Porsche Board Member’s Advice for Aspiring CFO Directors

Even if you’re an experienced CFO who can still drive a stick shift, knowing how to use both a clutch and a financial dashboard won’t automatically land you an outside board seat anymore.

Melissa Di Donato, chair and CEO of treasury software company Kyriba and a member of automaker Porsche AG’s supervisory board, says CFOs seeking those seats need to contribute after the discussion moves beyond finance.

“If you only speak on finance, you are a guest at the board table rather than a director, and your fellow directors will notice,” she told CFO Upside, offering general advice for aspiring directors currently working as finance leaders.

“The best CFOs never raise a problem without a view on what to do about it,” she said.

Changing Gears

Moving from management to oversight requires CFOs to reconsider their role in the decision-making process, Di Donato said. She went into how candidates must challenge executives while giving them room to run the business.

“The CFOs who get this right can push management hard without trying to run the company from the boardroom,” Di Donato said. “The best boards I’ve seen ask tough questions at every meeting and then get firmly behind management when it counts.”

That challenge includes assessing whether management’s ambitions match the opportunity. “A good director also asks whether it is ambitious enough for the opportunity in front of the company,” she said.

For finance leaders in the weeds of day-to-day finance and accounting, Di Donato said preparation for a future board seat can start with the board they already work with. She recommends spending more time with committees, particularly audit and risk, and observing discussions outside their own responsibilities. 

“Watch how the directors ask their questions as well as what they ask, and notice which challenges actually change management’s thinking,” she said.

Candidates should also have a clear reason for pursuing each opportunity and understand the work involved, rather than viewing a board seat as a cushy gig that pays them to show up occasionally and sound smart.

“The strongest candidates I meet can tell me exactly what they’d bring to that specific board,” she said.

Checking Under the Hood

When it comes to technology perspectives from the board, Di Donato expects CFOs to bring business judgment to AI discussions by asking where human approval remains necessary and whether technology investments are paying off. 

“Today that mostly means AI, and most boards are asking the wrong question about it,” she said. The better question, she said, is “what is already happening without our approval?”

She explained how CFOs should also examine the work receiving those investments. “They need a view on how the work itself should change because the most expensive use of AI is making a bad process faster,” Di Donato said.

CFOs also need to make sure their fellow directors, including those without a finance background, can follow the numbers and ask questions of their own.

“[CFOs who transition well to board members] make the financial details clear enough that directors without a finance background feel confident challenging it,” she said.

Don’t Stall Out. And when the conversation moves on, she said, CFOs should still have something to say. “You’re there to help steer the whole company, so come with a view on every item, even if it’s just one good question.”