As this blog looks towards Finance & Data, I want to take a look at the top UK CFO’s 2021, I’m basing this off UK companies revenue rankings reports, although the reports differ, I got a good range.
 
Let’s get to it, this is a Base Salary table of the CFO’s.

Company Name	Name	Base Salary		Age
Prudential	Mark FitzPatrick	£1,085M		51
Unilever	Graeme Pitkethly	*£1,015M	€ 1,156M	56
Shell	Sinead Gorman	£900K		46
GlaxoSmithKline	Iain Mackay	£889K		56
BP	Murray Auchincloss	£854K		50
AstraZeneca	Aradhana Sarin	£850K		45
HSBC	Ewen Stevenson	£751K		56
Rio Tinto	Peter Cunningham	£700K		56
Vodafone	Margherita Della Valle	£700K		56

Where are all the “you’ll never be a millionaire working for someone else” people now hey?

Whilst these base salaries for some may seem shocking, it’s not, I know of and have seen far higher incomes, chuck in Long-term incentive plan’s (LTIP) and 7 figure incomes are a real thing.

The difficulty is not only getting to this level but staying there; failings at this level are public knowledge and the extra pressure and scrutiny of your work at this level is not for everyone, you have to be and stay on top form and not everyone can do this.
Keep in mind, salaries are what the role is worth and is dictated by the market.

I will take a light look at education and career history, I’m mainly interested in seeing how long they stay at companies, what educational levels they have and which accounting body (if any) they are members of.

Early observations
very good career stability, they progress upwards internally, rather than jumping around externally to get the promotion, it is not unusual for someone to stay at a company for 10+ years.

Thoughts
All the directors are Gen X, which is not too surprising; the youngest director here is 45 years old and the oldest is 56 (these are online estimates).

There are some traits I expected to see from Gen X+, the main one was career stability, all excluding Aradhana Sarin (more on her later), have been in 3 different companies MAXIMUM, this is interesting because Millennials and younger are actually encouraged to move companies more, when I first started my career I was told to, I should aim to get promoted and a pay increase within 18/24 months in the company I’m in, if this does not happen, seek both in another company.
The CFO path for these high performers, is very different, the mentality seems to be join the ‘RIGHT’ company, and move around internally, even if it takes a little longer than you planned.
Once you reach senior level, hold then move when the right opportunity presents itself.

Where Aradhana Sarin differs is she seems to have perfected a hybrid approach between Gen X and Millennials, she progresses very well in companies and has an average tenue of 7 years, she was CFO of the company AstraZeneca bought in 2021 and now she is CFO of AstraZeneca, she is the anomaly but proves both theories true.

On the flip side, what I find interesting is, the two most loyalist people on the list: Peter Cunningham and Margherita Della Valle are also the lowest paid, which oddly supports Millennials theory of loyalty not paying.
I cannot say for sure loyalty does not pay, as this is only looking at salary, but this does not take into account; benefits, company pensions, bonus’ schemes, their respective industries, earnings of their companies and whether the same opportunity would have been offered if they had left, all of these things play a role.

I also find it interesting that born and bred Londoners don’t seem to be on this list; I only find it interesting because of proximity.

A degree appears to be a non-negotiable, all of the CFO’s have a degree, and 5/9 have a Masters.
Surprisingly only 4/9 hold an Accounting qualification from a professional body, I didn’t expect that, I thought they all would have one.

The CFO the really stands out to me:

Murray Auchincloss
He’s the only CFO that is CFA qualified and that qualification is hard as heck to complete. He initially started off his career in ‘Tax’ before moving to BP and joining as an ‘Executive Assistant Digital Business’. 23 years later he’s CFO and you can’t help but respect the drive and grit he obviously has.

I don’t know what the future generations of high flying CFO’s will look like, but when Millennials eventually take over, I imagine seeing, most having a MBA, most having an accounting qualification, I don’t expect to see 20+ year stints, I think 1.5 – 2.5 years during their early 20’s 3-6 year stints at companies after that. I expect to see a blend of accounting, finance, analyst and automation types.

Here is a summary of their education and careers:

Mark FitzPatrick
Education:
· MBA from the University of Cape Town.

Career:
· 5+ years at Prudential, where he resided as CFO the 21FYE.
· 26 years at Deloitte, his last title there was a ‘managing partner clients and markets’.

Graeme Pitkethly
Education:
· ACA.
· BSc (Hons), Applied Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde.

Career:
· 20 years at Unilever, where he resided as CFO the 21FYE.
· 6 years at Flag Telecom, with his final job title being Vice president of Corporate Development.
· 9 years at PWC, with his final title being Director.

Sinead Gorman
Education:
· CIMA.
· Masters in Degree, Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford.
· Masters in Finance and General from London Business School.
· Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Career:
· 15+ years at Shell, where she resided at the 21FYE.
· 5+ years at Energy LLC.

Iain Mackay
Education:
· Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
· University of Aberdeen – Masters of Arts (M.A.), Accounting and Finance.
· Doctorate Honoris Causa (I don’t know if it’s completed or he’s studying it).

Career
· 3+ years at GSK, where he resided as CFO the 21FYE.
· 11+ years at HSBC, with his final role being Group Finance Director.
·  9+ years at GE Group, with his final roles being in their Healthcare division as CFO Diagnostic Imaging.

Murray Auchincloss
Education:
· Chartered Financial Analyst.
· University of Calgary – Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com), Finance, General.

Career:
· 23+ years at BP, where he resided as CFO the 21FYE.
· 7+ years at Amoco, with his final role being Senior Tax Manager.

Aradhana Sarin
Education:
· Delhi University – MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery – MDEquivalent), Medicine.
· Stanford University – MBA.

Career:
· 4+ years at AstraZeneca (Alexion Pharmaceuticals was bought by AstraZeneca, in 2021), where she resided as CFO the 21FYE.
· 2+ years at OraSure Technologies, with her final role being Director Board Of Directors, Audit Chair
· 7+ years at Citi, with her final role being Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking
· 8+ years at UBS, with her final role being Managing Director.
· 1+ years at JPMorgan, with her final role being Associate, Investment Banking

Ewen Stevenson
Education:
· University of Wellington – Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (majoring in Accountancy) and a Bachelor of Laws.

Career:
· 4+ years at HSBC, where he resided as GCFO the 21FYE.
· 4+ years at RBS, with his final role being CFO.
· 25+ years at Credit Suisse, with his final role being Investment Banker.

Peter Cunningham
Education:
· ACA.
· University of Oxford – BA, Modern History.

Career:
· 30+ years at Rio Tinto, where he resided as CFO the 21FYE.

Margherita Della Valle
Education:
· Università Bocconi – Master’s degree in Economics, International Economics.

Career:
· 28+ years at Vodafone, where she resided as CFO the 21FYE.