In this episode of The Fractional CFO Files, Hannah Munro is joined by Adrian Message from The CFO Centre to explore what truly defines a successful fractional CFO. Drawing on years of experience supporting businesses through growth, change and uncertainty, Adrian shares why trust, adaptability and strong relationships often matter more than technical expertise alone.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How fractional CFOs adapt their approach to meet the unique needs of each business and build trusted relationships with founders and leadership teams.
• Why emotional intelligence, honesty and difficult conversations are often just as important as financial expertise.
• How CFOs can enable growth by moving beyond transactions and controls to focus on strategy, education and business improvement.
• Practical lessons from Adrian's career, including scaling businesses, navigating financial challenges and helping finance leaders create greater impact.

In this episode of CFO 4.0, host Hannah Munro is joined by Nicola Horton, Principal at the CFO Centre, to explore what it really takes to step up into the CFO seat and thrive once you're there

Nicola draws on her own journey from financial controller to CFO, including leading a business turnaround in her first CFO role, as well as nine years spent coaching finance leaders through that same transition - sharing practical lessons on everything from building the right team to nurturing bank relationships that take years to earn trust.

In this episode we cover:

• Why starting a CFO role at a new company can be easier than an internal promotion
• The most common gap when people step up: letting go of the detail and thinking strategically
• How to build trust with your bank long before you need their support
• Why "the right team" matters more than almost anything else
• How to bring a reluctant owner-manager or board on side with bigger decisions
• Nicola's advice for making the most of your first 100 days in a new CFO role

Links mentioned:

• Nicola's Linkedin
• Learn more about The CFO centre
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This week we're revisiting Hannah Munro's conversation with Ash Noah, VP & Managing Director of Learning, Education and Development at AICPA & CIMA, on the mindset shifts CFOs need to close the gap between what finance delivers and what the business actually needs.

This episode covers:

• Why finance is hitting 90% on governance but only 40% on business guidance — and how to close that gap
• Building a value creation mindset by understanding your business model, not just costs and profits
• Why an analytics mindset and a "digital first" approach are now essential, not optional
• How agile methodology and design thinking help CFOs become better problem solvers
• Ash's top tips for the first 90 days in a new CFO role — and why you need to "kick the tires and smell the diesel"

Links referenced in this episode:

• Ash's Linkedin
• Learn more about AICPA
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

Jack McCullough, President of the CFO Leadership Council, is back on CFO 4.0 to sit with Hannah to talk about the idea that every organisation has quiet specialists - rarely high on the org chart, rarely natural leaders who are so irreplaceable that losing them would do more damage than losing a member of the C-suite.

Jack introduces his new book "The Rodman Paradox". Borrowing his title from NBA legend Dennis Rodman (a specialist who never scored much but became, by some measures, the greatest winner in basketball history)

In this conversation, Jack and Hannah dig into:

• Why traditional org charts fail to capture who really holds a company together
• How to spot your own "Rodmans" using organisational network analysis
• Why promoting a Rodman is often the worst thing you can do for them (and for the business)
• How to recognise and reward specialists who don't want titles, meetings, or management responsibility
• Real stories from the book

Roger Castle is a fractional Finance Director and CFO with The CFO Centre. In this episode, Roger joins Hannah to unpack what it really takes to lead through change, from persuading a fast-growing team to accept its first-ever cost cuts, to helping SME owners turn vague ambitions into concrete, achievable growth plans. Roger shares the practical realities of working as a fractional CFO across multiple clients at once, and the mindset shift required to move from corporate scale to hands-on SME finance.

In this episode, they cover:

• Leading a workforce through its first-ever cost-cutting exercise
• Reading personality types to get sales, ops and product directors aligned around the numbers
• Turning short-term-focused CEOs into long-term planners
• Blending top-down market data with bottom-up revenue modelling
• Managing a management buyout alongside an incumbent FD

In this episode of CFO 4.0 Revisited, we're looking back at Hannah Munro's conversation with Sabrina Castiglione at the time, Chief Operating Officer at Pento, and now CFO at Omnea.

Sabrina's path into finance leadership is anything but conventional. She studied chemistry at university, spent years in financial services, then made the leap into startups as CFO at Tassie before stepping into the COO seat at Pento.

In this session, Hannah and Sabrina cover:

• How a business's needs shift as it moves from Seed to Series A and beyond
• What life as a startup CFO really looks like
• Making the move from CFO to COO
• The current landscape for startup funding
• How the economic climate has changed what investors look for
• People vs roles - what recruitment looks like inside a startup

Links mentioned in this episode

• Sabrina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scastiglione/
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of CFO Stories, Hannah is joined by Sophia Levell FCCA, CFO of Access Fertility and one of the youngest CFOs in the UK. Sophia shares the fast-tracked path that got her there and what she's learned since.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why she dropped out of college to start her ACCA journey early
• The mentor-shaped transition from finance operator to strategic CFO
• Hiring for complementary skills, not personality
• Building trust with the C-suite through constant, unfiltered communication
• Sophia's advice for anyone stepping into their first CFO role

Links mentioned

• Sophia's Linkedin
• Learn more about Access Fertility
• Learn more about ACCA
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of the CFO 4.0 Podcast, host Hannah Munro is joined by returning guest Sara Daw, CEO of The CFO Centre Group, to explore how CFOs can build the right team around them from smart delegation to bringing in a fractional "CFO's CFO" for M&A, systems work, or steady-ship support.

In this episode:

• Why delegation should focus on outcomes, not tasks
• How to build a team that plays to individual strengths
• What to do when a delegated task goes wrong
• The emerging "CFO's CFO" model and when to use it
• Ground rules for successful peer-level fractional partnerships
• Why the future of executive work is a team sport, not a solo act

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Sara's Linkedin
• Learn more about the CFO centre
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of CFO 4.0, Hannah Munro is joined by Clive Webb, Head of Business Management at ACCA, to discuss ACCA's report Career Paths Reimagined exploring how careers in finance are being reshaped by AI, demographics, and shifting expectations of work, and what CFOs need to do now to prepare their teams for the future.

In this episode, they cover:

• The eight key drivers reshaping careers in accountancy and finance
• Why the UK's ageing population and declining birth rate mean we'll all need to work longer
• How AI and automation are shifting organisations from a "pyramid" to a "diamond" structure
• Why curiosity is the standout skill for the human-machine era
• The balance of technical skills vs soft skills
• Practical advice for CFOs on developing talent pipelines and rethinking assumptions

Links mentioned:

• Clive’s Linkedin
• Learn more about ACCA
• Career Paths Reimagined report
• Explore other CFO 4.0 Podcast episodes here.
• Subscribe to our Podcast!

In this episode of CFO 4.0 Revisited, we're looking back at episode 134, where Hannah Munro was joined by Ilana Esterrich, then CFO at Planned Parenthood, now CFO & Strategic Advisor for a rich conversation on sustainable transformational leadership.

Ilana shares her wealth of knowledge and experience in driving successful organisational transformations, highlighting the critical role change management plays in achieving lasting results.

In this episode, we cover:

• The significance of people skills in driving successful change
• How to communicate the "why" effectively and align it with individual motivations
• Creating a sense of one team and fostering a culture that's open to change
• Why reducing non-value-adding activities in finance processes matters