Career Path of a CFO at Compass Diversified
Ryan, Compass Diversified's CFO, describes a multifaceted role encompassing accurate financial reporting for 10 subsidiaries ("first and foremost, the most important part of the job"), leadership, and extensive external engagement with capital markets, shareholders, and media. This includes "non-deal roadshows" to attract institutional investors and managing enterprise-wide risk.
Financial Reporting, Leadership, Capital Markets, Investor Relations, Risk Management
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Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Ryan Faulkingham
CFO
Compass Diversified
Lehigh
Fordham MBA
Accounting
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Finance
Video Highlights
1. The significant responsibility of ensuring accurate financial reporting for a public company with multiple subsidiaries.
2. The importance of leadership in managing a large team and the interaction with various stakeholders such as banks, investment banks, and shareholders.
3. The outward-facing aspect of the role, including investor relations, media appearances, and managing risk across the organization
Transcript
What are the main responsibilities within your role?
As a public company CFO, the first priority is to accurately provide financial information to public markets. This involves ensuring the numbers rolling up from our ten subsidiaries are correct, which is a significant undertaking. I have a dedicated internal audit and financial reporting group to manage this process.
Leadership is also a key aspect of the role. Additionally, the CFO serves as one of the external faces of the organization, engaging with capital markets providers. This includes banks and investment banks to determine how to raise equity and debt and establish the optimal capital structure.
A substantial part of the job involves direct interaction with our shareholders, who number around 40,000. I attend conferences and speak with institutional shareholders to maintain these relationships. We also actively work to attract new shareholders.
This includes participating in non-deal roadshows, typically lasting three to four days. During these trips, we visit cities like Kansas City and Chicago to meet with potential institutional investors and encourage them to invest in Compass. Engaging with these bright individuals, many of whom manage billions of dollars, is a rewarding aspect of the job.
We also engage with the media when appropriate, through newspaper articles or media appearances. Furthermore, a critical responsibility is enterprise risk management across the entire organization. This encompasses financial, legal, governance, environmental, and other risks.
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