates, refresh your capital plan and debt runway, set AI guardrails with ROI checks, and tighten operating rhythms so decisions move faster.

Wishing you continued success,

Vanessa Carter
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights

P.S. Interested in sponsoring a future issue? Just reply to this email and I’ll send packages!

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