In the current economic climate, finance professionals are being asked to do more with less. Staying up to date on current trends, best practices, and tools will help finance leaders stand out from the crowd.
Several influencers in the industry are committed to sharing their best advice for finance and accounting. To help you expand your expertise and impact, we’ve curated a list of our top 10 finance leaders to follow in 2024.
These pros run the gamut – serving up content for finance practitioners from SMBs to enterprises and covering a range of topics from fractional CFOs to leveraging AI.
Ben Murray
Ben Murray has dubbed himself “The SaaS CFO.” With over 20 years of finance and operations experience, he teaches founders, investors, and professionals everything there is to know about the business of SaaS through free content while operating as a fractional CFO for SaaS companies and startups.
Ben uses his platform to dive deep into metrics, tools, and resources for finance professionals. He recently published the 5th annual Tech Stack Report, helping finance leaders understand the top tools companies are using across various finance categories. Equally valuable is his free SaaS CFO newsletter community, where he posts 2-3 newsletters per month to 60,000 members detailing various SaaS metrics along with strategies to drive financial performance.
Beverly Davis
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After a diverse career in wealth management at Bank of America, private banking at J.P. Morgan, and capital markets at Citigroup, Beverly Davis founded Davis Financial Services to consult and train business leaders on using finance as a strategic tool.
She educates her audiences with insights on various corporate finance concepts, such as fiscal decision-making, balancing people and processes, and strategic financial management.
Chris Ortega
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Chris Ortega, founder of Fresh FP&A, is leading the charge in transforming corporate finance and leadership. With nearly 20 years of experience, Chris helps companies optimize and scale their finance function as a fractional CFO and regularly posts insights and advice about financial strategy, planning, and frameworks. What makes Chris different? He’s passionate about championing diversity, particularly in the C-suite, exudes authenticity, and shows up frequently for his audience in accessible formats such as LinkedIn Lives.
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He’s not afraid to ruffle feathers with his modern point of view on a very traditional function, hence the name Fresh FP&A. In fact, he recently released an e-book about 5 (fresh) metrics CFOs should be measuring to adapt to the shifts in the industry.
CJ Gustafson
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As CJ Gustafason himself says, he’s had the “opportunity to work in finance on the funded and funding sides of the table.” This experience has allowed him to not only operate as a current tech CFO at PartsTech, but share valuable content to a growing network. His audience loves his ability to provide data-driven insights as well as humorous and relatable finance memes.
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His favorite part about what he does? Talking to other people so he can learn more about the current markets and dynamic software industry–which he shares through his newsletter and podcast. CJ’s weekly newsletter Mostly Metrics boasts a community of over 42,000 finance leaders, professionals, and operators, where they get to learn more about the business of startups. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Run the Numbers, where he talks financial strategy and models with other CFOs and operators from companies like Netflix, ClickUp, Chime, and more.
Glenn Hopper
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Looking for thought leadership around AI for finance practitioners? Look no further than Glenn Hopper, a CFO, author, lecturer, and consultant who holds 20 years of experience leading finance operations for various companies. He frequently layers industry news with his takes on finance automation and using AI to increase operating efficiency. Check out his LinkedIn Learning course Leveraging Generative AI in Finance and Accounting.
Recently, Glenn helped launch robocfo.ai, a platform that houses specialized finance and accounting AI-powered assistants across areas like FP&A, controllership, international accounting, ESG, treasury, SEC filings, compliance, economics, and treasury management. In his words: “These tools are crafted to redefine how we approach finance and accounting tasks.”
Jack Sweeney
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Unlike others on this list, Jack Sweeney doesn’t have a finance background. But his work to spotlight CFOs and finance leadership for more than a decade makes him a valuable name to follow in 2024.
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Jack uses his marketing communications expertise to give a microphone to CFOs at companies like Moderna, Vertafore, and NerdWallet. He is the host and creator of CFO THOUGHT LEADER, a media empire consisting of podcasts, articles, and videos about the careers and lessons of these finance leaders. He is also a Forbes contributor, sharing stories about “finance leadership in the 21st century.”
Josh Aharonoff
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If there are three things Josh Aharonoff loves, it’s finance, accounting, and startups. His background as a CPA and CEO gives him great expertise in scaling startups. Outside of supporting high-growth companies as a fractional CFO at Mighty Digits, Josh shares daily finance insights across his newsletter Your CFO Guy and various social media like LinkedIn and TikTok.
Over 70,000 business, finance, and accounting professionals readhis newsletter, where he covers topics such as accounting 101, FP&A secrets, Excel mastery, and more. On LinkedIn, he posts numerous infographics and cheatsheets–such as this insightful one on dashboards.
Nicolas Boucher
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There’s no one leading the charge in using generative AI for Finance more than Nicolas Boucher. As a former Controller, Auditor, and Head of Finance, he founded the AI Finance Club to help other leaders and professionals learn and stay up to date on the implications and potential for AI in Finance.
Nicholas shares engaging and impactful content through cheat sheets, mini-courses, and even experiences such as workshops and masterclasses. Check out his infographics about SaaS KPIs or Ways to Use ChatGPT for Finance Teams.
Oana Labes
Capitalizing on over 20 years of diverse experience in business management and finance, Oana Labes advises high-growth companies through her strategic financial planning firm Financiario.
She has also become one of the top Finance content creators, building a prolific content engine sharing courses, infographics, checklists, and cheatsheets on LinkedIn and her weekly newsletter Finance Gem. By sharing a wealth of knowledge about corporate finance strategies and concepts, Oana is helping finance leaders and professionals understand how to run a successful finance organization, scale revenue, and expand business operations.
SecretCFO
While his identity is a mystery, SecretCFO’s track record isn’t. He brings over 20 years of finance experience and has logged over 20,000 hours (10 years) as a CFO of multi-billion dollar companies, evident through his insightful content and opinions.
Across LinkedIn, Twitter, and his weekly newsletter CFO Secrets, he shares learnings and opinions that are, as he says, “rooted in the trenches, not textbooks.” In fact, over 24,000 CFOs and finance professionals tune into his weekly newsletter. Through his content, you can expect simple language and original insight into corporate financial concepts, the role of the CFO, skills to master, plus more…even the occasional relatable CFO meme.
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