FP&A Today

Jack McCullough: Rock Star CFOs and Psychopath CEOs

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“The male prison population in the United States is about 15% psychopaths. So if, if you’re a warden and you work all day with prisoners, and then at the end of the day you go to some award ceremony honoring local CEOs, you’re probably interacting with a similar number of psychopaths at each event." Jack McCullough – President of CFO Leadership Council and 26-time CFO.

Jack MCcullough’s background gives him an unprecedented perspective on financial leadership. Having started hist career at Big Four audit firm KPMG, he subsequently served as a CFO for 26 different companies, often in a part-time or interim role, working with about 35 CEOs. In his words “several geniuses, a handful of lunatics, and two or three who were both. But I learned from each person and became a more effective leader.”

In this episode Jack McCullough reveals:

  • How to work with Psychopath CEOs 
  • Mental health and finance and overcoming difficult leaders 
  • The importance of personal brand-building for CFOs and FP&A analysts
  • How Jack invented the phrase “CF-No” in 1984
  • Why FP&A professionals and CFOs need to build their brand today
  • The things that CFOs most want from their FP&A leaders
  • His most strategic finance moment – or how COVID transformed his  business
  • Mentoring in finance and the power of being mentored by Gen Z talent 
  • Why he headlines his finance conferences with Guns n’ Roses and AC DC 
  • Who would he most like to meet 
  •  His most manual processes ever
  • The surprising two traits that CFOs must achieve today to have any chance of success 
  • How to become a CFO

    • Episode Links

    Books by Jack McCullough:

    The Psychopathic CEO: An Executive Survival Guide: Jack McCullough

    Secrets of Rockstar CFOs: Jack McCullough

    The CFO Leadership Council

    Watch on YouTube

    Follow Jack McCullough on Linkedin

    Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn 

    Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

    ...more
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    FP&A TodayBy Glenn Hopper
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